Thread: Best Australian hardwood for bench top

Personally I do not have a work bench, as currently I am using a fold up table. It is on my list to make one.

I suspect you will get some varied opinions on this one. As for me when I get around to making one I will use what ever I get my hands on at the time.

By the way welcome to the forum.

Depends how much $$$ching$$$ you want to spend. Really.

Also, for stability, you want to get mainly quartersawn boards if you can.

Sure, Jarrah would be nice, but the wallet says Tassie Oak.......

I'm currently working on a new bench top from recycled floor joists. I'm not sure what species but I think it is either red ironbark or brush box. In either case I'm beginning to think the timber is too heavy. It's all very well for the other hemisphere to talk about 4" thick hardwood benchtops in beech or oak or something, but ironbark is twice as dense and almost impossible IMO for one person to work up in similar sizes.

My original benchtop is 1" Vic ash and was quite hard enough.

There are too many to choose from Rambozo.
I would suggest you go with Christos' idea and use whatever you can get your hands on at the time.
I have just sourced some dry 160mm x 40mm Forrest Red Gum which I will use after I rip it to 75mm then laminate it to make the top. I have some 100mm square grey ironwood for the legs which should add to the weight to keep it from moving all over the shop.
Best of luck and welcome to the forum.
Ian

Some good points there - not a bad idea to go for good weight in the legs and something not quite so heavy for the top. Of course, you can laminate the legs up to get the required dimensions depending on style of bench.

I'd avoid high-silica timbers like Brushbox though, as they will knock hell out of your thicknesser blades. I speak from experience, unfortunately.....

As Fuzzie says, a top of maybe 60-70mm thick is more than adequate for mere mortals like me. This allows you to buy 150 x 50mm stock, and get two pieces out of a length (allowing for dressing).

So...a really high density timber for the legs (and grain orientation is less important here), then maybe Tas Oak for the top? Tas Oak is by definition just about all quartersawn, although I'd still go to your friendly local timber merchant to select your own stock for the top.

Queensland maple is dense but not too heafy and easy to work for the top, as is blackbutt or flooded gum if you want lighter colousr.
Legs? heavy, any Aust hardwood jarrah is good as is euro beech, maple, iron bark, brushbox, red gum blue gum.....
Contact Mal from Boutique Timbers, he can deliver to Sydney for you wantever you want in boards and has 4x4 qld maple as well as range of 50mm thick boards that will do the job.
Tel: 0416096827
Good luck
Greg

Rambozo

Anything you can get your hands on and fits the budget. The point of weight is so the bench does not move around on you, vibrate, bend or otherwise distort. That is while you are working on them. Even the lightweights don't move much when left alone .

Providing you don't have to move the bench around in your workshop, the weight is only an issue during the build and that is mostly resticted to the top. A top 2400mm x 700mm x 100mm (that's a big one) will be approaching 200kg in our favourite aussie dense hardwoods such as the ironbarks, forest red gums, grey gums and boxes. A little less for spotted gum and a lot less for Tasmanian Oak, which is a group of species.

Don't let the weight put you off. Invite your alcoholic mates around any time you need to flip the top and make sure there's a carton in the corner. At other times for small adjustments quite a lot can be achieved with the likes of pinch bars and similar levers.

If you plan to move the bench around, for say space reasons, you need to drastically rethink the whole approach.

Regards
Paul

Ironbark.

Good Morning Rambozo

I would also look at the hardness of the timber being considered as measured by the Janka number - do not mix metric janka with USA imperial janka - and remember that most plantation timber is considerably softer than forest grown timber of the same species. Perhaps Queensland maple may be too soft; Pacific maple (a totally different species also known as meranti) is almost certainly too soft.

Also think carefully about the colour of the timber - would you prefer a light coloured timber - is jarah too dark???

Fair Winds

Graeme

In the late 1970's I made my current workbench out of laminated beams for the top and tallowwood legs and rails with bolted butt joints. It has followed me around Queensland as I have moved and it will be passed down to my family when I kick-the-bucket. Fitted a Record 9 inch carpenters vice to it when I made it and it is still in great condition.