Speaking of DF Workbench Tops....Your Thoughts Please

[Charlie Gummer]

I've been trolling CL for quite some time keeping an eye out for the lumber with which to build my Roubo (yes, another Roubo bench question...sorry :p). The recent thread regarding using KD Doug Fir in a laminated bench top has been informative, I have a slightly different question.

I've come across a posting for a pair of 12" wide, 6" thick, 10.5' long fir structural beams for a very good price. They're advertised as being in good condition, age unknown but I believe they were reclaimed from a building of some sort. The price is very much right. I'm planning to go look at these tomorrow evening, will be renting a pickup to take them home with me if the condition is acceptable.

I'd ultimately like to end up around 5" thick, 96" long and as close to 24" as I can get the pair to glue up to. Does this sound like a feasible approach to a quality workbench? I'm going to be undertaking this build SLOWLY (I'll need the time to foot the bill for the benchcrafted vises) I'd like to make the best decisions possible.

Thanks!
Charlie

[Andrew Gibson]

being that the beams are in good shape I don't see why they would not work. The extra length should allow you to get your legs out the the beans as well...

[Scott T Smith]

Charlie, it sounds like a good idea to me. Be sure to remove equal amounts from both sides of the planks as you are milling them down to 5".

[Tony Shea]

They should work great. But I might think about trying to figure something out to make it a bit wider, maybe a tool tray or removable tool holders in the center of the bench. After trueing and planing these you may end up with too narrow of a bench. But other than that, the wood sounds perfect for a bench top. Not sure if it's doug fir or not but I've found old doug fir framed houses to be very hard wood. I'm an electrician and often have to drill holes through the studs of these houses and struggle compared to the newer doug fir studs. Good luck.

[Charlie Gummer]

They should work great. But I might think about trying to figure something out to make it a bit wider, maybe a tool tray or removable tool holders in the center of the bench. After trueing and planing these you may end up with too narrow of a bench. But other than that, the wood sounds perfect for a bench top. Not sure if it's doug fir or not but I've found old doug fir framed houses to be very hard wood. I'm an electrician and often have to drill holes through the studs of these houses and struggle compared to the newer doug fir studs. Good luck.

Thanks for the confirmation!

I've beeng strongly considering the split-top approach that Benchcrafted offers plans for...this may help me recover some of the width lost in milling with the added benefit of the reversible planing stop / tool holder.

[Jim Koepke]

Heck, you could use 2X4s for splines when you glue it all up.

jtk

[Michael N Taylor]

I would go for it.

[Jon Toebbe]

We definitely want to see some pics!

[Chris Vandiver]

Charlie,
Split top would be the way to go. Far less problematic than trying to glue two large planks together. Plus it makes the bench more verasitle. If the timbers you're looking at are old growth Douglas fir, you're golden!

[Mike Zilis]

Even if you ended up an inch or two short of your desired width, you could just laminate a couple of 4/4 pieces of either matching or contrasting wood between the two big slabs. Could make for a cool looking bench.

[Charlie Gummer]

Heck, you could use 2X4s for splines when you glue it all up.

jtk

That had me chuckling Jim.

I do like the idea of a contrasting color in the middle a well...decisions decisions.

[Charlie Gummer]

Last night was an adventure. We've had a tiny bit of snow here recently, just enough to turn people completely insane. Whenever inclement weather hits Seattle it seems there are two approaches to driving:

1. I'm going to ride the brakes at 10 MPH under the posted limit.

2. I'm going to drive as fast as I can because a) I'll get inside sooner and b) there is a magic speed above which road conditions do not affect my car.

So I rent a uhaul pickup (the clutch in my FILs truck went out of commision on Wednesday) and head out to look at the beams. The seller was a nice guy; he'd been stashing this pile of lumber taken from various remodeling jobs in hopes of one day using it himself. These beams were the support of a second story that were taken out in favor of gluelams. The seller believed the property was built in '90-'92 so these aren't terribly old but they look fairly clear, fairly straight and fairly clean. They have some 2x material sistered to one side of each beam with nails and some OSB plywood along what I'm guessing were the bottoms. Without the extra pieces the beams are ~5-1/2" thick and 11-5/16" wide, the length is right at 10'7"...all in all I'm pretty happy for $45 :cool:

Obligatory poor quality phone pics:

184121

184122

[Andrew Gibson]

looks good to me. you might have to do a little thinking on how to come up with a little extra width.

[Pat Barry]

Maybe its just me but this looks a lot like trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear. I mean you have some discombobulated homemade beam, multiple materials, adhesives, and nails!! You just might be in for a lot more work than these things are worth. You might get lucky but there is going to be a heckuva lot of prep work.. Good luck.

[Chen-Tin Tsai]

Ya, I might have to agree with Pat. If those beams have a bunch of nails and plywood and other stuff stuck to it, it might be really hard to get them off. You might have to invest in a metal detector thing to get all of the nails out, and then cut off all of the other stuff other than the beams themselves. However, I think it would still make a nice benchtop once you did that and planed the top so it's clean. It looks like they just nailed (and possibly glued) the plywood and the 2x material on there. Even at 11" wide for a finished width would work plenty well, especially if you were going for a split top Roubo. With a 2" wide gap in the middle, the split top would still be 24" wide. If you plan your cuts carefully, you might even be able to get two legs from each beam. If the 2x's don't look too bad, you might even be able to get stretchers out of them.

[Charlie Gummer]

Maybe its just me but this looks a lot like trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear. I mean you have some discombobulated homemade beam, multiple materials, adhesives, and nails!! You just might be in for a lot more work than these things are worth. You might get lucky but there is going to be a heckuva lot of prep work.. Good luck.

To each their own I suppose. Popping off the 2x4's will be short work and there isn't much adhesive to speak of. The prep work for me is enjoyable. I get so little time in the shop that I've come to appreciate most ANY task, even the less desirable ones. We'll see how I feel after I've got some actual time in to it.

[Paul Incognito]

I use reclaimed lumber from remodeling jobs all the time. It's not much of an issue to clean the stuff up.
If I'm not sure if I got all the nails out of a piece, I make my initial rough cuts with a skill saw. The blades are cheap and disposable, so if I do hit something I'm not ruining a $40.00 table saw blade.
My 2 cents.
Paul

[Jim Koepke]

Maybe its just me but this looks a lot like trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear. I mean you have some discombobulated homemade beam, multiple materials, adhesives, and nails!! You just might be in for a lot more work than these things are worth. You might get lucky but there is going to be a heckuva lot of prep work.. Good luck.

I don't know about silk purses and sows ears…

My thoughts are of trying to produce function from what is close at hand. Form, beauty and convention are all worth consideration. What it really comes down to is if the builder is happy, our criticism ain't worth a bucket of warm spit.

I have seen many benches that I would not even consider. It is not the bench that matters, it is what the owner can do on the bench.

Using the material at hand has been my choice more than a few times. I have dismantled shipping pallets to get wood at times when my money was going to other things that were more important. My current finances are not bad, but I am not wealthy. I will shop around for the best material that I can find to build a bench, but if recycled materials are available at a better cost, they will be considered.

jtk