New Workbench Solid Hickory

[Clarence Martinn]

Thinking of building a new workbench for the Basement workshop. Can get air dried and kiln dried Hickory pretty reasonably priced 4/4/ and 8/4. How thick should the top be ? Want to use it for sanding and possibly for mounting a mid sized Lathe .

[Andrew Seemann]

It depends what you are going to use the bench for. If you are going to beat on it chopping mortices and dovetails, it will need to be more substantial than if you are just going to assemble things and use power tools and set a lathe on it.

For a Neanderthal Beatin' top you want around 1 3/4" or more. For a Normite, you could probably get away with 3/4"or 7/8" although it wouldn't hurt to go closer to 2" for the odd chisel work or if you develop an affliction to hand tools.

For a thicker top, it is popular to take flat sawn boards and rip them into strips around 2 - 3 inches wide, turn them 90 degrees and glue them up so that you get a laminated quarter sawn top, which tends to be more stable than flatsawnboards glued together, a relevant consideration for a wood that likes to move like Hickory. If you know someone with a big planer or drum/widebelt sander running the top though that saves oodles of time flattening.

[Keith Outten]

If you can't find a large enough planner or sander in your area you might consider someone with a CNC Router to flatten your bench top. There are plenty of CNC Operators here at The Creek. Hickory is harder than Chinese arithmetic, I would love to have a hickory bench top.

[Robert Engel]

If you're never going to use it for an actual ww'ing bench, 2" is probably adequate.

If you anticipate using it as a chisel bench, I'd go 3".

The base also needs to be beefy and heavy, especially with the lathe.