Posts: 1,279
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Joined: Sep 2012
Location: Mobile, Alabama
No functional reason. Perfectly functional work tables/benches are made of lessor wood, including construction lumber. Use what ever you have or want.
Posts: 30,353
Threads: 3
Joined: Sep 2003
Location: Saginaw, MI
This base is for a table saw/router table mobile station. The full project will be a major test for this beginner flat stock worker.
Jim
There is a good chance
Broccoli doesn’t like you either.
Posts: 9,460
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Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Orlando FL
I built a mobile base using ply. It’s been working for 15 years or so.
Posts: 12,461
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Joined: Aug 2003
Location: Wapakoneta, OH
I sometimes think that the reason magazines are so specific when they publish plans is that they have some readers who expect it. If they had said "use any good solid stock you have on hand" they would (maybe) be besieged with complaints that the article wasn't specific enough. Similarly, the question of the cut list drawings come up...apparently some folks think they need to go buy the boards with the exact dimensions shown in the cut list to build the piece (!). That's a true story...Wood magazine asked on their forum (now dead) how many folks expected to buy the exact board dimensions shown.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
Posts: 13,389
Threads: 4
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: New Jersey
I've never built anything from a plan that I've not modified, but the choice of wood is not relevant to the drawings. Lots of guys use soft maple as a secondary wood because its cheap and takes paint well, poplar is another hardwood choice, pine is fine. The author likely used what he had laying around. Any wood would do, just make sure its not balsa wood!! :-)
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
Posts: 5,651
Threads: 0
Joined: May 2005
Location: Centre County Pennsylvania
I just look at plans for the techniques they use to build with. I have never built to a plan. Nowadays, it's maple, ply, oak or walnut for me, because that's what I have in my stash. A high quality baltic birch plywood is a suitable sub for maple in a shop stand. But getting high quality ply for most of us is not that easy.
I agree that a lot of readers are looking for exact directions and will get stumped if they have to improvise. I know someone that built exactly to plans. Then again, I have all of his tools because he got frustrated and sold them to me. I don't know if my way is better, but I do know that nobody has exactly the same thing as I made. And that is important to me.