Sensitized to formaldehyde/need workbench

I learned a new word this week. Not only am I allergic to formaldehyde, but I'm "sensitized" to it--which means it doesn't take that much to get a reaction from my immune system. I can't even tolerate a two year old unfinished piece of plywood or particle board in my garage (that I've previously stored it in a shed for two years). The recent heat and humidity probably played a factor, but that's not the point.

I just bought a house (with a garage) and I am now eager to build a workbench and build a few projects. I suspect I could probably build a workbench from some 2 by 4's or 4 by 4's. I'm not sure what to use for a top--maybe some "formaldehyde-free" plywood (I've never seen it in person, but I've heard it exists).

Whatever I put on top, I want to mound my medium size engineers bench vise on it for general usage--which means I want a bench that will hold things while I beat them with a hammer from time-to-time--ideally without the bench moving or other things flying off the bench. Maybe part of the trick there is to load up a bottom shelf, I'm not sure.

I have the book, "Build Your Own Custom Workbench" by Mark Corke, and on page 111, he builds a 7-foot "traditional workbench" using 2" thick maple boards for the top, and 7/8" thich poplar for everything else, but there are no lower shelves, drawers, or anything like that. I thought poplar was a "light" wood?--too light to support the hammering I mentioned above? I'm just thinking...

I would be grateful if anyone could provide me any advice or suggestions about what type of construction materials I might use for a workbench or any other comments that may be useful to me. I've waited a long time to have a workshop/garage as I moved from my parents house about 30 years ago and have been an apartment dweller until this month. It surely makes sense to invest some serious thought into my new workbench. At least I have more patience now than I did 30 years ago--I suspect my work will be the better for it! :)

Sorry for writing so much....

Thanks, Bill

Reply to
Bill
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Reply to
Lee Michaels

Sensitization sucks--one of the best painters at Enormous Aerospace where I used to work walked into the plant one day, picked up the same spray gun he had been using every day for 20 years, puffed up like a balloon, and had to be rushed to the hospital. He couldn't even come into the plant anymore after that.

A club I belong to has a rule on all club functions--NO STRAWBERRIES--one of the founder members walked into a party one time and keeled over--turned out that there were strawberries just sitting in a bowl and unbeknownst to him he had become sensitized--he didn't even touch them, they got him from across the room--and we'd rather have him than the strawberries.

What kind of projects do you want to do? If you're talking furniture crafting or cabinetry then you need a flat top somewhere for a reference surface--on the other hand a machinists vise sticking up will get in the way of that kind of use. If you're looking for a mechanic's bench throwing something together from 2x4 and 2x6s should work fine. If you want it to be immobile then fasten a 2x4 cleat to the studs on the wall and fasten one side of the benchtop to that--it's not going to go anywhere unless you manage to knock the building down.

Ideally if you're doing both mechanical and woodworking projects you want both anyway--no matter how careful you are you're going to get metal chips and oil and whatnot on the mechanicking bench and using it for woodworking will result in the chips scratching your finish and oil and grease getting onto the unfinished wood.

Reply to
J. Clarke

This is an excellent book:

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think it's appropriate for you because it covers a wide variety of approaches the topic of "workbench" ... from traditional european to Japanese to conteporary plywood designs... even a chaper on the ubiquitous "Workmate".

A great book book if you're not sure what type of bench to build. And by "bench", I mean, loosely defined, shop work surface.

That said, I have arguably 4 "workbenches" in my shop. Different shapes/designs and materials work better for differnt operations.

For instance my TS outfeed table is made from a sheet of melamine. It's totally inappropriate as a "pounding surface" but it makes a fantastic assembly table and finishing space because it is flat, I can get in three sides of it and neither glue nor finishes stick to it.

A single bench is just about never good at everything. It really depends on what you want to do with it.

Regards,

Steve

Reply to
StephenM

...

Hey Bill, I built my (large) workbench from 2x4s. After 18 years it is banged up, stained, gouged, etc. From time to time I use a belt sander on it to clean it up a little.

I know about formaldehyde. Once I worked in a new building and several of us got headaches every day from the outgassing of man-made materials (particleboard, carpeting, chairs, ceiling tiles, glues, etc.) You can "age" ply in the garage for 3-4 months, but I would not recommned it if allergic.

Reply to
Phisherman

Can't you get shots?

Reply to
HeyBub

There is urea formaldehyde free plywood available and it may be easier to find than you think.

Anything from Columbia Forest Products, one of Home Depots biggest suppliers (and their exclusive hardwood plywood supplier in some areas), is formaldehyde free plywood, so start at the BORG.

Here lately in our area, BORG hardwood plywood is often better than some A-1 ply you'll find at twice the price in a lumber yard or hardwood dealer, you just have to shop around and know the difference ... and it runs in shipment cycles so you need to stay on top of it.

... and I buy a good deal of plywood. :)

Reply to
Swingman

Thank you for all of the thoughtful suggestions. Since I grew up with one workbench, I hadn't considered having more than one, but that's makes more sense--one to "fix mechanical things or open a can of paint" on and one to pursue woodworking on. I am interested in developing skills in luthiery (e.g. setting up the bridge or sound post on a fiddle) and perhaps eventually building a whole instrument or three. I'll start small :) It hadn't really thought about how oil from one project could really muck-up woodwork in the other. I'm going to review all of the books and materials that were recommended. I'm always grateful for your thoughts and suggestions!

BTW, I noticed Woodcraft has 2" thick granite surface plate (tool shop "A" grade) and a honing guide on sale this month. I intend to try the "scary sharp" sharpening technique. I have a new plane and a new set of chisels that have never been used.

