Dumb Question- Workbench - Silver Maple or Ash?

[Scott Behrens]

Ok, Figured I could do a quick search and figure this out but didn't find it. Maybe it's cause Silver Maple shouldn't be used for a workbench. I've never worked with it, is it hard enough? I can pick up 6 month air dried silver maple for about $1/bd ft or kiln dried ash for about $1.60/bd ft. both rough. I suppose I should go with ash but thought I'd double check sense I hope to have this workbench around for years to come and I'll have to look at it every day. One more dumb question. Is ash just as good as anything else or is there some obvious choice I should be looking for, does it even really matter? I've got a bunch of oak sitting around I could use, but have heard not to use it cause of the acid? in it... would that really matter once you put a finish on it?

Thanks for any advice,
Scott

[Cecil Arnold]

FWIW I think that the silver maple may be softer than the ash, but I would go with the maple anyway since it is a finer grain wood and splinters would not be the issue it could be with ash.

[Chris Padilla]

Scott,

There must be lottsa good reasons most benches are made from good old maple (soft/silver/hard/whatever).

The early/late wood of oak and ash "could be" painful to deal with but if properly sealed and taken care of, I do not see why it couldn't be used if you like. Would you mind a bench with a little bit of a dark/light coloring to it? Maple is more uniform in color and tends to be lighter.

I've seen a few benches done in oak and they look nice but I think I'd rather have a more neutral coloring for my bench. I will use maple for a workbench in my future.

I think the price you can get maple for is excellent. I recently bought 120 bf of rough hard maple (10/4, 8-12", 10' long) for $4/bf and I was very happy with the price.

If you like, use maple for the top and the ash for the base/legs. Then you'll have experience with those two woods! Frankly, at your prices, I do not think you can lose!

[Alan Turner]

If these are your only 2 choices, I see it as a toss up. The ash will be harder and more stable, the maple softer, but even it its texture. The specific gravity of ash (.60) is closer to hard maple (.63) than soft maple (.54).

I think the KD would be the deciding factor as 6 mos. is not enough time to air dry even 4/4 material. YOu don't say how thick each of the choices is, but that would also be important.

My choice is 12/4 hard maple, but plan to write a sizeable check.

[Steve Wargo]

Having built and used a bench that was primarily Ash and Red Oak top...Go for the maple. The ash was nothing but a pain. It moved a ton, and didn't hold up to the normal wear and tear of a work bench. But as Alan pointed out, make sure whatever you choose is dry. A bench is one piece that you really don't want to take a chance of checking, warping, cupping or the likes after it's constructed.

[Chris Barton]

Hiya Scott,


I made my latest bench of Ambrosia Maple (soft maple) and canary wood and have been very pleased. Here are a couple of pictures (if I get everything to work correctly). I have a pull-out drawing drawer which I came up with as an original idea (I am claiming it anyway) and it has been great. Eventually I will get around to putting drawers in the lower section which is made of Baltic birch. Only the skirt to the top is made of Canary wood which is a very nice wood to work with and very hard.

Chris

[Steve Evans]

Chris

I love the drawing drawer. I think I may have to expropriate your creation, and add it as a retrofit to my bench. It makes great use of an area that currently only serves as a collection area for junk on my bench.
Sorry Scott. I'll stop dragging your thread off topic now.
Steve

[James Mittlefehldt]

Just to confuse the matter even more, I also used Ash for my workbench and had no problem whatsoever with, movement, but then it was 12/4 and had been air dried for years in a barn before I got my hands on it. However I think that as usual Allan is right and the kiln dried Ash is a much better choice, as the Maple would not be dry enough.

[John Miliunas]

Scott, just MHO but, I believe that the Silver would just be too soft. I think the Ash would be much more durable, plus if I'm not mistaken, the Ash will also be heavier, which is a definite consideration when building a bench, as you want a lot of mass to keep it from moving when giving a board on top a major workout.:) :cool:

[Jim W. White]

I bought a ~150 board feet of air dried silver maple off a local sawyer a couple of years ago. I have just about used it all up. I got it for about the same price your quoting and while I have gotten some nice peices out of the lot it wasn't without a fair amount of loss to subsiquent checking and warping. It was also quite soft when compared to any of the other maples I've usedin the past. In short, I will not be buying anymore in the future.

On the flip side I've done several projects over the past couple of years with kiln dried ash with nothing but great results. The biggest peice was a loft bed for my son. I place ash as one of the greatest "bargain" woods out there. I think it's highly underrated as a hardwood choice.

...Jim in Idaho

[John Shuk]

I'd go for the ash if this is your only other choice. My reasoning has to do with the way most silver maple trees grow around here. They are all over. They usually have multiple trunks and none of them is very straight. You are likely to get some figure but you are also going to get alot of movement. I think the reason for the figure has to do with the relative lack of strength of the wood. You get alot of compression wood. This is just my opinion and theory.

[Bart Leetch]

[QUOTE=Chris Barton]Hiya Scott,


I have a pull-out drawing drawer which I came up with as an original idea (I am claiming it anyway) and it has been great.

I have had plans to include a drawer like this on the top of my tool case under my bench which also serves as an off feed table for my Unisaw to hold measurement tools & other tools. The idea is that if I need to make a cross cut or rip cut on the Unisaw I can clear the bench right into the drawer.

I may add the idea of using part of that drawer to hold the drawing of the current project.

Thanks for the idea.

[Tom Hoffman]

I made my bench out of ash. It was relatively inexpensive, and it worked great. See http://home.comcast.net/~tom.hoffman/3workbench.htm
for pictures. I started with 8/4 face sawn, ripped them down the middle and glued them together to give me a beautiful top of quarter sawn ash 84x30x3. After the glue up I took it to a commercial shop to drum sand it nearly flat, then finished the flattening with hand planes. I have had no movement.

[Tom Sontag]

I think people fret a bit too much about this decision. Neither is an ideal choice but both will work fine. You've got the open grain problem of the ash versus the softness of the maple, so both will show age quickly. So what?

I used cherry and it is a bit soft for the pounding and has turned darker than most people want in a bench and guess what? I love it. Every time I see it I enjoy it and every time I use it does everything I want. To limit flattening chores, I would use the ash for the top.

[Steve Kubien]

Hi Scott,

If those are your only choices, I'd go with the maple. As has been said before, less movement, tighter grain etc. Either is plenty hard enough for a bench. I built mine out of construction-grade lumber from the Borg (sold as spruce in southern Ontario but could be fir, who knows). Whenever I build a new one I will go the same route. It should be noted, I will build a new one for design reasons, not because the first has self-destructed.

Hope this helps,
Steve Kubien