Opinions please

[Mike Burns]

I need some material for legs for my workbench. I can get some 2X poplar for about $3 a board foot. I'm thinking of gluing them up to make 4Xs for the legs and use 2Xs for the rails and stretchers. How do you think poplar will hold up for a base?

Mike

[Ken Pywell]

I think if you account for any racking and adjust accordingly, it should be fine. Have you priced birch? may not be that much more.
Ken

[Alan Turner]

Mike,
For the legs on the PFW benches (10 of them), I laminated three boards of chestnut oak, using Unibond 800, and they have worked quite well. Oak, around here, is pretty inexpensive. I had the oak, given by a friend, and it was No. 2 common, also known as chair wood, and so it was basically good only for shorts.
Chestnut oak is similar to white oak in appearance (a bit browner), and is not chestnut.

[James Mittlefehldt]

MIke if you can get it for a half decent price something harder would probably be better, around here (southern Ontario) I can buy white ash for the same price as Poplar and it would I think be better for your bench, however I don't know what's available in Kansas and how much it would sell for.

Is $3. a board foot a good price there?

If I were to to go to the Orange store or one of it's competitors I would proabably pay that or more for Poplar, and I assume by Poplar you mean Yellow Poplar or Tulipefera Liriodendren. If you have some time check your local listings for an independent wood seller or sawmill as you can probably do much better price wise and get a much better selection.

Just my $1.25 worth.

[Dennis Peacock]

Mike,

Yellow Poplar will hold up fairly well. However, I wish you lived closer to me. I could save you almost 2/3 your cost on poplar...only rub is? It would all have to be 4/4 Kiln Dried. :)

[Mike Burns]

Thanks for the replies. I think that, after reading them, I'm going to go ahead and order some oak or maple.

Mike

[Mike Burns]

MIke if you can get it for a half decent price something harder would probably be better, around here (southern Ontario) I can buy white ash for the same price as Poplar and it would I think be better for your bench, however I don't know what's available in Kansas and how much it would sell for.

Is $3. a board foot a good price there?

If I were to to go to the Orange store or one of it's competitors I would proabably pay that or more for Poplar, and I assume by Poplar you mean Yellow Poplar or Tulipefera Liriodendren. If you have some time check your local listings for an independent wood seller or sawmill as you can probably do much better price wise and get a much better selection.

Just my $1.25 worth.

James,
I've still got a little bit of white ash from when I lived on Hay Bay, near Napanee, Ontario. That stuff would work well........... if I only had enough left. :(

Mike

[James Mittlefehldt]

Just went to the Woodstock Wood Show today and found about four or five dealers in wood I dod not know existed and all with in an hours drive, amazing.

I have a store of Whiter ash as well some 12/4 stuff a farmer had in his barn for years I have not as yet decided what to do with it but it was a good price when I bought it five years ago. I used the majority of it for my workbench.