I'm getting ready to build a new workbench to replace my old MDF beast.
Where I live, hard maple and beech are about the same price (beech is slightly less). I gather from reading archives that most people recommend one of these two choices ... but given a roughly equal price, is there any advantage in one versus the other?
I've worked hard maple but have never used beech.
Thanks!
Nate Perkins asks:
Beech is what might be called a shifty wood. Fagus grandifolia is American beech, AKA red beech, white beech, winter beech. It needs great care in seasoning because of its high shrinkage rate. It is also not stable after it is seasoned. Still, it makes good flooring, butcher blocks, chairs, handles and other items. Given a choice between Acer saccharum and beech, I'd jump on the maple every time. It needs rapid drying to prevent stain, but seasons well and is a fairlys table wood after seasoning. It makes superb floors and is used in bowling alleys and pins because of its hardness and stability.
It's hard to find green around here (central VA), and is expensive otherwise, even in the straightgrained, plain wood you want for a workbench, but is a fine wood that takes a very, very smooth finish. Charlie Self "When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty." George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra (1901)
I'd change the 'f' to a t. Not worth the risk on beech. Sort of brittle, too.
I would, however, not shirk at using "soft" (A rubrum) maple either. Abundant and pretty cheap, because it has relatively large heartwood area, and isn't as attractive for furniture, which a bench shouldn't be.
Which side of the Atlantic ?
European maple is rare, expensive and of undistinguished quality, but our beech is good. US hard maple is the wood of choice for benchmaking, but all the US beech I've seen has been rubbish.
I have a maple benchtop, laminated with fillets. 2 1/2" thick. it's very solid on a trestle leg arrangment. I carve and like a somewhat "stickier" surface and find that keeping it sanded with 100-120 grit and oiled only rather than scraped, oiled and sealed (my original finish) works best.
May I butt in? I need advice too. I will use my gorrilla-rack work bench, with the top metal parts that hold the top assmbled upside-down so they can be "filled" with the wood, I really can't afford very much maple but my grandmother gave me her old maple breakfast table, should be about 7 or 8 BF of wood, need a full 10 BF @ 1" thick for the top only, using a cheaper wood underneath like maybe poplar, laminated on. Will this idea work? Or should I use another "under" wood?
(If I used all maple I would need a full 30 BF and that would be WAY too expensive! 24"x60"x3" thick)
I bought a stack of old woodwork related mags in a public library, and saw both your birdhouse books advertised in one of them, pretty neat!
Alex
In the US (Colorado). The hardwood lumber yard has hard maple for around $3.20/bf, and "steamed European beech" for about $3.00/bf.
Thanks to all you guys for your kind replies.
Nate Perkins Fort Collins, CO US
Sheesh here on the west coast it is over $6 a BF! Alex
"AArDvarK" wrote in news:l70Mc.15961$Zr.9443@okepread01:
Not everywhere on the west coast. And bear in mind that, for a workbench, color matching and figure may not be all that important to you. You certainly don't need to buy s4s at Home Depot...
Patriarch
"AArDvarK" wrote in news:p%%Lc.15960$Zr.5639@okepread01:
If that's what you're going to use for leg support, then consider using CDX plywood to build up the thickness, with the maple top. The differences won't be apparent in use.
You can build a perfectly servicable bench from construction grade lumber, using the right joinery. While maple is great, don't let the lack of a great bench stop you from working on the projects you really want to build.
If you want to build an heirloom bench later, when time, space and money allow, you'll be more experienced, and do a better job.
Patriarch
AArDvarK asks:
Poplar, either aspen or tulip variety, is fine as a secondary wood. I'm not sure what you mean by laminated here, but make sure you use freshly machined wood, good adhesive, and clamp well (sandbags work on wide surfaces, as do flue blocks and cement blocks and even bricks--set on rough boards to protect the good surface--if you don't have a vacuum press, which most of us don't).
Charlie Self "I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.' " Garrison Keillor
Have to wonder about that. I know our monster mill is steaming the local beech to make it look more appealing. Doesn't seem to have affected it's working qualities much.
European beech is a whole different thing, though. I guess the steaming is for appearance, but once dried EB is stable. American beech is unstable, wet, dry or steamed.
Companies like E. C. Emmerich would long ago have gone out of business if European red beech were unstable. All but one of the E. C. E. planes I have is made of beech, and their workbenchs are primarily beech, too.
Charlie Self "I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.' " Garrison Keillor
George responds:
You could be right. It strikes me that most of the Europeans on the wreck complain about the price of wood being so much higher than it is here, while also griping about most of the tools and their prices. What I've seen in their magazines tends to support the concept that wood in Europe is pricey, compared to here.
Charlie Self "I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.' " Garrison Keillor
"George" wrote in news:41010436 snipped-for-privacy@newspeer2.tds.net:
The price he quotes for both is roughly what I pay for FAS soft maple in the SF Bay area. Hard maple comes from the other coast, and so is much more money. Colorado IS a rail center, but that doesn't explain EuroBeech.
You're thinking this is a 'mahogany' thing?
Patriarch
Not a big leap from a properly described "European-style steamed beech" to a middleman or retailer's "European steamed beech."
My big kid says that the prices in Germany are much higher than Poland/Russia for hardwood.
Good advice, thank you. But what does CDX mean? The other concern about plywood, while I did consider it, is those holes to be drilled for hold-downs and bench dogs. I can imagine that pressure will be applied toward the sides of the holes at the lower ends, eventually that ply will begin to break down and chip? I can also imagine DF 2x4's will also develope cracks because of the wide grain structure. I heard that poplar is only a little harder than DF (much local) but has a much better grain, tighter, and lower cost.
Alex
Well, these guys are pretty reputable folks; I've bought some equipment and a lot of small quantities of lumber from them. I talked to them on the phone and they confirm it's actually steamed beech, imported from Germany. The 4/4 is $3.61 a bf, and the 8/4 is $3.44 a bf (yeah I thought that was odd but they say the price they charge depends on the deal and volume they get). They sell hard maple at $4.09 a bf, but another guy I know that trucks in once a month from Iowa and sells his hard maple for $3.50 a bf.
Guess I'll build the bench out of 8/4 beech. Now if I can just figure out how to keep from messing up the tail vise design :-P
For the last year or two I've been using a couple of pieces of 1" MDF on a 2x4 frame with a metal face vise and a bench hook. It's going to be really nice to have a real bench.
Thanks for the help, all.
Laminated, gorilla-glued maple top to poplar bottom, like you thought with the weight idea, great idea. And, what is the best glue for laminating?
Now getting that table top sawed properly....
Alex
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