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ajkoontz Wrote:I am also on team tool well. It has drawbacks but I find it's usefulness outweighs the negatives. I went square dog holes but would do round if I had to do it over again. I keep thinking someday I will add a couple round dog holes to my bench to add the versatility of different clamping and hold-down options but 24 years later I haven't gotten around to it. My top is #2 beech glued up with no thought given to grain direction so I haven't mustered the courage to try to clean up the top by hand with a plane. It could really use a run thru a wide-belt sander, not so much because of flatness, but wear and tear on the top.
What do you think of beech for the top? Would you use it again?I'm seriously considered that for a future bench.
Tyler
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Well done on your new bench.
Steve
Mo.
I miss the days of using my dinghy with a girlfriend too. Zack Butler-4/18/24
The Revos apparently are designed to clamp railroad ties and pull together horrifically prepared joints
WaterlooMark 02/9/2020
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(10-26-2023, 11:36 AM)Philip1231 Wrote: Nice! A very stout looking bench.
^^^^ What he said about a stout bench
As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification. Thank You Everyone.
It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
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Very nice; you'll get a lot of use out of this.
The overhang is nice if you plan for a wagon vise or similar end vise, but I don't think there is as much value on the left side.
You may need to do a bit of flattening again to maintain your surface, so getting used to it now isn't all bad.
I ended up using a toothed plane due to the awkward grain I had in my doug fir; seems like your grain was more cooperative.
Matt
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(12-15-2023, 08:16 PM)OneStaple Wrote: What do you think of beech for the top?
LOVE my beech top. My dad used to work for a sawmill and it was really ugly culls that got pulled for whatever reason. So I got the wood for 'free'. The downside is it was 3/4" thick max, and it had a bunch of defects I had to cut out/ work around, and some of it was really twisty. I had access to a school shop at the time so I was able to mill out all the defects (more or less), plane the glued up top before the tool tray, and run the top with the tool tray thru a widebelt. It is very dimensionally stable, heavy, and beautiful. I'd use beech again, but I'd buy wide (thick) strips to laminate and make sure the grain was all going in the same direction.
