Workbench Top Thickness

[Ken Frohnert]

I was looking at pixs of the beautiful workbenches that members have made. Wow very impressive pieces of furiture. Look better than our cherry dinning table.

I was wondering if making a top out of 1.5 inch oak is reasonable. I was thinking of making the bench about 6-7 foot long. Not sure if I want to build the legs or use the Lee Valley cast iron. I really like the look of those cast iron legs - the only down side I see is no under bench storage. I would probably put a front vise and end vice wth dog holes in the top. But an 1.5 inch oak is pretty heavy and if I use cast iron legs that would really add some weight.

I appreciate the thoughts. I need to build something here in the next couple of months just not sure what. I am having a hard time deciding on this.

[Craig D Peltier]

Just from looking at grizzlys site there nothing less than 1.75 thick in maple and most are 4 inch. You just risk warping, you might want to rip down the width thin an glue up flopping each piece end for end so grain direction runs up an down.
Im sure somoene with more experience than me will chime in. Ask in the Neanderthal Heaven forum here.

[Bob Feeser]

How thick is the stock? In the "Making Workbenches" book by Sam Allen, he has the list of materials. In the classic cabinet makers bench, he has 8/4 maple as the thickest material, planed to 1 3/4" The end pieces are turned on their sides 3 1/2" wide. The bottom of the tool tray is 3/4" stock, planed to 1/2".

[Larry Nall]

Made mine out of pine 2x4s turned sideways, so it's 3 1/2" thick less whatever I planed off to make it flat. It's not a work of art like a lot of benches you see, but it's flat, solid and bulletproof.

[Andrew Williams]

I would recommend going as thick and heavy as you can afford. My bench is 3 feet by 7 feet, all face-glued ash that started out at 3" thickness. After planing it all flat it is down to 2 5/8 or so. Even with all that mass, it was still not hard to push the bench around an inch or so while scrub planing, so it is now weighted down even more with tools and iron vises. It still moves ever so slightly over time (I have noticed it has gotten a bit closer to the wall opposite my front-vise so it must be from all of the heavy edge-jointing).

[David DeCristoforo]

There are a lot of benches many by individuals that have 4" thick tops. But most of the manufactured benches only have a 4" thickness at the "front" where the dog holes or mortices are. They also typically have a banding of some sort on the other sides and/or a tool well and end vice that are also 4" but the main area of the bench top is not a full 4" thick. A 1.5 - 1.75 inch thick top is not going to be "flimsy" but it will (obviously) not have the same mass as a full 4" thick top. For most uses, this will not be a problem but if you are pounding out mortices on the bench top, you will appreciate the extra mass. Also, it's going to be much harder to set up the traditional vice arrangements on a thinner top and the dogs are not going to have as much resistance to racking under load. For light to medium use, a 1.5 - 1.75" thick top on LV cast iron legs would be a fine bench.

[glenn bradley]

Mine is 3" with dog holes. Had a previous one at 1 1/2" . . . I shoulda gone to 4".

[Mark Carlson]

My bench is 3 1/4 inches thick with a 4 1/2 band around the sides. I would go as thick as possible. If your going with cast iron legs I would suggest looking at the Adjust a Bench legs so you can easily adjust the height of the bench.

~mark

[Dave McGeehan]

I agree with Mark regarding the Adjust-A-Bench legs.

Four months ago I finally relegated my 20 year old "temporary" bench to being my sharpening station/general dirty-work bench and decided to build a decent bench that would suit my type of work. I had planned on building my bench top out of 3" maple but got a deal I couldn't pass up on a finished 1+1/2" maple top made from 1" widths by Bally Block Company in Bally, Pa. The customer cancelled the order so they sold it cheap. I was very hesitant to use it because of what I thought was its inadequate thickness. But I figured I give it a try anyway. I added a full width Veritas Twin-screw vise on one end, a Tucker vise on the other corner, and Adjust-A-Bench legs. I put floating breadboard ends on the top to help stop any warpage and to allow for wood movement (its width has increased by 1/4" during the last few humid months.) So far the 1+1/2" top hasn't caused me any problems even when taking a mallet and gouge to walnut or cocobolo. Scrub planing may cause some rocking but I don't do much of that. My best advise is to decide what type of woodworking you plan on using it for most and plan accordingly. One thing I'm sure of: once you build your dream bench, every time you use it you'll say to yourself, "How did I do without this?"

Dave