Dimensioning 10/4 lumber for bench build...How to go about it?

[Robert Hazelwood]

I think 3" would be acceptable, especially if you need the bench to be portable.

If your benchtop is the same length as Will Myers', and you are both using SYP, then yours would weigh about the same as his if you make it 3" thick at 16" wide. If you make it 4" thick @ 16"w, then it would be about a third heavier than his.

Yellow pine is rather dense and stiff for a softwood.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

I think 3" would be acceptable, especially if you need the bench to be portable.

If your benchtop is the same length as Will Myers', and you are both using SYP, then yours would weigh about the same as his if you make it 3" thick at 16" wide. If you make it 4" thick @ 16"w, then it would be about a third heavier than his.

Yellow pine is rather dense and stiff for a softwood.

That's what I was thinking. The E value (measure of stiffness) of SYP is pretty high. Having never experienced a real workbench, though, I figured I'd better ask folks that have. I suppose I could make it 3" and down the road add another inch of thickness via face lamination if necessary but for some (perhaps arbitrary) reason that idea bothers me.

I realize that in terms of functionality thicker never hurts but I have to consider portability as well since this thing is likely going to be moved from time to time.

[Matt Lau]

Why the non-sequitur Matt?

Here is a little practical experiment you can try on your workbench. True up the top and then lay a board with a flat surface down on there and try planing with no further holding mechanism. When you are taking a light cut and your plane is in order, it should be possible. Do it for yourself, not to prove one thing or another, that way you can do your best to be objective. And the object is to make it concrete that the bench top is itself a holding mechanism when used as intended.

Just explaining my background...and how an engineer would think.
I'm not an engineer. However, I find them to be frustratingly right on certain points most of the time (even if they can be very wrong in the big picture).

I'll try your exercise after I finally build my workbench!
Unlike pretty much everyone here, I have very little skill.
Currently, I'm using a Blum bench pony (which needs finishing, since it picks up spalting if left outside).

Anyways, what's the practical value of the exercise?
Is it to prove that a workbench should be a little rough to prevent slippage?
FWIW, I agree with you about the bench being a holding mechanism.

On another non-sequitor, I used to be obsessed with guitar varnishes.
I'd briefly looked into violin varnishes due to Manuel Valasquez's comments on varnish.
Some of the old recipes scare the heck out of me, and involve pots of oil (and stuff, like mastic, copal, etc) over an open flame for many hours! Sheesh!

[Matt Lau]

To the OP, please post pictures when you're done!
I feel free to add more nonsequitors since I think that Stan nailed it...nothing more need be said.

I'm sure you'll have a bench worth being proud of.

[Brian Holcombe]

As a point of reference I have a white oak slab 3” thick that I use as a workbench at times, it’s solid enough. My regular workbench is 1.75” and so way too thin, I hate chopping on it.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

As a point of reference I have a white oak slab 3” thick that I use as a workbench at times, it’s solid enough. My regular workbench is 1.75” and so way too thin, I hate chopping on it.

Depending on the specific species yellow pine may be a little more or a little less stiff than white oak. Either way they are both similar in stiffness though white oak is considerably harder.

Do you ever wish that your 3" oak slab was thicker?

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

To the OP, please post pictures when you're done!
I feel free to add more nonsequitors since I think that Stan nailed it...nothing more need be said.

I'm sure you'll have a bench worth being proud of.

Well, here are a couple pics of the wood after planing.
IMG_5293.jpgIMG_5294.jpg

It's kind of a shame the top surface of the benchtop will be face grain rather than the edge grain. The edge grain stripes on these quartersawn pieces are beautiful. Despite the issues with sap and pitch, I've found this stuff to be easy enough to work with. I wouldn't shy away from making furniture out of it in the future.

[Patrick Chase]

I'm an LO user, BLO being mostly BS.
To discount linseed oil on the basis that it doesn't repel water is about the same as discounting your Westinghouse washing machine because it won't get you into town on time to catch your bus.
Even stronger, it is one of the great and unique strengths of linseed oil that it is permeable and allows water vapors a ready route out into the atmosphere instead of remaining trapped in your wood.
It does indeed provide some water resistance, and it takes nothing more that a little conventional knowledge to get that one - water and oil don't mix. Primarily though, its use is because of the effect on the appearance of the wood it has. And that effect can be a good one unparalleled even given the application (pun) is appropriate.

