Want to build a workbench but limited wood selection?

[Curt Harms]

One thought I had while reading this thread. Steve is in Arizona, afaik Arizona isn't exactly humid. I'd think BORG softwood, even if it's around 20% moisture from the store would dry to ambient pretty fast, maybe too fast? Something like a Doug Fir base and either hardwood or MDF/Plywood could make a pretty substantial if non-traditional bench.

[Jake Elkins]

Yeah, Lowes and HD should be able to ship anything your want that they typically carry. I built my first bench, A Roubo beast from solid walnut. Its a great bench, but I made some mistakes. Once I get that first real job, my next bench will be a 12-foot Roubo from either SYP or cheap sawmill oak. I wish I used pine on the first one, and had the walnut back to make furniture.

[Brian Holcombe]

Don't use anything especially expensive or rare. Do build something traditional and take the time to build it correctly.

If you can spare 8' of room in your shop, build an 8' long bench. The only feature of my bench that would truly lead to its demise is the fact that it is 6' long. Drives me crazy whenever I have to work on a project larger than cabinet sized work.

Don't make it very wide, 20-22" is ideal. I made the mistake of making mine large enough that it can double as an assembly table (don't have room for both). Use a couple of leveled saw horses for assembly if need be but don't make your workbench do double duty.

The traditional benches are organized in a way that they work very very well for use with hand tools, you'd be wise to consider them since they evolved over many years and woodworkers.

Make sure that you orient the grain the same direction on the laminated top so that you can plane it flat every 6 months or year, that is the big aggravation of butcher block tops. (bowling alley strips).

I deviated from this on my work bench, but after using it for a number of years I would do all of the above. In fact if my planing beam were 8' long I would probably sell the work bench and just use the beam. Skip the many many gimmicky features available all over the place online, keep it simple.

[Greg Hines, MD]

If this is your first bench, you might want to consider the 24 hour workbench. It has a laminated top of 3/4" plywood, and mine has lasted for about 13 years so far, and I have yet to do anything to it that has even put a dent in it. Legs are PT 4x4s, stretchers are SYP 2x6s, and everything is available from any big box store or lumber yard.

Doc

[Chris Hachet]

If this is your first bench, you might want to consider the 24 hour workbench. It has a laminated top of 3/4" plywood, and mine has lasted for about 13 years so far, and I have yet to do anything to it that has even put a dent in it. Legs are PT 4x4s, stretchers are SYP 2x6s, and everything is available from any big box store or lumber yard.

Doc

Plans for this bench are available from popular woodworking-very similar to a bench I built and still use several times a week in my shop.