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

[Stanley Covington]

First, a minor brag. I got lucky with this yellow pine.
IMG_5165.jpgIMG_5166.jpgIMG_5167.jpg
Six pieces that are over 2" thick, 72-76" long, mostly knot-free, and most of the pieces are close to quartersawn. About 66 board feet total. I'm not sure how much quarter-sawing matters with softwoods given that I never see it but it got me excited. The guy had a yellow pine slab that was 20 ft. long and pretty clear he wanted to sell me but I don't have the means to transport it nor the energy to break it down.

Anywhoo, I'm finally breaking down and building a real workbench. I've settled on a Moravian bench like Will Myers' because it's easily broken down for moving and it's the lightest design I've seen that will still hold up to the type of work I hope to be doing.

My main question is, how would you guys go about breaking down these pieces for the benchtop? Will Myers' plans call for a top that is 76"x13.5"x3.5" and these pieces I have are all about 2.25" thick and 8" wide. Would you laminate two pieces face-to-face to get the necessary thickness? Or would you rip pieces that are 3.5" wide, then turn them on their sides and laminate those face-to-face so that the benchtop is all edge grain?

Thanks!

Do you have an electronic jointer and thickness planer? Do you have a tablesaw or glulam saw that will cut 4.5"?

You wrote that they are all "about 2.25" thick and 8" wide." You also wrote that the plans you have call for 3.5" thick X 13.5" wide top. If that is your goal, and assumming you have the tools mentioned above, this is what I would do.

1. Scrub the boards down with a steel brush to remove embedded grit and oxidized wood.
2. Trim 1/4" off the each end of each board to eliminate embedded grit that will dull your blades and scratch your beds. You may not see it, but grit is always there.
3. Thickness plane 4 boards, and joint one edge of each. They don't need to be the same exact thickness, but they do need to be free of twist, and mostly straight. A little bow is not a problem.
4. Number the boards to maintain orientation.
5. Clamp 2 adjacent boards together face to face and with the jointed edge top, and drill a series of holes located 2" and 6" down from jointed edge, distributed near the ends and in between. Too many holes is better than too few.
6. Repeat the aligning and drilling until you have enough holes for dowels to keep all 4 boards in alignment with each other
5. Apply wax to and drive a dowel of the corresponding size into the holes of two adjoining boards. Alternate holes so only half of them are used during this first glueup. The dowels should be slightly shorter (1/4"?) that the combined width of the boards, and their ends recessed. These dowels will keep the boards in alignment during glueup.
6. Glue, clamp, and let cure 2 adjoining boards for 2 days (make sure the wood is warm prior to, and your workplace is warm during cure).
7. Repeat for the other 2 boards. You should have 2 gluelams now.
8. Rip each glulam in half, and dimension each to the same width. You should have 4 glulams now, each approximately 3.75"wide x 4"thick (depending on how much waste was lost to dimensioning).
9. Insert waxed dowels in the remaining holes.
10. Glue, clamp, and cure these 4 glulams, in 3 sets or all at once, to make a single glulam approximately 3.75"thick X 16"wide.
11. Cleanup squeezout.
12. Flatten with handplanes.

If this is too wide (sounds just right to me, and I would want the extra mass, space permitting), then mill the boards thinner to begin with, e.g. 1-11/16"

This will let you glueup a top with the minimum waste and without a helper (asuming your back and knees are OK). If you don't have the powertools, then the same thing can be accomplished using handplanes and handsaws, it will just take longer and you will lose weight. You will need at least 10 heavy duty bar clamps or pipe clamps.

Stan