Poplar as bench top material?

[Eric Rathhaus]

I'm about ready to mill and glue up my strips of maple and walnut for my moravian bench. But today I was in a lumber store that had a massive plank of poplar at 3.50 a board foot. I could buy this piece and skip the laminating but wonder if poplar is a poor choice for a bench top. Any opinion, comments, suggestions, would be appreciated.

Eric

[chris carter]

I would use the softest wood you can get away with for your design. I'm not a fan of hard as rock workbenches. If your design can get away with construction lumber (spruce, pine, fir, etc.), then that's what I'd use. If my choice was between maple and poplar, I absolutely would choose poplar.

[Jason Lester]

Poplar seems a little soft to me for a workbench top.

[Bob Glenn]

Use what you have and don't be put off by what you read or hear from others. You will cherish what you alone have created.

[Flamone LaChaud]

My Dad's bench used 8/4 Poplar for the top with Maple along the edges . . . it's taken quite a licking over the last 30 years and still does a good job.

[Eric Rathhaus]

Thanks for all the input. I've decided, in the end, that glueing up the bench top will be good experience for me and save some $$ :) But I really appreciate all of your input!

[Mark Rainey]

I think you will save some money glueing up the bench top - $3.50 a board foot for poplar is expensive.

[brian zawatsky]

Depends on the thickness. I think I paid almost $3/bdft for the FAS KD 16/4 tulip poplar that i used for the legs on my workbench. It was worth it though, that thing is massive.

[Eric Rathhaus]

Hi Mark - yes saving money is always a good thing. The board is 6 inches thick, 14.5 inches wide and probably 15' long. Massive.

[Andrew Seemann]

Poplar wouldn't be my first choice for a work bench. Although it is pretty stable, it is quite soft. I prefer a hard and dense top as I do a fair amount of pounding and chopping on my bench. Fortunately maple is relatively inexpensive around here.

[Charles Guest]

Using a species for a bench top that is softer than most woods you intend to work is perfectly rational. Let the top get dented and bruised rather than project parts.

[Robert Engel]

The reason most benches are laminated rather than a single plank is for stability (wood movement).

That said, you can use a solid slab just plan the build to allow for movement and plan on reflattening the top until its totally stabilized, which could take several years.

Like Andrew, I also prefer hard wood because of 1) the extra mass, 2) less absorption of energy.

Charles, if you leave bits on the top, it doesn't matter how soft the bench top is, you will get dented wood.

[Bruce Haugen]

Poplar is fine. My bench is 33 years old, made of some nondescript white wood 2 X 4s from a lumber yard, and is softer than poplar. It has worked very well, and I don’t have palpitations when it gets dinged or cut. It’s a work bench, not a shrine.

[Jake Rothermel]

I've started the massive (to me) task of flattening & truing up the red oak 4x6s I reclaimed for my Moravian recently. After that workout (and I'm *far* from done), I don't know that I'd turn down a poplar benchtop if I had the opportunity to get one. Then again, I really like poplar...

[Bill McDermott]

I have a hand-me-down laminated poplar top. No complaints at all. I have round holes and pegs. Everything is fine except in the couple pegs holes (front row) where I have used holdfasts, the pegs are now loose and fall through without some fussing. I suspect a harder wood (or at least a dog hole strip of it) would help in that regard.

[chris carter]

Charles, if you leave bits on the top, it doesn't matter how soft the bench top is, you will get dented wood.

I have both an oak bench and a construction lumber bench. Chips denting my work was a constant issue to deal with on the oak bench, but has only happened once on the construction lumber bench (and the work piece was pine!). This despite the fact I was far more careful clearing chips from the oak bench. It IS true that if your bench is softer than your workpiece stray chips will simply go into the bench instead of your workpiece. It's not 100% perfect, but it's like 98% perfect. At least in my experience.

[Charles Guest]

I have both an oak bench and a construction lumber bench. Chips denting my work was a constant issue to deal with on the oak bench, but has only happened once on the construction lumber bench (and the work piece was pine!). This despite the fact I was far more careful clearing chips from the oak bench. It IS true that if your bench is softer than your workpiece stray chips will simply go into the bench instead of your workpiece. It's not 100% perfect, but it's like 98% perfect. At least in my experience.

Yep. Dropped workpieces don't dent, especially still-sharp arrises.

It's also convenient to nail battens of all shapes and sizes, planing stops, etc. into a softwood benchtop with abandon and not worry about it. Quite liberating actually. I saw Art Carpenter's bench once. It looked like a family of beavers had been munching on it, and there must have been thousands of nail holes in its top.

[Tom Bussey]

Take my word for it, what ever wood you use, don't let the choice be Hickory

[steven c newman]

Maybe come over and take a look at the bench I have been using...for a few years.

I should say..WORK bench....as mine is for work.

[Andrew Seemann]

I saw Art Carpenter's bench once. It looked like a family of beavers had been munching on it, and there must have been thousands of nail holes in its top.