Well, "BLO" is no longer boiled (hasn't been needed since they stopped using lead) so in that sense the "B" is "BS", but the metallic driers in BLO make a huge difference to curing time. I wouldn't describe it as "mostly BS" as a whole.

With that said I agree with Stanley's points about its desirability as a whole.

[Brian Holcombe]

Depending on the specific species yellow pine may be a little more or a little less stiff than white oak. Either way they are both similar in stiffness though white oak is considerably harder.

Do you ever wish that your 3" oak slab was thicker?

If it were a stand alone bench I would prefer thicker but as a bench that I move a big oak slab is enough work for my 150lbs frame. I believe it weights 72lbs, while I dont lug it around often, I have to flip it up onto my workbench on occasion.

I like the look of quartered grain, and the orientation in that manner will be more resistance to flexing but considerably easier to damage. You may take care with s brand new bench but they’re not brand new forever so the harder wearing surface is preferable in my opinion.

A planed surface is a very durable surface, it can be cleaned with ease, its smooth but not slick and helps the surface to resist damage from water. This is just my opinion, but I feel that if you are to finish a bench the best area to finish is the end grain, everything else can just be left finish planed.

A bench is a working surface, adding a finish to it just makes life more difficult when working on it. I think you all have seen enough of my shop that I don't ascribe to the 'lived-in' look, but for a workbench, I firmly believe in finish planing and living with it. I leave the saw cuts and accidental chops, they're not criminal at my workbench.

[Patrick Chase]

Such a sweeping statement writing off the use of linseed oil as a worthless wood finish, is to say the least a bold move in the face of the thousand year history it has going back to the Turks who were using it for that and more.

Cutting tools made from chipped pieces of flint had a much longer history than that, so are you going to toss all of your steel woodworking tools and go back to the stone age?

Stan's point is that BLO is obsolete in the same sense that chipped flint is obsolete. There's no practical reason to use BLO to protect wood now that we have better options (BLO can still be useful as a sort of stain to get a specific look), just as there's no reason to use flint now that we have steel.

[Pat Barry]

I wonder how the bench-top finishers are thinking about the holding function the bench top itself fulfills and how a finish or no finish impacts on that function. Coating the surface with wax seems to completely negate the idea that the bench top itself is meant to do a significant amount of the holding rather than relying on the clamping rig-up 100 percent, eventually over taxing any and all clamps, vices, hold-fasts, so on and so on.

I don't do any work such as planing for example where I am relying on the friction from the bench top to provide holding power. That's what bench dogs and or the vise are for in my work. I also use my bench frequently as an outfeed table for my table saw and I appreciate the top being a bit slick for that purpose. Like I mentioned, the glue cleanup is super easy, and I have not noticed any buildup of dirt / grime as being attracted by the wax, after all, the wax is / was buffed out. It might be that a simple BLO application would provide these same benefits.

[Stanley Covington]

I wonder how the bench-top finishers are thinking about the holding function the bench top itself fulfills and how a finish or no finish impacts on that function. Coating the surface with wax seems to completely negate the idea that the bench top itself is meant to do a significant amount of the holding rather than relying on the clamping rig-up 100 percent, eventually over taxing any and all clamps, vices, hold-fasts, so on and so on.

Don't use beeswax or furniture wax. Use FLOOR WAX, for Pete's sake. It is non-slip, and actually INCREASES FRICTION between the benchtop and workpiece. It is not sticky, and does not attract dirt or grime, despite what the inexperienced blithely claim.

[ernest dubois]

Don't use beeswax or furniture wax. Use FLOOR WAX, for Pete's sake. It is non-slip, and actually INCREASES FRICTION between the benchtop and workpiece. It is not sticky, and does not attract dirt or grime, despite what the inexperienced blithely claim.

It's true, I never even had the thought entering my head of coating my workbench top with floor wax.

[ernest dubois]

I don't do any work such as planing for example where I am relying on the friction from the bench top to provide holding power. That's what bench dogs and or the vise are for in my work.

You do, you just don't realize it, that is as long as your bench top is maintained, if it's not and your vices and dogs are overburdened as a result that's a problem I can't help you with.

[ernest dubois]

Cutting tools made from chipped pieces of flint had a much longer history than that, so are you going to toss all of your steel woodworking tools and go back to the stone age?

Stan's point is that BLO is obsolete in the same sense that chipped flint is obsolete. There's no practical reason to use BLO to protect wood now that we have better options (BLO can still be useful as a sort of stain to get a specific look), just as there's no reason to use flint now that we have steel.

What is there to say?