Best or Worst of woods for sawing bench

[Tony Wilkins]

I'm just flat tired of trying to rig a sawing surface or leaning and contorting to saw on my workmate. I'm putting my moxon vise and shaker table on hold and building me one of the darn things.

the only lumber I have is the walnut and a tiny bit of cherry on hand and I have projects claimed for that. I've decided on the bench out of Tom Fidgen's new book.

BLOB (bottom line on bottom): what are good wood choices for a saw bench bent only with hand tools? Ant I should avoid?

[David Weaver]

Use something cheap so you can beat on it and not care. Save the careful work with expensive wood for tools and furniture.

I used a df 2x12.

[Jim Koepke]

Having no idea where you are in the world makes it difficult to know what woods are available inexpensively in your area.

Mine are made of locally sourced construction lumber.

Whenever I am near one, I go into the Home Depot lumber area and look for their bin of cull lumber. One of their employees told me they go through the lumber racks everyday and pull out lumber that has split or has other defects. Occasionally there is 2x6, 8, 10 or 12 lumber that is great for the top. Depending on what is available, mine have been made with 2X3s or 2X4 legs.

Here is one of my builds:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?146777-Saw-Table-Project

This one has splayed legs. Building one with straight legs would be about the same though you would likely want stretchers on the legs.

jtk

[Tony Wilkins]

I could have sworn that I had my location on here - oh, well, I'm in the middle of Kansas (near Manhattan).

Oddly enough, Fidgen recommends hardwood. IIRC the one in his book is made out of cherry. I'm darn near tempted to use a bit of the walnut and cherry since I have it handy and I'm so frustrated with my current sawing situation.

[Mark Dorman]

269471I just used Borg wood cheap and I don't care if I cut into it or ding it up.
couple of years old now and holding up very well. Best thing I added to it was the ripping slot.

[Jim Koepke]

Oddly enough, Fidgen recommends hardwood. IIRC the one in his book is made out of cherry. I'm darn near tempted to use a bit of the walnut and cherry since I have it handy and I'm so frustrated with my current sawing situation.

Maybe hardwood is more common where Fidgen calls home.

My suggestion would be to pick up a 2X of your favored width and some 2X3s or 4s for legs enough to make three. For ripping long pieces it is helpful to have three saw benches. Even when cross cutting it is nice to have a third bench to stack cutoffs or to sit.

jtk

[steven c newman]

Saw a small saw bench at a rumage sale the last weekend. About knee high to me, the top was actually made from two 2x4s. the strangest part of this bench was it was made with just three legs....

[Jim Matthews]

If you've got offcuts of "nice" wood, use whatever you like.

I built mine with three top boards, two fixed on the outside and one friction fit in the middle (for ripping near the center of a board).
I affixed two hold-downs on one side, as shown by the originator of the design, our very own Archaraya Kumarswami (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?176915-Saw-bench-design-to-share).

(Mine is nowhere near so pretty, but it's a frequently used appliance in my shop.)

While I thought the center pass through for ripping would be the most useful feature, it has been the clamping mechanism that makes the design a treat to use.

Mine is made of straight 4/4 Poplar, but it could easily be made of plywood.
I did put a broad cross beam at the foot where I normally stand.
That way, I can step on the beam and anchor the bench to the ground.
Make two, that way you can handle longer boards.

It's also just the right height for to take a seat when I'm cutting dovetails.


I recommend that you also make a few simple stands while you're at this.
I made one that's the same height as my bench, when something long needs attention, or glue up.

I have two slightly higher stands made from salvaged headboards.
They're a little higher than my knee, and are built to take a plywood top as an assembly stand.

[Jack Curtis]

I made one from 2X12 pine construction lumber, knee high, 2 solid "legs," 1 solid stretcher, and 1 solid top with a sawing cutout like Marks. Works great. It's modeled after Kingshott's.

