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Jessica Pierce-LaRose
06-03-2011, 6:43 PM
Craiglist ad showed up locally offering a 1 3/4" thick, 72x30 hardwood benchtop with steel legs for a good enough price that taking buying it for the top seems reasonable to me. I've been meaning to start on a real bench for a while, ever since I moved I haven't been able to use my jury-rigged "porch bench" solution. But being as busy as I have been, having half the work done, and a workbable base to support the top while I work on the lower assembly seems like nice option.

My plan when starting from scratch was to use a thicker top than this. (and a bit narrower and possibly shorter, although making something wood smaller has never been too much of an issue!) I suppose I could add a skirt, and if I made the skirt thick enough, potentially avoid the problems it presents.

With no real experience in real benches, am I going to be wishing I had something thicker down the road? I suppose worst case, I could build a nice base and keep the top removable, to allow me to use that bench to help make a thicker top later.

lowell holmes
06-03-2011, 7:24 PM
My bench is 1 3/4" thick. I am satisified with it. The legs are 4x4 fir from the borg.

Bruce Page
06-03-2011, 7:27 PM
My bench is a tad wider & longer but the same thickness. I priced hard maple when I built my bench and could not beat the price of a ready made top, even with the shipping charge from Horse Cave, Kentucky. In all honesty I would have liked a thicker top but this one has worked out very well.

Dave Ring
06-03-2011, 8:35 PM
Same here. I used a 24"x84"x1.75" maple top from Woodcraft. It's plenty stiff and ungodly heavy. You could always rip six inches off one edge of that 30x72 top and glue it under the front edge, yielding a 24x72 top that's 3.5 inches thick where you'll be doing most of your work. I wouldn't bother though.

Joel Goodman
06-03-2011, 8:59 PM
Many benches have an apron that adds some strength. You could always add a 3 1/2 inch apron if you found you needed it.

Russell Sansom
06-03-2011, 9:21 PM
The Ulmia benches are only about 1-3/4" thick. An apron glued all around will give you an equivalent to the commercial bench. 72" is a very nice length, but short for some people. 30" is probably too wide for many of us. The general rule is, set something down on the far edge, then reach for it and see if the reach is awkward. My jointer's bench is only 18" wide with another 8" for a tool tray and I've never needed it to be wider.
But it has a great deal with how you work.
If the price is good, you can certainly consider the workbench a noble experiment that will help you understand what your ONE TRUE WORKBENCH should look like. It's always good to have a second assembly bench, too.

Jerome Hanby
06-03-2011, 9:27 PM
You could do all kinds of wrapping for adding vises, front dog hole strip, tool tray, whatever. If that top is nice and flat, it'll be just fine. Any idea which hardwood? If you can manage to keep the top intact, even if you decide you want a thicker (and I bet narrower) top later on, this one would make a great assembly table.

Johnny Kleso
06-03-2011, 9:47 PM
You can always cut 10"-12" off and add a thicker piece to that with dog holes in it, like most store bought bench have..
You can use the 20" wide piece as an extra bench or benches..

Jessica Pierce-LaRose
06-03-2011, 10:00 PM
Oh, I was planning on cutting it narrower; I don't want 30 inches in length. 72" is actually longer than I was planning for a from-scratch one, as well - mostly because of my space limitations. But I know I'd love longer.

Johnny Kleso
06-03-2011, 11:28 PM
I made my top first then used saw horses to prop it up..
I also had a B&D Workmate I used..

Niels Cosman
06-03-2011, 11:40 PM
You can always cut 10"-12" off and add a thicker piece to that with dog holes in it, like most store bought bench have..
You can use the 20" wide piece as an extra bench or benches..

Dittos to Johnny. I have a McMaster Frankenbench bench which is 72x30. I added a ~1"x6"piece of doubling along the front edge where the dog holes run and it also has a dado for a deadman. In hindsight using the back 6" inches of the bench would probably been a better option. I am building a new bench from scratch this summer and the widest that I would consider is 24"

David Keller NC
06-04-2011, 8:43 AM
Joshua - I would think 1.75" would be thick enough for some designs, but not others. Specifically, I'd think this thickness would not be so good for a Roubo-style design that has the legs mortised directly into the top.

But - in Vermont I'd expect that maple, oak and other Eastern hardwoods would be extraordinarily cheap compared to what the rest of us can get. And you're going to put quite a bit of work into this bench, assuming it's to be a bench intended for handwork instead of an assembly/power tool bench and needs the requisite vises. So - why not call some of the micro-mills in your area and see if they've got some maple/white oak/beech/birch "seconds" that they'll give you for cheap? Wood for a bench top doesn't need to be pretty, just reasonably sound with little/no rot and one face that doesn't have any knots.

Chris Fournier
06-04-2011, 10:41 AM
If the price is right buy it and use it. If not just forge ahead with your own scratch made bench; in fact depending on the work you do I'd recommend the scratch made bench regardless of this deal. This bench could always end up playing an important second fiddle down the road as an assembly table. In my experience 30" is too wide to be useful as a classic Euro style bench. My first bench was this wide and the subsequent ones shrunk to 22" W and then 18" W.

Tri Hoang
06-04-2011, 11:05 AM
For pretty much all neander tasks but the heaviest choppings, the 1-3/4" thick top would be sufficient. If you don't currently have a bench, it is a good start.

I built my current bench with a 4" Ash top after using a 1.75" maple top for a few years. The additional weight makes the bench feel really solid. A 4" thick top also allows me to do heavy chopping anywhere on the bench. I resurfaced my old bench once in a while and after a few times, it ends up at around 1.55".