$200 Workbench? Not Where I live

[John LoDico]

There's the maple workbench with the houndstooth dovetails at the end vise and the Benchcrafted leg vise -- works of art for a significant investment. And then there's the $100 workbench (let's say $200) made out of Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) or Douglas Fir with a scaffolding screw for the leg vise. I was looking to build the later but ran into a problem; I live in the Northeast. SYP is a rarity here, although it's used in pressure-treated lumber. Douglas Fir? A common West Coast species but here it costs $92 for one 2 x 10" x 12' board. So I'm looking at building the "affordable" $750-800 workbench for my basement shop. Oh well.

[mike stenson]

I just built a bench out of the cheapest wood I could find. Red oak. It was about $400 for the lumber. If there had been a cheaper, heavy, wood choice I'd have gone that way (there isn't really such a thing as 'cheap' here in the desert IMO). I think the idea with things like SYP and fir is just to build a bench. Really just a cheap (in the midwest) alternative. The benchcrafted leg vise? Oh yes, that's a luxury, but man.. it's nice (especially after years of dealing with racking). edit: I sat on the vise hardware for a couple years before building.

[Jim Becker]

You can generally get the heavier "framing" grade boards from a good lumber supplier that can be utilized for a great benchtop. And SYP is often available to you that way because it's sometimes what's required for building engineering. The 10" boards at the top of the walls of my new Post Frame workshop building are all SYP with a special grade. The point here is that you need to find the right source for your benchtop material and that may not be the big box home center. As an alternative, soft maple (which is still pretty darn hard) is reasonably priced and readily available...great to use for a benchtop. The understructure brings more flexibility so you can use less expensive building materials since it's all about the joinery for that.

[Mel Fulks]

You can probably buy North Eastern white pine there. I would use that , with Masonite ‘table protector’

[richard poitras]

Ash is generally very reasonably priced as well, due to the Ash bore some years back. Check with one of the local sawmills for better lumber pricing, sometimes they have a surplus of certain lumber they want to move.

[Peter Schussheim]

As Richard suggested, Ash is by far the most reasonably priced wood with fantastic properties ideal for a bench. I feel your pain with respect to the lack of SYP in the north east. I recently built a moving shop table using framing lumber (douglas fir) and while it looks absolutely beautiful and can handle significant loads and stress, douglas fir is incredibly soft and if used as your primary bench surface, you'd do well to build it extra thick to provide you with plenty of wood that can be flattened and cleaned up over the years of use.

[John LoDico]

Jim: I haven't gone to HD or Lowes, or rather I know they don't carry non-PT SYP or Doug Fir. I've been trying every specialized lumber suppliers in my area. It's all about where you live.

[John LoDico]

Mike, your red oak bench looks great! I have some red oak slabs drying in my basement from the old oak tree in my yard that I cut down and slabbed with an "Alaskan sawmill." But I'm saving that for a dining table -- old family tree built into family dining table.

[Patrick Kane]

John, I wouldnt get discouraged by prices. You just havent found the right source yet. Have you tried searching facebook marketplace or craigslist for lumber? I would be shocked if some local yocal mill wasnt selling air dried softwood/hardwood. It wont be graded, and probably isnt kiln dried, but it could be a fine source of material for a workbench within your budget. I would cheap out a bit on the wood, but i wouldnt be too cheap for the hardware. I used poplar that was $0.50bdft, and spent maybe $50-60 on cheap vise hardware from lee valley. The front vise is OK, but really, i should have saved and spent a bit more for nicer hardware. Years ago, i picked up an Emmert's vise and removed the leg vise from my workbench. The emmert's is infinitely better than my original vise hardware. It was also 3-4x the price off the used market, but i would have been better off getting by with just holdfasts and dogs for a couple months versus installing the inferior vise hardware. If you do it right, this is something you will invest many hours in and live with for many years.

[Warren Lake]

Had an oak door on metal legs and record vice forever. Then got used benches from old European shops in the city as they had auctions. Guess some number of cabinetmakers in each shop wanted what they learned on.

[John LoDico]

Thanks Patrick. Good suggestions.

[Holmes Anderson]

Ash is generally very reasonably priced as well, due to the Ash bore some years back. Check with one of the local sawmills for better lumber pricing, sometimes they have a surplus of certain lumber they want to move.

Absolutely, ash is the wood to use right now. It is currently less expensive than pine here in New England. This is a great time to building a bench because ash is perfectly suitable and they are practically giving it away. My local supplier tells me that people are using ash for framing now because it is so inexpensive.

[Jim Becker]

You can probably buy North Eastern white pine there. I would use that , with Masonite ‘table protector’

Funny thing about white pine. There's a lot of it produced in the Northeast but it's still hard to buy, surprisingly expensive and for this application, pretty soft compared to material like SYP. I needed a bunch of board feet of clear white pine a couple years ago for a client project and had to order a larger quantity on a pallet just to get it. (And my supplier had to order an additional $3K of material at the same time because the pine had to come from a supplier they didn't normally deal with)

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I agree with the suggestion to consider ash...it completely slipped my mind and shouldn't have, given we lost... Every. Single. Ash. Tree. on our previous property to the borer. Like a couple dozen trees on that almost four acres of land that was half wooded. I milled some of it at least.

[Ron Citerone]

Jim, it seems 1X White Pine is all over the place here. Thicker stuff is not so easy to find. I agree it doesn't make sense with the fact that it grows here.

For thicker pine either white or SYP, John might go on craig's list for reclaimed pine. It shows up n there at times.

Groff and Groff lists it.

[Ron Citerone]

Absolutely, ash is the wood to use right now. It is currently less expensive than pine here in New England. This is a great time to building a bench because ash is perfectly suitable and they are practically giving it away. My local supplier tells me that people are using ash for framing now because it is so inexpensive.

Interesting Holmes. My take here in Southeast PA is while ash was cheap here a few years back it seems to be in the same price range as other domestic hardwoods lately. Ash would make a nice bench for sure!