Construction of workbench top

[Mark Roderick]

I'm not familar with the bob lang bench, or any of the attributes, but if you have decent hands now and the wood isn't twisted all over the place, I would probably still do it with hand tools if I felt like it.

A thickness planer is nice to have, even if it's the only power tool you ever have in the shop (so is a good bandsaw, but a capable thickness planer is cheaper).

I would buy an inexpensive smooth interior door (they are usually very flat) as a temporary top. They were the workbench of choice when I was building model airplanes as a kid. I'm sure they cost a lot more back then, but a hollow core door back then was about $25. You could probably find use for it after your build as a layout or assembly table if you got a decent quality solid core door, and it will probably be more rigid and flatter than two sheets of plywood.

I agree with David. Flattening a solid wood top by hand would be fun and instructive. I will add that although I've never owned a jointer and have instead always jointed boards by hand, a jointer will be my next big purchase - doing it by hand has just become too tedious for me. If you have a jointer and a lunchbox planer, you can mill your wood very quickly.

[Prashun Patel]

My current bench is 60", glued up 8/4 maple. I made it in 2 halves (12" each) and then put them together to make a 24" top. Even reaching across 24" is not comfortable; 90% of my work is on the front 6" of the bench, with the rest serving as support. 24" tends to be plenty large. For larger glueups, I use standoffs that are 36" anyway, so the bench size is not critical. I vote for 24", and a tool tray underneath the bench.

Flattening the top by hand is not that hard. It's a great experience, actually, and with enough patience, quite doable. In fact, you can fine tune the flatness over time even after installation; so you can really take yr time with it.

Jointing the edges for the glue-up, however, is another issue. I find it tricky to joint edges > 1" properly for glueup - especially over long stretches. For this, I prefer the powered option.

[Mike Holbrook]

I also think something around 24" sounds good. 24" is 4" wider than what I have been using. I want removable/flippable sections between the two top pieces. Bob's drawer/inserts sections were 7 1/2" total width. My current tool tray has 5 1/2" of usable space close to the same usable space as Bob's. I am thinking 4" will be enough inside space for me. I plan to make the drawers from hard wood, such that when I put them in upside down I have a solid surface. I imagine it will be a challenge to get the drawers dead level with the top, maybe a good job for the 26" Purple Heart Jointer/Tri plane I just finished making or a planer.

I don't want to go light on the top either so I am thinking I will rip the 8/4 stock into 4+" strips so I can have a 4" thick top to start. I am hoping not to loose too much top thickness leveling. My new bandsaw should be able to rip reasonably accurately. Trying to get all those 2"x4" boards actually close to 4" is where I think the planer might be nice to have. Might be nice to surface the boards on both sides using the planer prior to glue up? The glue sides certainly need to be parallel for the glue up to go well. 12 +8 + 5 1 /2 (insert width 4" + 1 1/2" for the boards) yields a 25.5 inch wide top which I think will work for me. This plan should work with the 6, 8 1/2"-10"x2"x8' boards I have. Will be nice to have the spare board, just in case.

[Erik Christensen]

I just built a 26" wide hard maple Benchrafted bench a few months ago. I flattened the bottom by hand and the top with a router sled just to see the difference between the 2 methods. The hand tools took 2 evenings; a couple of hours each session - about all my 61 yr old body could do with a #7 on hard maple. The router sled left a flat but slightly ridged surface that cleaned up in 20 minutes with a plane. A far a flatness goes, in ww bench terms, I don't think there was any difference between hand & power - plus I am NOT a very good hand tool guy so if I can get it flat anybody can.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

After using my bench (20" plus a hair wide, 5 ft long) for a year or so now, sometimes I wish is was longer - not too often, but that's mostly because of the scale I work - if I regularly made pieces the size of my tool cabinet, I could see wanting longer. Width, though, I've never felt like I wanted more. It seems like the few times I use more than 8 to 12 inches of depth, it's to support a more finished piece during assembly, not for really working on a piece. If I made it again, I might be tempted to make it a little narrower to save on wood, and add a tool tray to the back like the bench Roy made in his "French bench" episodes - giving me a support further out in width in the back if I needed it putting together and assembled larger piece. Next time I work on something larger (I've got a large cabinet door to replace) I'm thinking I might make some sort of frame that attaches to the the bench to help support assemblies a little wider than work well on the current bench.

One thing I'd like to build if I can make a little more room is some sort of rolling cart or folding table or rack or something I could set up closer to the bench than my tool cabinet - more often than not, my bench is less taken up with the project I'm working on and more the tools I've been using. I'm realizing that a chest on casters might have been more amenable to the way I work, but for storing the majority of my tools in one thing, the cabinet was easier to fit into the available space.

[Mike Holbrook]

I am lucky to have lots of space. I just cleared out the room next to my shop. This room, 15x19', will be my hand tool room. The other room will be closed off and hold all power tools, Festools, wood, parts...and hopefully contain the major part of the dust & noise.

The new bench will have around 10' of space, so I can walk all the way around it. The close wall has 8' x3' of Store-Wall (a super peg board). I am thinking about building a low assembly table from 2x4's & plywood, if I can fit it in. Something to do glue ups and cabinet construction on. I will be making a set of sawbenches too and I might make a top that can rest on these if I need even more assembly space. I have a nock down table for sawing sheet goods with the Festool plunge saw but it isn't sturdy enough for more than a sheet of plywood. It might be nice to have a table big enough & sturdy enough to hold cabinet carcasses and a second smaller one for drawers, doors...

I plan to make cabinets to hang on the walls so I can protect the nicer tools and all those small tools & parts. I'm not a great duster.

[Bob Black Atlanta]

If you are not in too much of a hurry maybe I can help. I have an Omya bench and an 8 ft bench I made that you can inspect for comparison. The 8' started out over 40 years ago as 2x4's bolted edgewise. It got rebuilt using the 2x4's as a base with 4/4 hard maple on top. I'm now changing cupbords to drawers. I'm in Sugar Hill. Suggest you come by and take a look.

I'd also be up for helping you rough mill your lumber. I've got a 16" Newman jointer and a 18" Powermatic planer. My dust system is out of commission due to a honey do about putting in a prep sink whose piping had to run through the soffit that housed the dust duct. The dust duct is on the floor at present.