Building a workbench with some maple I got. The maple is
in shorts. They fall between 3 and 5 inches across and
are planed to an even 3/4ths thickness. Length is variable as
well.
If I build a work bench top with this wood and use
plywood as a substrate, should I be concerned with
doing something on the underside? I know it's recommended
that if you veneer a top, it's wise to do both top and bottom, but
what about thicker wood?
Thanks,
MJ
I'm not sure exactly what construction method you are proposing. If
you are making like a butcher block arrangement with the shorts glued
face-to-face with the 3/4" standing up you "might" be OK. However, I
still think the expansion factor will destroy any overlayment with non-
expanding plywood. If you are doing edge-to-edge glue up of the shorts
then for sure the expansion will kill any attachment to a ply overlay.
Maybe I am not following.
On Mar 17, 10:27=A0am, "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Building a workbench with some maple I got. The maple is
> in shorts. They fall between 3 and 5 inches across and
> are planed to an even 3/4ths thickness. Length is variable as
> well.
>
> If I build a work bench top with this wood and use
> plywood as a substrate, should I be concerned with
> doing something on the underside? I know it's recommended
> that if you veneer a top, it's wise to do both top and bottom, but
> what about thicker wood?
>
> Thanks,
>
> MJ
On Mar 18, 1:31=A0am, [email protected] (Pinstripe Sniper) wrote:
> I've got a question. =A0Let's say for sake of discussion this glued
> together work bench top is ~3" thick. =A0 How about getting a really
> long drill bit and drilling say a 5/16" or 3/8" hole across the width
> of the bench top - perhaps at the middle of the thickness or maybe a
> bit lower/toward the bottom? =A0(Kind of like rebar in a concrete slab)
>
> Then you'd put threaded rod =A0though the holes and terminate the ends
> with washers and nuts and put the wood slightly in compression.
>
> Would this make for a stronger/stiffer top or would differential
> expansion/contraction cause problems? =A0How about if the entire bench
> top slab - all surfaces were saturated with say, urethane, including
> the threaded rod passages.
>
> Just wondering - I've had the notion of trying this but theory has not
> yet met reality.
A fiend did this for a table top. The ends split some but other than
that it worked. The threaded rod doesn't do anything after the glue
sets, though. It's sorta like an integrated bar clamp.
I don't think you need a cross link type rod but others do.
There are people who advocate this and even insist on it. I have glued
and clamped maybe 50 butcher block type tops, not the end grain
version but edge grain, so lots of maple sticks stood on edge and face-
to-face glued. I have made them from 1/2" to 4" thick using a variaty
of 4/4, - 8/8 thick boards in sizes ranging from 2' square to 5' x 7'
monsters. I never have run a rod across the pieces. I have never had a
call back, although lots of folks could never find me. In all that
time I only know of one time I had a top start to split along one
joint at the end and the boards I used were really too squirrely to
use but I had to get it done so I just clamped the shit out of them. I
ripped the top along the bad joint, reglued it. It came out perfect
but I held the piece for a while just to be sure and ended up using it
in my kitchen to this day with no prob.
On Mar 17, 11:31=A0pm, [email protected] (Pinstripe Sniper) wrote:
> I've got a question. =A0Let's say for sake of discussion this glued
> together work bench top is ~3" thick. =A0 How about getting a really
> long drill bit and drilling say a 5/16" or 3/8" hole across the width
> of the bench top - perhaps at the middle of the thickness or maybe a
> bit lower/toward the bottom? =A0(Kind of like rebar in a concrete slab)
>
> Then you'd put threaded rod =A0though the holes and terminate the ends
> with washers and nuts and put the wood slightly in compression.
>
> Would this make for a stronger/stiffer top or would differential
> expansion/contraction cause problems? =A0How about if the entire bench
> top slab - all surfaces were saturated with say, urethane, including
> the threaded rod passages.
>
> Just wondering - I've had the notion of trying this but theory has not
> yet met reality.
>
> PsS
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> A fictional account of how to drastically reform the financial world...
> More athttp://PinstripeSniper.blogspot.com=A0and if that gets banned, che=
ckwww.PinstripeSniper.com
A quick thanks to all who responded so far.
I wasn't thinking about standing the shorts on their side, but
that makes some sense. With the larger boards, I might get
two pieces out of them. Just want about a 6 ft bench top, so
that would work with the material I have.
My approach was towards a "bowling alley" approach. A friend
of mine had built several benches with maple alley material salvaged
from a defunct lane. I was going in that direction.
