Help with first woodworking bench

[charles mathieu]

Hi guys, I'm currently building a nicholson bench, I made the legs and stretchers out of cheap spf lumber, they are glued together and are 4.5"x4.5". I'm having a hard time deciding on wood choice for the top, I'm torn between buying expensive 8/4 birch or simply using white pine, which is half the price. Southern yellow pine can't be find here in Quebec so that's out of the question. Birch is slightly cheaper than maple and I prefer it's look anyway.

I know white pine is not as strong and heavy as yellow pine, but would it still work for a top ? I'm afraid the holdfasts might elongate the holes after a while and become loose or that the bench won't be heavy enough...The good things is that pine will be easier to plane (I also bought my 1st ever plane, a lv low angle jack, and since I've never used a plane before, I'm afraid birch might be hard to work with no ?)

So what's your opinion on 2" white pine as a top ?

[Jacques Gagnon]

Bonjour Charles,

I am helping a friend building a bench. We will be using ash for the top. Good alternative to pine: less expensive; easy to work; harder surface. One option to consider.

Please send me a message if you would like to discuss.

J

[Jim Becker]

I kinda agree with Jacques...ash is a very nice alternative and can generally be sourced for a reasonable cost, is heavier and harder and really looks nice. The softness of white pine is going to hurt you in the long run, IMHO.

[charles mathieu]

Well I'll look into ash then and see if the price is similar to birch. Birch is prone to warping I think no ?

[Andrew Seemann]

As much as I like white pine, I wouldn't use it for a bench top. Birch or maple should work, but note that maple isn't particularly stable when you have a lot of seasonal humidity variation, and birch less so. If possible, you might want to orient the boards so that you get a quarter sawn (vertical grain) configuration when you are done. I did that on my Frid bench, cut the maple into roughly 2" wide pieces and then turned then 90 degrees to laminate them on the quarter and then I planed the whole thing to 1 3/4. Quartered maple a foot wide is almost impossible to find, but the laminated maple on the quarter was pretty easy to make, and should end up being even more stable.

[Andrew Seemann]

Just noticed this from your original post. Birch is kind of a nightmare to plane, especially on the quarter. It tends to have a rising and falling grain, and it tears out without the slightest provocation. I also would be inclined to use a higher planing angle on it if possible.

[charles mathieu]

Just noticed this from your original post. Birch is kind of a nightmare to plane, especially on the quarter. It tends to have a rising and falling grain, and it tears out without the slightest provocation. I also would be inclined to use a higher planing angle on it if possible.

Very good to know, I think I'll go with ash !

[Ron Citerone]

Very good to know, I think I'll go with ash !

I think that is a better choice over pine. I made one out of poplar and it's fine for the light work I do on it, but it does dent pretty easy and I think pine would be even more likely to dent. Also the weight of the ash will probably help a lot.

[Rush Paul]

Charles, why not use Spruce? I should think its fairly readily available where you are in Quebec. Paul Sellers comments that it's one of his favorite woods for building his Nicholson style workbenches.

[John Sanford]

It's your first bench. Go with the cheapest option, i.e pine. You can beat it, it'll dent. So if it dents, you get to practice raising dents when it doesn't matter, rather than trying to steam a dent out of an important project. It will be more forgiving to your projects when you drop them on the bench. Knowing that it's cheapo pine meant to be replaced with a better top down the road (if not a different bench entirely) means that you don't have to baby it. Yes, it will be lighter than other woods. So? just put sandbags in the base. Will the dogholes waller out? Probably, so just drill new dog holes. When THOSE are all wallowed out, and the rest of it is beat to heck, you can retire it and make The Bench(top).