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let me know whether you can vouch for this sharpening solution. I'll keep thinking about workbenches! :)

Thanks, Bill

Reply to
Bill

Nope, I asked.

Reply to
Bill

carpenter's (yellow) glue or PVA (white) glue.

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

They might use urea formaldehyde glue. Better to make your own using carpenter's (yellow) glue or PVA (white) glue.

Luigi

Just what I did, got a bunch of SYP 2x10's, ripped them to 2.3 inches, jointed and planed, then glued 'um up. Larger pieces of SYP many times are almost clear, few small knots, none were loose. Yeah, not a "traditional" workbench, price is right and stout. I pined all the M&T joints in the legs, with 3/4 dowels, offset 1/64-1/32, pulled up tight.

Reply to
Rick Samuel

I am interested in developing skills

A related note:

The absolutely coolest special-purpose workbench I have seen was at a luthier.

It had adjustible posts with pads that to which you could strap an iregular (carved back) guitar. This allowed hin to secure the guitar for things like dressing frets.

The really cool feature was that the whole top could pivot along it's long axis so that rotate the guitar into playing position (to test it) without unsecuring it from the bench top.

-Steve

Reply to
C & S

That's an inspiring story. After you glued all of the pieces together, did you hand plane the surface or use a belt sander, or something else? I suspect you used quite a few clamps. Is using clamps on both sides enough to keep all of the pieces in place? This is practically a good enough reason for me to consider buying a jointer (which I assume is capable of doing the planing you mentioned above). Sorry for the novice questions.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

I made mine out of clear Douglas fir 2X6s, ripped in half, jointed & then planed. Glued it all together using pipe clamps. But it did not come out perfect, so I scrub planed one side, ripped the whole assembly in half on the table saw & ran it through my planer. Then I glued the two halves back together, then added 2"X2" birch to each side. Before that, I had previously cut 3/4" dadoes for dog holes in one of the two halves and on the birch.

Flattened it all with a #7 Stanley jointer and applied linseed oil.

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

If you want to eat a steer, you have to cut him up in little pieces first.

Same principle applies to building a bench top.

Say you want to build a 72" x 24" top using 2x8x10 ft stock.

1) Cross cut 8 pieces, 2x8x73 saving cutoffs for table leg structure. 2) Rip 73 long board approximately in half, turn one piece end for end and gluing together with TiteBond II with factory edge down.

You are limited by how many clamps you have as to how fast you complete this process.

Trick is to rip and glue as quickly as possible to minimize any possible twist.

Continue until you have eight (8) sub assemblies.

The next step is optional, the inclusion of 3/8-16x 22" long, all thread bolts in the top. (Not req'd IMHO, if you do a proper glue up.)

3) Glue up a pair of 2x4s to form a group of four (4) 2x4 sub assemblies.

Repeat process until you have four (4) sub assemblies.

4) Glue up a pair of remaining 2x4 assemblies to form a group of eight (8) 2x4s.

Repeat process until you have two (2) sub assemblies.

5) Glue up final pair of 2x4 assemblies to form the completed top. 6) Time to load top in vehicle and head to the commercial drum sander to level out top.

For less than $30 you will have a flat top.

Sure beats screwing around with a belt sander IMHO.

Finally trim top to 72" finished length and get started on the base.

Have fun.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

You've obviously never seen *me* eat.

Reply to
Joe AutoDrill

Bill, I'm with several others here. I built mine out of SYP. Very heavy and stable. After a couple of years, I planed the top, thinking the wood had probably moved and I would be reflattening it. Not so! I merely removed some shallow scratches, and when I saw I was taking uniform thin shavings, decided that I wouldn't take the chance of messing up a good thing going after a few errant chisel marks.

If you have a jointer and planer, it can make stock prep for the glue-up MUCH easier, but unless you have an aircraft carrier size jointer, you will not flatten the finished bench with that. Some have suggested taking it to a commercial shop to get the top finished on their wide belt sander. That would be a lot easier than doing the rough flattening with planes (as I did). But I don't see how that process could make it flat (if that is important to you). Maybe someone who has used that approach could address that. After the final flattening of my bench with my #8, it is nowhere convex, and concavity is on the order of 0.001" per foot. Specifically, anywhere on my top, I can only fit a 0.002" to 0.005" feeler gage under the center of a four foot straightedge.

Reply to
alexy

Typical drum sander has three, 48" wide, sanding drums, about 12"-15" diameter, each driven by a 20-25HP motor with coarse, medium and fine drums.

Operates much the same as a planer taking off the high spots about

1/64"-1/32" per pass.

You definitely end up with a flat surface.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

"Bill" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news7.newsguy.com:

*snip*

*snip*

I've got something very similar, and it's useless. Maybe the Woodcraft version would be better, but mine doesn't seem to lock down tight or match the contour on the chisel (that's probably part of the problem.)

You might get better results cutting an angled piece of wood (I hear Skil makes an angle finder ha ha), and applying a rare earth magnet to the top. Then add a couple small wheels.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

...

I understand your directions. I'll need a table saw and a jointer (I already had plans to buy a table saw, in any event). How many bar clamps should one use to properly glue the 73" boards, and what type might you recommend for someone who doesn't have any? Having been an apartment dweller, most of the tools I have now fit in a couple of tool boxes. This is beginning to sound like a great first project, or second, project! I think I'll eek out a birdfeeder first to get a feel for these tools... Thanks for all of your help! While I'm collecting tools, and determining out how much money I'll need, I'll be reading up on workbenches. I've requested Scott Landis' Workbench Book from the library. I suppose much of the "secret" is to read the right books. I've been focusing on luthiery for a couple of months, I no doubt need to consult some "practical" ones.

Thanks, Bill

Reply to
Bill

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