Idea for Workbench Top

[Richard Krause]

I have been lurking on the Sawmill Creek forum for quite a while and have been impressed with the level of expertise displayed by it's members. I really am in awe. Hopefully someone can provide some insight on an idea I have for a bench top.
I have two 5 foot X 30 inch X 1 3/4 inch laminated maple tops out of an electronics shop and was thinking about stacking them to make a 3 1/2 inch thick top for a Roubo style bench. Although the tops are in need of refinishing, the bottoms are pretty pristine. With this in mind I am considering stacking them " bottom to bottom". Has anyone had any experience doing this? What would be the best way to join the slabs (glue, screws etc.)? Are there special considerations to minimize warpage or movement? Any suggestions or advice would be most welcome. Thanks.

Richard

[Jerome Hanby]

I've seen several instances on the web of doing this with IKEA solid wood countertops. Reportedly, it works well...

[Dan Karachio]

That's so funny, before I scrolled down I was thinking, "I remember a site with some guy doing this with an Ikea product." Great minds, Jerome, great minds.

Here you go Richard. http://workbenchdesign.yuku.com/forum/viewtopic/id/401
Seems very similar to what you are doing. He used screws and glue. My first thought about that was worrying about the screws as you drill out bench dog holes, mount vises... I am no expert, but perhaps the screw idea can be used, but temporarily as a clamp? Take them out when the glue dries. I'm also wondering if there is a best choice in type of glue here and/or any surface prep between the two slabs that would help? One last thought, joining flat side to flat side seems to make sense. Others here might have ideas on how you might want to flatten/prep the other sides before/after you join the slabs?

Sorry, I seemed to raise more questions and than answers. Gee, perhaps I am picking up too much from my bosses at work! :-)

[Jerome Hanby]

I think lots of clamps and cauls would remove the need for screws. Seems like I saw someone talking about a slow setting Titebond to do this glue up.

[Prashun Patel]

I'd glue the slabs.

If the slabs are dead flat, the wt of the top slab should be enough to get a good bond.

If the tops are not flat, then u'll need clamps and caulks.

Try to glue them in a way that disorients the grain or natural cupping/warming of each piece. That's how plywood works.

[Eric Roberge]

Dan,
I think that the screws in this guy's design would be ok. His first post stated that he only screwed the center line and clamped the edge. It certainly wouldn't hurt the installation of a vise on the edge, but you would need to take care on the dog holes if you were drilling up that center line.
Pretty cool design though. They just opened an Ikea showroom near me and OMG you would have thought they were giving the furniture away.:eek: The local news said that thousands of people were fighting to get in and police had to direct traffic for days and days after the grand opening.

Uh....people... its just furniture. Not all that great of furniture from what I understand. I've never checked it out though.

[Zahid Naqvi]

considering the amount of surface area you have there are no screws needed. In fact I'd shy away from any permanent metallic fasteners (nails, screws etc) due to future planning/flattening needs. Cauls and clamps is all you need. I glued a veneer face on two sides of a headboard, about 20"X50". I don't have a vac bag so I used two sheets of MDF one on each side to create the sandwich, and clamped the sheets across with cauls. You will be surprised how well the cauls work even when they don't have a perfect curve to them.

Also as you mentioned this is coming from an electronics shop make sure there is no finish on the glue surface.

[michael osadchuk]

.....if you use screws to clamp the two slabs together while gluing, you can remove the screws afterward........ dry fit the two slabs together and predrill for the screws to both register or fit the two slabs to each other and to speed up the "screw clamping" operation.....

good luck

michael

[george wilson]

Make sure the finish is sanded off the glue surfaces. Are there wood defects on the side that will be your top? Frequently defects are found on the bottoms of these tops. I'd think that just clamping around the edges would be fine,just in case the 2 layers try to bend apart from the 1 surface being wet. This wetting would clamp the center area. Do you have a way to get the glue on quick? Maybe a wide,cheap paintbrush,or a roller.

[Marc Casebolt]

I think I would use epoxy. Get the 60 minute type which will give you about 40 min open time easy. If the bonding surfaces are nice and flat already, and the finish is in good condition you could probably just rough it up with some 60 grit or so sand paper and go for it. The idea of using screws, then removing them after glue up is a good one. Just be sure to wax your screws first, so they can be removed.

Marc

[Tony Zaffuto]

Glue and no screws, more for the future when you decide to add a dog hole here or there, mount a vise or cut a should vise into the end. Remember those screws that you thought were needed, just to be sure you closed things up? It's guaranteed you will hit everyone of them at a later time! (DAHIKT-don't ask how I know this!).

T.Z.

[Richard Krause]

Thanks for all the suggestions. If I go this route I will try to document with photos.

RAK

[Pam Niedermayer]

Might be interesting to try using wooden nuts and bolts. That way the surface would still be planable.

Pam

[Tom Adger]

If you are concerned about glue open time, as I was several months ago when building up my workbench top, go to the Lee Valley website and look up 2002 GF glue. Very similar to Titebond, but has an 18 minute working time as opposed to the 8 minutes with Titebond. I have had no problems with the results.

[Andrew Thuswaldner]

If you pre-drilled the dog holes and you have enough of them you could use threaded rods with nuts and washers to pull the pieces together. I haven't tried this but I think it may work. The down side may be the hardware cost but at least it is re-usable hardware.
Andrew

[Rob Luter]

I have been lurking on the Sawmill Creek forum for quite a while and have been impressed with the level of expertise displayed by it's members. I really am in awe. Hopefully someone can provide some insight on an idea I have for a bench top.
I have two 5 foot X 30 inch X 1 3/4 inch laminated maple tops out of an electronics shop and was thinking about stacking them to make a 3 1/2 inch thick top for a Roubo style bench. Although the tops are in need of refinishing, the bottoms are pretty pristine. With this in mind I am considering stacking them " bottom to bottom". Has anyone had any experience doing this? What would be the best way to join the slabs (glue, screws etc.)? Are there special considerations to minimize warpage or movement? Any suggestions or advice would be most welcome. Thanks.

Richard

I did this exact thing. The two slabs were laminated with Titebond glue and clamped together with cauls I made from 2 x 6 SYP to make sure I got plenty of clamping force. When complete I put a maple skirt around the edge. It's solid as a rock. See below:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=89363

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=89361

[Griph0n Brown]

Buy an ikea counterop for less than the price of the birch. Such a great idea I bought a few. I even got free shipping with a friends pickup (the nearest ikea is 2000 km away).

After a month sitting inside they all warped like crazy. After building the base and ignoring the problem I clamped them down and with a very little pressure it flattened out. Eureka. So after cutting a fir plywood layer to add some thickness I lag bolted some pine 4x4's to it and it seemed to flatten significantly. I oversized the holes in the pine and fir to allow for wood movement. The skirts are maple.
All seems to be going well after a few months. I used the pine because it was local wood and I bought a lift of it ten years ago and this was the last of it. After building the base out of it and having to straighten a bunch of hockey sticks down to 3x3 the top seemed to just be more of the same. needs more closely spaced dog holes. The twin screw is great, but I can't really recommend the lee valley quick release vise. It was a nightmare to install. Works ok though.

The birch is soft and the glue is bad. I popped off some of the outer laminations when planing some of the smaller top pieces. Ah well I got a LOT of practice with a new old number 8 joining plane my father had just sent me.

I can't really recommend this route, but I really enjoyed it. I don't think I would have done it if I had read the posts here beforehand Here's some pics, hope it's not too many.