The benches Tage Frid and Frank Klaus show in their how-to-build-a-bench articles look like beautiful works of art. The ones you see them actually using in their videos look even more beat to h#ll than mine:)

[William Fretwell]

The type of bench you build will also determine the wood you use. In traditional Scandinavian benches where shoulder and tail vises rely on wood structure for strength and function, the tail vise frame needs to be stiff and strong.
If your bench is just a ‘top’ the type of wood is less crucial. Make it thick enough for re-finishing so damage is removed fairly often.
If your ‘soft’ wood is inexpensive it helps, especially if the construction is very simple. Putting lots of time and efffort into a Scandinavian bench with soft cheap wood is a crazy waste of time.
I have lots of Poplar from a 7 ton trunk I took down, it’s dried out now the planks 3 inches thick and 24 inches wide. I would not use it for a real work bench.

[Larry Frank]

I would try Ash as in my area economical and hard.

[Charles Guest]

Good point. If somebody says "you need a hardwood benchtop," well, how hard? Sort of hard, or really damned hard, or something in-between?

[Charles Guest]

The type of bench you build will also determine the wood you use. In traditional Scandinavian benches where shoulder and tail vises rely on wood structure for strength and function, the tail vise frame needs to be stiff and strong.
If your bench is just a ‘top’ the type of wood is less crucial. Make it thick enough for re-finishing so damage is removed fairly often.
If your ‘soft’ wood is inexpensive it helps, especially if the construction is very simple. Putting lots of time and efffort into a Scandinavian bench with soft cheap wood is a crazy waste of time.
I have lots of Poplar from a 7 ton trunk I took down, it’s dried out now the planks 3 inches thick and 24 inches wide. I would not use it for a real work bench.

Not actually the case, other than for a little beech topper added for durability: http://www.workbenches.se/en/workbenches.php

A few of their customers: http://www.workbenches.se/en/portfolio.php

[steven c newman]

Remember...poplar IS a Hardwood.....and works a lot better than Cottonwood, or Dogwood.....

[Patrick Kane]

My benchtop is poplar, and its probably 5-6 years old at this point. At the time everyone was making roubo's out of hard maple, and i was trying to source the least expensive bench possible. I bought 16/4 cherry for the base around $1/BDFT, and the poplar was 8/4 in 16' lengths from a closed slovak club basement. I paid something dumb like $0.25/BDFT for the poplar. Im of the opinion that you should go with the cheapest material available that is dry, thick, and light colored. Ive seen people make benches out of purple heart or walnut and i dont get it. I remember being a 20-something noob when i made my bench(first real WW project), and people scoffed at my choice of poplar for the top. It's soft, but is not THAT soft. People made it seem like it was going to dissolve after little use. Over the years it has collected dents, chisel marks, one domino mortise where i blew through a workpiece, burns from a branding iron and heat gun, and still performs very well. If you are low on tools like i was, straight grained poplar is pretty easy to work once its all laminated up. Its also lighter than hard maple, which is a plus for moving around glued up tops.

Here it is after i added a coat of poly many years ago.

[David Eisenhauer]

Nice bench Patrick.

[steven c newman]

Time to clean this one up..
395719
Pine...or whatever they used for the frames on a water bed.....
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Before the "good" planes work on it....this one is sent looking for the nails, or bits of metal that may be IN the wood....doesn't bother this #70 scraper...
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Then I get to chose which jointer to use...

[William Fretwell]

That is the sad reality of business, building down to a price! 100 kg is really not much! The base of my bench weighs more before I add the top!
This is why people make their own benches. If you worked on such a light bench you would soon be building your own. Don’t be fooled by implied heritage.

[Chris Fournier]

I have built three benches for myself and several more with/for others. I would never build a soft topped bench. Maple or harder. My current bench is 20 years old, hard maple for the front 12 inches, oft maple for he back 10 inches. If I tip toed around my bench I might consider a softer top but I got at it hammer and tong on my benches. Poplar would be a mess in a hurry. Of course what species is available to you at a sensible price in your locale is a huge deciding factor. A bench you build is an investment and an object of pride, scrimping on materials is a bit of fools gold... My opinion.

[steven c newman]

395854
So much for THAT elitist theory....

[Bruce Haugen]

Patrick, is it just the apron of your bench that is, what, 5” -6” thick, or is it that thick throughout?

[Pat Barry]

Using a species for a bench top that is softer than most woods you intend to work is perfectly rational. Let the top get dented and bruised rather than project parts.
In that case balsa wood is perfect solution.

[Charles Guest]

In that case balsa wood is perfect solution.

Funny you mentioned that. The most accomplished carver who I've ever met, though not a professional, has a balsa wood overlay on his carving bench, the core of which is fir, though fairly thick maybe around 3 to 3 /2 inches or so.

It's asinine to limit yourself to a rote recipe. Use what works for the work you do and the way you like to do it, otherwise what's the point of it all?

[steven c newman]

Besides...wasn't there a famous raft made for sailing the Pacific Ocean?