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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    Default Timber for work bench

    Hello folks.

    have been reading Chris Schwarz' workbench book. He suggests Southern Yellow Pine as his favourite timber for making benches for a number of reasons. I'm in Sydney and don't think I can get Southern Yellow Pine.
    What are forum users thoughts on timbers for workbenches?

    He uses drawboring extensively, using split white oak pegs. What would be a local equivalent to white oak?

    I would like to use Australian or at least Australian grown timber for my work, recycled stuff if possible. Any ideas?

    Also, do we have a readily accessible list of Australian timbers and their properties eg hardness, stiffness, specific gravity etc?

    Cheerio,
    Virg.

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  3. #2
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    Mar 2004
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    Brisbane (western suburbs)
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    Default

    Virgil - an equivalent to Sthn Yellow pine would be P. radiata - they are in the same group.

    Not sure why Schwartz prefers that sort of material, probably price & availability, but we are spoilt for choice when it comes to bench material in Oz! There have been any number of threads on this topic in other sections of the forum, and a huge number of suggestions have been offered. The main considerations are strength, rigidity and workability. Any of our hardwoods
    adequately fit the first two criteria, but some fall down a bit on the thrird...

    My choice is good old 'recycled', and preferably, ex-skip. This is usually excellent stuff - dried & stabilised (just find all the nails before your tools do!). If you prefer new, Tas oak in any of its guises is an excellent choice. Frank Weisner, who is an old-world trained cabinet-maker of vast experience highly recommends it. It has the advantage of being a lot easier to work with than the harder hardwoods.

    Here is a bench made from skip material - mostly Spotted Gum, and a bit of Tallow-wood. The same skip dive yielded enough material for three similar benches. Subtract the cost of having my planer knives re-ground because I missed a nail () and it was still a bargain, I think....

    Cheers,
    IW

  4. #3
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    Jan 2009
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    Default

    Many thanks Ian. I'll do a trawl of the forum and see what I can find.

    Cheerio,
    Virg.

  5. #4
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    Mar 2009
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    Default

    Hey,
    You might want to check this thread out. It's a discussion on different timbers for workbenches.

    https://www.woodworkforums.com/f213/b...timber-127575/

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