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View Full Version : Using Birch for building a bench?



bob blakeborough
02-15-2011, 5:18 PM
I am looking for a cheaper wood option to build my first bench. I would love to use a nice, premium hardwood, but I know my skills mean I am going to not be building this to the most premium standard I would like for a lifetime bench, so I figured this will be my trial and error project...

I ask about birch because there is a local seller here who has tons of 100 inch lengths of airdried 8/4 birch and he is asking $1.50/bf, which seems like a pretty darn cheap deal. From what I understand you have to worry about shrinkage and warping with birch as it dries, but if I go look at this wood and it is all decent and clean, is there any other reason not to consider it, given the fact this probably won't be a permanent solution for me?

http://img1.classistatic.com/cps/kj/110119/651r5/89792ca_20.jpeg

Billy McCarthy
02-15-2011, 5:45 PM
I hope it's a good choice, that's what I'm building my first benchtop out of. :) Was recommended to me by the guy at the lumber yard as an alternative to going crazy with my idea of building the Klausz bench with a massive 16/4 ash slab that probably would have killed my car getting it home.

Frank Drew
02-15-2011, 6:45 PM
I wouldn't hesitate at all to use birch in a work bench; in fact, I ran low on the maple I was using when I made my bench top so I included a couple of 5/4 birch boards in the lamination.

I'd use maple, beech or birch ahead of oak or ash or elm, only because of the open pore issue (not a big issue, I'll admit.)

Chen-Tin Tsai
02-15-2011, 6:59 PM
I think that's a good deal, especially when you're laminating up planks for a bench top, a la Schwarz. I can't imagine that the birch would be any less stable than the usual dimensional lumber, and at $1.50/BF, that's a pretty decent price! Heck, I'd take those boards, rip them down to about 5" wide and glue them up face to face into a slab 5" thick, 24" wide and 100" long. Trim it down to length, flatten the top and bottom (which might thin it by 3/4"), put it on some similarly massive legs and it'd make a great bench.

Casey Gooding
02-15-2011, 7:10 PM
Birch should work great for a bench. That's a really good price for it, too.

Dan Andrews
02-16-2011, 8:53 AM
I think using birch is a great idea. Glad you mentioned it. I have yet to build a good top for my workbench and will consider birch.

David Weaver
02-16-2011, 9:03 AM
If it's dry, I can't see how it's going to be problematic to use - you are laminating it. At that price, it's hard to go wrong.

I can't find a hardness spec on it, but it hardly matters - I can't imagine that it's not hard enough and it has a very even look, which is a plus on a benchtop.

Mark Roderick
02-16-2011, 9:34 AM
The only thing about birch, in my limited experience, is that it's very "chippy" in the sense of tearing out a lot with hand planes. Maybe that was just me.

Frank Drew
02-16-2011, 9:54 AM
Bob,

Do you know long the boards have been air drying? If it's already been several years then bringing them into your shop for a few weeks before working them up should be fine, considering that it's winter and the ambient humidity is on the low side.

But if they were only sawn up into lumber maybe a year or two ago, then I'd either have them kiln dried before using, or stack and sticker them in a sheltered locatiion another few years (or maybe six months to a year indoors).

bob blakeborough
02-16-2011, 11:54 AM
Bob,

Do you know long the boards have been air drying? If it's already been several years then bringing them into your shop for a few weeks before working them up should be fine, considering that it's winter and the ambient humidity is on the low side.

But if they were only sawn up into lumber maybe a year or two ago, then I'd either have them kiln dried before using, or stack and sticker them in a sheltered locatiion another few years (or maybe six months to a year indoors).

I will pose the question for certain...

If I can put a moisture meter on the wood, what content should I realistically be looking for? I work in my 2 1/2 detached garage for which no car is allowed to enter (lol) so storing the wood indoors is the plan. I will absolutely sticker it. The shop is not heated (has a furnace actually, but I need to finish insulating the ceiling before I start dumping more $$$ into the winter heat bill), but I imagine it will still settle faster indoors than stickered outside...

john brenton
02-16-2011, 1:19 PM
I'm still...stiiiiiiilllllllll....debating on how to build my bench. I have been doing a little reading and am leaning towards making the front 12" or so out of laminated hard wood, but using birch plywood for the back half. I believe birch was the recommended plywood for the back half in Mike Dunbar's replica of a 200 year old work bench.

bob blakeborough
02-16-2011, 3:04 PM
Okay... Just spoke with the fellow and apparently it was cut and milled 7 years ago. He was a logger and worked for the milling company when they closed down and he made a deal to take it all or something. He is up front about it being air dried and the fact that I would have to go through it as much of it has been exposed to the elements and will have some issues due to warpage, fungus etc. He says that there is definitely some very good wood in there if I am willing to look through it. Being as he has over 10,000 bf of it, there should be a lot to look through! haha!

Found a fellow calgary woodworker who is willing to go look with me and see if we can get enough for a bench, or even just some good stuff for projects, so we will be checking it out this week...

Question... If there is some fungus on/in some of the boards, does this pretty much relegate them to the fire pile or can it be usable? It was mentioned to me that it sometimes it can be planed down and ends up with the boards having some darker streaks through the wood etc and I don't know if this is true or not. If so, it could make for some interested looks on boxes etc???

Frank Drew
02-16-2011, 7:09 PM
8/4 material air-dried for 7 years ought to be quite stable, even if it's not entirely dry enough for indoor work. Were the boards stacked and stickered carefully, so that they dried flat? Some surface fungus or mold from limited exposure to the elements is one thing, but if the boards were piled one on top of the other without stickering, the mold might be from trapped moisture and the wood could be rotting from being wet all that time. Was the wood stacked somewhere totally out in the open? Getting rained on for all that time would have exposed the wood to repeated wet/dry cycles and it might be compromised from that.

Bring along a block plane for planing away the rough surface in places to see what you've got, and an awl or pockeknife to poke any soft looking spots; staining won't hurt in a bench, but the wood has to be sound to be useful.

Good luck, Bob, and tell us how you make out.