The time has come to replace the top of my main bench...it's beyond salvage physically and doesn't meet my current needs like it once did. The current top is a commercial maple piece that I bought at the same time I acquired my original Noden Adjust-A-Bench. It's warped, twisted, cracking and well...needs to go.
So this is the saga of building this new benchtop for my main/primary workbench:
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Given the current state of suppliers being completely closed, this project is utilizing material I have on-hand, including a hefty block of 8/4 purpleheart that was gifted to me many years ago by a neighbor, some cherry slab cutoffs from a recent table top build and a piece of wide 5/4 cherry I acquired something like 15 years ago. Two pieces of white oak also joined the party, cut out of an OLD slab-like-thing I was gifted by Robert Tarr when he was moving to Idaho and cleaned out his shop here. As with my dedicated guitar bench, this new main bench top will have both a 96mm grid of 20mm holes as well as regular provision for .75" holes to support my beloved Gramercy hold-fasts. The end result will be something like this and is approximately 1600mm x775mmx80mm:
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Since I'll cut the holes using my CNC, that software was the logical place to do the design...
The first components I worked on were the pieces of the 8/4 cherry cut-offs that would make up most of the heavy end of the bench where my vice will live.
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When using reclaimed material, sometimes some minor repairs are necessary....
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Ya know...milling up lumber tends to result in multiples of this...
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And continually makes this bigger. LOL If only we could easily glue it all back together to make more boards!
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The purpleheart was ripped on the bandsaw and then also milled to dimension. All of the components are 80mm tall and 45mm wide.
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