Grizzly maple butcher block....okay for workbench top???

[George Farra]

Hi everyone,Grizzly has a 30x60 maple butcher block on sale and i was wondering if it would make a good top for a workbench. Its 1 3/4 inches thick, so im wondering if that is sufficient for use with things like hold downsand other top oriented clamping jigs/toolsThanksGeorge

[Andrew Arndts]

Don't see why not.

[Matt Meiser]

I made mine from something like that. I added a big thick face on one side and end of mine.

[george wilson]

I have one of those tops on my general purpose 30" x8' metal working workbench. It seems fine,though I haven't bored holes for a holdfast as it isn't for woodwork. If you are worried about it,glue and screw an extra block of maple under your intended holdfast locations to thicken and strengthen the top. There is a small chance the laminations could pop loose,especially if you drilled your holdfast holes right on a glue line,so don't do that.

[Kevin Grady]

Another option to consider is glulam beams. I picked up two 3.5" x 12" x 96" beams for $80 a piece and you could either glue the beams together for a one piece top or a split top design.

[John Zahurak]

Hi - I had the same concerns prior to purchasing my top from them. It has proven to NOT be a problem. I have the holdfasts from Gramercy Tools and they work fine. I used it as shipped for a while and then planed it flat.....it needed to be flattened.
- John

[Bruce Page]

I bought my top from these folks: http://www.awpbutcherblock.com several years ago.

It has proven to be durable and stable. It handles holdfasts & benchdogs well.

[Phil Harding]

Hi everyone,Grizzly has a 30x60 maple butcher block on sale and i was wondering if it would make a good top for a workbench. Its 1 3/4 inches thick, so im wondering if that is sufficient for use with things like hold downsand other top oriented clamping jigs/toolsThanksGeorge

Woodcraft also has them on sale. If you live near one, Woodcraft's is a better deal since you don't pay shipping and you can check it for flatness before you buy. I've built two benchs from these tops and they work fine. I originally thought the 1 3/4" thickness would be too thin but that hasn't been a problem. I have it mounted on a very hefty (heavy) base. I put 4" skirts all around the top and have a twin screw front vise, a Veritas shoulder vise, and a pattern makers vise mounted with no problems. My holdfasts work fine with this thickness. The only issue I've encountered is you can't easily use a handplane on these tops if you ever need to re-flatten them. They are made up of strips with no regard to grain direction so there is no best way to hand plane. When I wanted to reflatten my bench I used a low angle jointer with a serrated blade followed by sanding at 120 grit.

-- Phil

[Trevor Walsh]

One thing to note, in some of the Grizzly laminated maple tops I've got at the school shop there are those metal zigzag clips that hold some pieces together, others were finger jointed. We didn't know they were there until we started cutting. If you've got a metal detector you can figure out where not to cut or bore a hole, just know that they might be in there without rhyme or reason.