Workbench Project

[Michael Fross]

Hello everyone.

I've decided to build a new workbench as my next project, and have done quite a bit of reading in Landis's "The Workbench Book" and have chosen to build a Roubo inspired workbench by the Woodworking-Magazine article (see picture).

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are and if someone has experience using this style of a bench. I plan on building the leg vise as well as putting my LV twin screw vise on the right end.

Chris Schwartz (the author) suggests using Southern Yellow (LongLeaf) pine as it is very hard and fairly inexpensive. However, I can't seem to find it in the Chicago area.

Sorry to ask a location specific question, but does anyone know of local dealers in the area? I'm afraid to purchase online as I think the shipping costs would make it more expensive than hardwood.

The other thought I had would be to use standard lumberyard pine and perhaps just build a popular top. Would this be too soft and unstable?

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I really appreciate it.

Michael

[Jim Becker]

Can you get douglas fir in lieu of the SYP? Tulip poplar will work, too, if that's what is available to you.

[Michael Fross]

Can you get douglas fir in lieu of the SYP? Tulip poplar will work, too, if that's what is available to you.

Good thought Jim. I didn't think about Douglas Fir....

[Dave Anderson NH]

Being in NH, I obviously can't help you with sourcing Michael. The thing to consider is density and hardness. Chris recommends SYP because it is both hard and dense compared to Dougfir and poplar and of course it is relatively cheap. If you would like to save money you might consider doing the base out of Dougfir or poplar and then making the top out of soft maple if it is readily available and cheap in your area. Remember that soft maple is still a relatively hard and dense wood complared to cherry, walnut, mahogany, and many of the other cabinet woods we use. Around here, soft maple is a couple of bucks per board foot cheaper than hard maple.

[John Schreiber]

In Chicago, I've shopped at Owl Hardwoods (http://www.owlhardwood.com/). They have a couple of different stores. I can't say prices are great, but they do have a good selection. Other people have recommended a place in Sycamore.

I don't think type of wood is that important for the frame of a bench if you use enough of it and strong joinery, so I plan to go cheap there. For the top, the options above should work well. I plan to purchase a pre-made top for the one I'm designing. The beech counter tops at Ikea are an incredible bargain.
I'm thinking of purchasing two of those and laminating them together.

[Michael Fross]

Thanks John. I do shop as Owl and they have a great selection, but are quite pricy.

I live right next to an ikea. I never thought to look there. I'll have to take a look.

Thanks.

Michael

[glenn bradley]

Thanks John. I do shop as Owl and they have a great selection, but are quite pricy.

I live right next to an ikea. I never thought to look there. I'll have to take a look.

Thanks.

Michael

If your Ikea top isn't thick enough, laminate a couple slabs of MDF and attach the top with screws. I have a four layer MDF top just BLO'd and waxed. So far, so good.

[Brian Lindenlaub]

It's hard to beat the prices on the Ikea tops. You can also get laminated maple tops for a reasonable price at perfectplank.com.

[Wilbur Pan]

Just to echo Jim's comment, I live in New Jersey (but I am a Chicago native), and out here the 2x material situation is similar. It's all Douglas fir.

If you are going to use 2x material for lumber, which is what Christopher Schwarz used in his workbench articles, exactly what type of wood you get is highly dependent on where you live. Here in NJ, it's Douglas fir. If I cross over to Delaware, all of a sudden I find hemlock fir 2x material. In Ohio, where Christopher Schwarz is, it's Southern yellow pine.

For a workbench project, the wood you use for the most part doesn't matter much as long as it's reasonably tough, straight grained, and cheap. In Europe in the old days, beech was commonly used as workbench material. Why? Because it was tough, plentiful and cheap.

For me, I found one Home Depot in my area that carries kiln dried Douglas fir 4x4's, and have been scrounging their supply for straight grained pieces to build my workbench.

[Michael Fross]

Thanks everyone for some great ideas. I'm going to take a look around. I believe the lumberyard by me carries Douglass Fir and Dave's advice of soft maple makes a lot of sense. I seem to hear the word soft and pass it over...

I appreciate the help everyone.

I'll post pics when I get the materials and start building.

Michael

[Kelly Anderson]

I built this exact bench at the end of last year (even with the Veritas vise on the end). Around here you get hem/fir so that is what I used. So far it is doing very well. It has some dents already but it is work bench and I figure that it is better to have a slightly dented bench then a dented project.

[Tom Hamilton]

Michael, oak tongue and groove flooring works great for the top of a bench. The discount hardwood floor stores sometimes have bundles of seconds for less than $1.00 /sq ft.

Best regards, Tom, in Houston, with an oak T&G bench top

[Ron Brese]

Wall Lumber in Mayodan, NC, has 8/4 furniture grade yellow pine and I can't imagine that the shipping would too awful bad, however I think Dave's idea of the soft maple really makes more sense for you, in fact I can get material from Wall in 2 days, but I still think the soft maple would be more suitable, it has about the same density as cherry and if you glue up from 8/4 the stability should be pretty good, I also believe that the maple will actually be harder than the SYP.

Ron Brese