Thread: Help Advice for new workbench

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're trying to do with the peices you have. Perhaps a diagram might better convey your ideas.

If you don't have it already, Google Sketchup is great for this sort of stuff.

Yeah. I'm not totally following.
What dimensions for the bench are you talking about.
?2m (long) by 460mm (wide).

Blackwood seems a little flash for a workbench...

A "normal" bench when standing in front of it would have pieces of timber going horizontally. I.e Left to right perhaps 6ft long boards as an example. I have come across some free blackwood in pieces that are 460mm long so I am after suggestions about the best way to glue them up side grain to side grain so that the bench has pieces of timber running vertically (when standing in front of it-forward and back) compared to the horizontal description at the begining.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII pieces like this as the timber is not long enough to use like this ____
unless glueing end grain to end grain was going to be strong enough?
Will post a mock sketch of what I'm talking about

Don't know if this is worth considering, I was in Bunnings yesterday and seen a benchtop made up of short lengths, going horizontal, but staggered in the glue up, like a brick wall.

Bit like this.
-_-_-_
-_-_-_-

Hope that makes sense. It looked quite good, their pieces weren't any longer than 30cm in length.

Just a thought.

-Gavin

I gather you are thinking of gluing on the 52 mm sides, ie top being 52mm thick. That would give you a bench about 1.7m long

Your top will need 2 good runners from each leg set to support it also.
Once glued you will then need to spend a bit of time enjoying the world of planing the top surface smooth and flat. Also the seat for the top on your frame has to be smooth else you will get weird pressure points back into the top.

Other comments may depend on your bench frame as well.

Now that I understand what you mean I think this is a bad idea. You really want the grain in the same direction as the greatest dimension of the bench top for the sake of strength. Seasonal movement will also proove problematic. Your best bet will be to stagger the peices like laying bricks, with a couple of full length peices throughout and at the front and rear edges. Using your recycled blackwood material for bulk is fine.

460mm deep is very narrow and IMO not nearly deep enough. Supplementing this with full length peices to get you a depth of 600mm will proove much more useable. I have a router table which is 490mm deep and it just isn't big enough for anything but very small work like boxes and such.

any progress?

460mm wide isn't bad. But I think closer to 600mm is more popular for a reason.

I think the best option will be to laminate them length with overlap (like previously mentioned.)

Thanks for the advice guys I am sold on the staggered glue up idea. I will probably buy 2 or 3 pieces of full length hardwood that will assist keeping it all together. I am going to be starting in the next couple of weeks. I spend the majority of my time doing restoration and I have a wardrobe, dining table, telephone chair (including upholstery attempt) and a partners desk that has to be sold before I can move on to this. I am currently working on a shonky (yet rather large) 2m long, 1m deep bowed top desk. As the top has bowed I have pieces of scrap straight timber laid on edge across the top to compensate for the slight bow which is useable until I can begin the work on the real bench.
Will keep you posted
Cheers

If you're going to use a different hardwood for the long lenghts, purchase it now and let it season in your shed for as long as possible before glue-up. You'll be very surprised at the amount of movement you'll get in Melbourne weather over the space of a year. Get your other projects out of the way and start on the new bench as late as possible.