[Robert G Brown]

I have 2 that I made from 2x4's scavenged from dumpsters at construction sites. Not pretty but strong and functional.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Here is western PA, the local borg (a Lowes since this is positive) has been carrying a premium grade of framing lumber, which is straight & true "douglas fir". They started with 4" X 4" x 8' about 2 years ago and have since added some lengths of 2" x 4"s and 2" x 8"s. I used this for my saw bench as well as anytimes (which is really not too often) that I need framing material!

[Jacob Nothstine]

Send me your
walnut and a tiny bit of cherry and I will help you out by replacing it with cheap pine for your sawing bench:). Me and my son made one to use for his work bench from a 2 x 12 It works great I use it all the time.269494

[Dave Anderson NH]

Doing it on the cheap depends on where you live. I made mine out of red oak. I was at my local lumberyard one day and they had 8/4 cutoffs in 8" widths about 4 feet long. With 2 pieces for $20 I couldn't go wrong and it was almost as cheap as framing lumber. Besides, since it doubles as a bench seat it looks good too with a couple of coats of blonde shellac on it.

[David Weaver]

Red oak would be a good inexpensive option here,too as long as it was gotten on craigslist or from someone with a portable mill. It can be cheaper than df sometimes. Of course, the Borgs have s4s for 4x the price (about $6 a bf here, which is ridiculous)

[daniel lane]

My experience echoes much of what's already been said - use dimensional lumber from the BORG. I used a couple of 2x6s to make mine, and it holds up fine. Didn't even bother to finish it with anything, but then I live in the hot, dry central valley.


daniel

[Edward Mitton]

269526This is my saw bench just recently made from an old existing saw horse I cobbled together about 20 years ago.. It is all construction pine found in the dumpsters at home-building sites. The legs had to be cut down about 4" to make a 20" overall saw bench height. The stretchers and tool shelf were recent add-ons as well as the V-notch. It is very sturdy and serves all of my hand saw needs. The saw in th photo is a Distton D8 ripper I picked up at a yard sale recently for a buck. Great user!

[Edward Mitton]

Whenever I am near one, I go into the Home Depot lumber area and look for their bin of cull lumber. One of their employees told me they go through the lumber racks everyday and pull out lumber that has split or has other defects. Occasionally there is 2x6, 8, 10 or 12 lumber that is great for the top.

I used to love visiting the cull bins at HD, that is, until they started raising their prices on the stuff. Until last spring, one could purchase any piece out of the cull bin at a flat rate of 51 cents. Now they charge 70% of ticket price for everything. Used to be I could occasionally find nice usable cutoffs of quality sanded plywood that customers didn't want to keep after having a full sheet cut to size. On other occasions, I could find offcuts of dimensioned poplar, oak, or maple boards that were too short or narrow to sell, but were perfect for taking home (at 51c a shot) to use for construction of tool accessories, etc. Now, I never see any of the quality stuff anymore in the cull bins - it's all badly twisted, cupped, or split (mostly unusable) dimensioned pine stock at 70% off ticket. This price hike and quality reduction in the cull bins happened around the same time that I noticed Home Depot had replaced Jorgensen bar clamps with cheaper Irwins.....Hmmmmm.

[Edward Mitton]

Typo on lats post..that should be 70% off....sorry!

[Jim Matthews]

Even worse at Lowe's - all the undersized cutoffs go back to the vendors for credit.

It's nuts - the cost to ship must be higher than the burn value of the scrap.

[Matthew Hills]

I'd recommend avoiding anything you're allergic to.
Otherwise, have fun.

If you want to use your money on more important things and just want something done, get reclaimed lumber from a house renovation site.

If you enjoy playing with your woodworking and want to try a new wood, feel free to try that, too.
(my shop stuff has been getting trimmed in purple heart -- I'm trying to use up an early wood purchase that somehow never found its way into other projects. Purpleheart is actually a very annoying wood to work with, but it is sort of interesting to feel that there is some sort of theme)

Matt