MJ
I've got a question. Let's say for sake of discussion this glued
together work bench top is ~3" thick. How about getting a really
long drill bit and drilling say a 5/16" or 3/8" hole across the width
of the bench top - perhaps at the middle of the thickness or maybe a
bit lower/toward the bottom? (Kind of like rebar in a concrete slab)
Then you'd put threaded rod though the holes and terminate the ends
with washers and nuts and put the wood slightly in compression.
Would this make for a stronger/stiffer top or would differential
expansion/contraction cause problems? How about if the entire bench
top slab - all surfaces were saturated with say, urethane, including
the threaded rod passages.
Just wondering - I've had the notion of trying this but theory has not
yet met reality.
PsS
--------------------------------------------------------------------
A fictional account of how to drastically reform the financial world...
More at http://PinstripeSniper.blogspot.com and if that gets banned, check
www.PinstripeSniper.com
[email protected] wrote:
> Building a workbench with some maple I got. The maple is
> in shorts. They fall between 3 and 5 inches across and
> are planed to an even 3/4ths thickness. Length is variable as
> well.
>
> If I build a work bench top with this wood and use
> plywood as a substrate, should I be concerned with
> doing something on the underside? I know it's recommended
> that if you veneer a top, it's wise to do both top and bottom, but
> what about thicker wood?
You've got 3/4" thick maple, varying lengths, widths from 3" to 5", right?
Why in the world do you want to put them on plywood??
Rip all to 2 1/2" wide (or whatever thickness you want the bench top) ang
glue them face to face. If some are too short for your benchtop, it doesn't
matter...just butt two or more pieces to get the needed length; be sure to
have the butts on one strake offset from any on adjacent ones though.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
On 03/17/2010 11:27 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> Building a workbench with some maple I got. The maple is
> in shorts. They fall between 3 and 5 inches across and
> are planed to an even 3/4ths thickness. Length is variable as
> well.
>
> If I build a work bench top with this wood and use
> plywood as a substrate, should I be concerned with
> doing something on the underside?
The normal way to laminate a workbench with your material would be to
rip the wood to equal widths, then face-glue it so that the top looks
like 3/4" wide strips.
Alternately, you could glue up 4 thicknesses of stock. This would let
you use the full width of the material and thus waste less. This
technique is discussed in the most recent FWW tools and shops issue.
Whatever you do, don't glue large surfaces of solid wood to plywood.
They move at different rates when humidity changes, and thus will warp.
Chris
On 03/18/2010 12:31 AM, Pinstripe Sniper wrote:
> I've got a question. Let's say for sake of discussion this glued
> together work bench top is ~3" thick. How about getting a really
> long drill bit and drilling say a 5/16" or 3/8" hole across the width
> of the bench top - perhaps at the middle of the thickness or maybe a
> bit lower/toward the bottom? (Kind of like rebar in a concrete slab)
>
> Then you'd put threaded rod though the holes and terminate the ends
> with washers and nuts and put the wood slightly in compression.
>
> Would this make for a stronger/stiffer top or would differential
> expansion/contraction cause problems?
The purpose of rebar in a concrete slab is to work around the fact that
concrete is very weak in tension.
If you build a trestle end and lay the slab of wood on top, running
threaded rod through the bench will buy you very little. The one place
where it makes sense is in a shoulder vice where you have a lot of
tensile force essentially pulling the benchtop apart and so the threaded
rod resists that force.
Chris
SonomaProducts.com wrote:
> I don't think you need a cross link type rod but others do.
>
> There are people who advocate this and even insist on it. I have glued
> and clamped maybe 50 butcher block type tops, not the end grain
> version but edge grain, so lots of maple sticks stood on edge and
> face-
> to-face glued. I have made them from 1/2" to 4" thick using a variaty
> of 4/4, - 8/8 thick boards in sizes ranging from 2' square to 5' x 7'
> monsters. I never have run a rod across the pieces. I have never had a
> call back, although lots of folks could never find me. In all that
> time I only know of one time I had a top start to split along one
> joint at the end and the boards I used were really too squirrely to
> use but I had to get it done so I just clamped the shit out of them. I
> ripped the top along the bad joint, reglued it. It came out perfect
> but I held the piece for a while just to be sure and ended up using it
> in my kitchen to this day with no prob.
plus, if you buried the end of the rod/nut under the last edge board, you'd
be unable to fix the top like you did if it did split. that's a good
argument against using allthread.