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Joinery Workbench Wood Selection

10 comments
13 years ago
Joinery Workbench

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the potential of using a slab of African Mahogany for my joinery bench top.  This turned out to be a lightening rod topic that spawned a great deal of email about my poor upbringing, IQ, and what I might be smoking.  It was really quite fascinating to see such strong opinions about benches.

Douglas Fir Workbench Lumber

4x6 Appearance Grade Douglas Fir and my Mahogany Vise chop

Independent of these external pressures, I have decided not to use Mahogany for the top.  It had very little to do with these comments but more with the fact that I would prefer a softer wood for my top so my project doesn’t get dented while working on the bench.  But more importantly, the darker color of Mahogany (especially after a few coats of oil) is not a pleasing work surface.  It is subtle, but small pieces seem to disappear against the dark background.  Considering my favorite woods to work are Cherry, Walnut, and Mahogany, it would be especially bad to have a dark wood top on the bench.

So I made my decision to go with Douglas Fir.  I can get it in very clear large sizes and the hardness is less than my preferred woods.  The weight is light enough that as a knockdown bench it will be portable, but heavy enough that once assembled I will have an immobile object.  Finally, Douglas Fir’s very high stiffness ratings make for a very stable platform to work on .  I had my eye on some 4×8 material to make my top with only one glue line, but it was not meant to be.  Instead I grabbed one 16 foot 4×6 piece that will suffice to make my 3 piece top, 4 legs, feet, and trestle.  I am going to integrate the African Mahogany into the design and use that as my full front vise chop and a nice splash of color.  Plus the added hardness of the vise chop will make for a better clamping action but the leather lining will prevent scarring while increasing holding power.

So in the long run the workbench police can stand down…unless using Mahogany for a vise chop is overly offensive.  Don’t worry I’m sure some of my other ideas about this bench will set off someone somewhere.

Now I’m just looking forward to getting started working with this beautiful Douglas Fir.

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Rob Bois

So can I have the mahogany then?

    Shannon

    No Rob, but only because you didn’t say please. Actually I have a plan for it now. I have enough that I can make a small chest with solid panel sides. I’m going to resaw it at the yard since my bandsaw doesn’t have 18″ capacity and would croak if I tried it anyway.

Julien Lecomte

Hi Shannon,

Is the Douglas Fir kiln dried? In my area (northern California), I am not able to find kiln dried Douglas Fir in anything larger than 2×4 (I checked multiple hardwood retailers, lumber yards, etc., not just home centers…) My attempt to air dry 4×4 Douglas Fir resulted in a large number of checks appearing within a week…

Thanks!
Julien

    Shannon

    Yes it is kiln dried. In this thickness that means 2″ deep with the center hovering around 12%. We stock a lot of it that is either KD or radio frequency (RF) dried stuff. It is quite stable.

Mike Lingenfelter

Over 3 years ago I built my first real bench, and I used Douglas Fir. I just picked my lumber up at the home center. I had to pick through a lot of lumber to find nice pieces, but it was worth it. The bench has held up very nicely over the years. The top does dent, but that has never caused a problem. The top has also stayed pretty flat, through the seasons. It’s only needed minor tuneups.

Here’s a blog I did on Lumber Jocks, when I built the bench.

http://lumberjocks.com/Koonan/blog/5451

Mike

    Shannon

    I remember that post Mike. Glad to hear it is holding up so well. I figure that all the timber frame homes I see have done very well under much more adversity so this little bench will be easy.

Rob Marshall

Hi Shannon,

Just out of curiosity…What’s the advantage of a joinery workbench over a bench-on-bench? I would think that a bench-on-bench would give you the same advantage from a height perspective (I’m also 6’4″), and wouldn’t take as much time/wood to build. But I’m sure that there must be other advantages to having a separate joinery workbench. I just can’t think of any 🙂

Plus, as a I-haven’t-really-begun-yet beginner :-), I have no clue where I’d get 4×6 douglas fir in Maine…I’m assume there would be some place…and the idea intrigues me as I’m sitting here thinking about building my workbench… 🙂

Thanks,

Rob

    Shannon

    For me Rob it is having a dedicated place in the corner of my shop where I can stand tall and cut joinery. The advantage is purely creature comfort like having 2 jack planes, one with a cambered iron and one with a straight iron. The bench on bench scenario works just as well but requires set up time and a place to put it near your bench. Additionally for me, I want something that I can move around and possibly take out into the sunshine on a nice day when I cutting case dovetails or tenons. Finally, I need a smaller, knockdown bench to take to WIA.

    The real proof will be in workflow after several months working on this as well as my Roubo main bench. It could be a complete failure and I’ll be the first to admit to it here, but after significant thought about it and how I work in my own space, I believe it will be a winner.

    I would reach out to the Timber Frame companies up in Maine and ask them where they source their lumber. Probably most of them buy it from my employer or ones like it. You may be able to buy some from them or make a deal to get their cast offs. Worse comes to worst, I hope to be able to offer bench packs for shipment sometime in the next 6 months through my employer.

Morton

Shannon- great idea on checking with timber framers. I’ve wanted to build a bench for…. well you know how that goes. Fir sounds pretty good. I may poke around my area.