Thread: bench top from bunnings pine noggins....

The grooves you refer to is called "rough header".
The purpose is to make it easier to stack / transport the timber and is safer to walk / climb on by the trades when working and assembling on site. Primarily for frame use.

Would recommend dressing any faces or edges that you intend gluing together so that optimum face to face contact is made.
If you use rough header only you will use substantially more glue to fill the voids and will not get optimum strength with no guarantee that it will stay glued.

What sort of bench are talking about here? is it a bench for the workshop or benchtop for the kitchen? if its for kitchen benchtop then pine is too soft and will show every dent etc along with in a short period of time moisture/water ingress and staining.

build,
thanks for the name. I was hoping you wouldn't say that. I would be endeavouring to get the lengths molding into each other and getting as much contact as possible.

Rod,
it would be a workbench for the garage. I would be utilising it for mostly handwork.


One thing I was contemplating doing to ensure no delamination(and also to help clamping) was to include threaded rod through them all to pull together and hold together. I was thinking 3 rods in a 2m long bench. 300m in from each end and in the middle.

One of the reasons I am keen on the MGP noggins is that it is cheap, readily available, easy to work, and not tooooo heavy.

greg

I used the cheap MGP studs as the frame on my workbench but with red (green?) tongue flooring as the top.
It's stood up pretty well so far and the top is fairly resistant to marking.

It does fail the 'not too heavy' standard though. Once it was bolted together, that's where it has stayed.

Hello,

I was reading a thread a couple of days ago by a chap called Clinto1 who wrote that when using epoxy glues it was best to have some slight gaps between the timbers - he called it "dishing".

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f213/b...-build-116872/

So am wondering if there are different treatments of the faces for different types of glue ?

I know nothing about glues am simply raising the question and hoping for some enlightenment - might also help the original poster in this thread.

Bill

He's dishing the boards (creating an ever so small gap in the join at the centre) so that when this is glued up and clamped shut, it puts the boards under a little bit of compression at the ends, so there's less chance of the ends opening up over time.

With epoxy, it's structural, and you don't need to clamp too hard - often just using masking tape as a joint-long 'hinge' (stops it from dripping onto the floor, too) is all the pressure needed - it's to hold it while the epoxy sets, not crush the surfaces together!

With PVA you want as little glue as possible, as PVA itself has bugger-all strength - clamped firmly, but not firmly enough to squeeze all the glue out and starve the joint.


And thumbs up for yellow tongue as a bench surface - cheap, hard, nicely water resistant AND it gives you a length of fish tape to help you pull T&E at your next electrical wiring job!

If you're trying to use the grooves in rougher header as a glue joint, you may find that they don't interlock as well as you expect and aren't exact in their location - its a rough finish so don't expect consistency!

Thanks splinter,

Any good sites or books you know of where people can find out a bit more about when to use different types of glues ie when to use epoxy rather than PVA ? I've browsed most of the books at local libraries and heaps of info about cutting up timber in different ways with different tools but far less detail on glue types and appropriate use.

Ive read other threads where people discuss glues that are safe to use in wooden cutting boards - so "food safe" could sometimes be a factor.

Apart from technical considerations I think there would also be $ factors ie why pay $10 when the $5 glue can do the job adequately.

Bill

I'm in the process of making a bench for the lathe and had some <blue/red/yellow> tongue board set aside for the job.

Perhaps laminating some MGP together as the OP suggests would be better and give a more solid bench. I'll watch this thread to see how it goes.
smiley-face-popcorn.gif

If you're using softer material (pine etc) on the top, it might be worth considering a sacrificial top of thin ply or even oil tempered burnie board. It can be lightly glued with something like contact adhesive and stripped off if and when it gets too worn.