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CT,
I share your frustration. I'm planning a bench, and trying to decide what to use for the base. I'm in Alaska, so nothing is cheap. I too am leaning toward the yellow popular @ 2.97/bf for 8/4. I can get the black cottonwood/balsam popular for 2.10/bf for 8/4 but would need to wait for it to complete a cycle in the kiln. My other option is Birch at 3.63/bf for 8/4. Hard maple is 7.67/bf for 8/4. Needless to say I'm using birch for the top!
Jonathan
I only regret the tools I didn't buy!
“Think about it: Everything with a power cord eventually winds up in the trash.” John Sarge
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I don't know anything about birch, but that seems like a pretty good price for 8/4. If you're making the top out of it, I surmise that it must be the next best alternative to maple?
I'm figuring about 40bdft for my base. If you used birch for your base, 40 bdft of it would set you back only about $30 more than the yellow poplar. For that fairly small difference, personally, I would use the birch for the base also, if nothing else for the aesthetic effect of having it all match. Just my $.02.
Turning impaired.
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Crooked Tail said:
I don't know anything about birch, but that seems like a pretty good price for 8/4. If you're making the top out of it, I surmise that it must be the next best alternative to maple?
CT,
I don't think its the next best alternative to maple, but it is what I can afford!! The woodworking budget is just never big enough
Jonathan
I only regret the tools I didn't buy!
“Think about it: Everything with a power cord eventually winds up in the trash.” John Sarge
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All right, I've finally got started on my new base. It's going to be out of 8/4 poplar. This particular board actually looks pretty nice, I think. The entire surface facing up is not green like most poplar.
Does this image look familiar? What's wrong with this picture?!
Walk in the park compared to hard maple.
I didn't even break a sweat.
Only problem is that the frame saw is my only justification for that big bowl of double chocolate brownie fudge ice cream I ate when I got home from work... and that sawing was just too easy.
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Crooked Tail said:
Walk in the park compared to hard maple. I didn't even break a sweat.
Only problem is that the frame saw is my only justification for that big bowl of double chocolate brownie fudge ice cream I ate when I got home from work... and that sawing was just too easy.
HMMNNN.... well CT, if you ever start supplying PH workbench kits, you could probably charge extra if you say all the 8/4 stock was ripped by hand...
Congrats!!!!!
Skip
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Crooked Tail said:
What's wrong with this picture?!
Ummm, you are still using the old bench?
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Now, ripping PH by hand, that would be a feat. I've ripped short pieces ~ 24", and even that was a work out.
That I'm still using my old bench is one thing. I want to keep my new bench "pretty" until I get the cabinets finished. You can see I have been planing on it, though. I like it a lot for that, with the tailvise. I'll like it even more with a better base, though!
There's one other thing, of course in this forum it probably doesn't seem wrong at all...
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Well, you got me, I don't know. The only suggestion I have right now is that your new bench deserves a pair of Grammercy hold fasts, rather than those clamps hanging on it. Why clamp when you can whack?
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Crooked Tail said:
There's one other thing, of course in this forum it probably doesn't seem wrong at all...
Hmmnn... well if it's related to this forum, then maybe it's because you ripped it by hand when there's a perfectly good BS in the background of the photo???
Skip
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FordPrefect said:
Why clamp when you can whack?
I just might put that in my sig, LOL.
Skip, you got it! I did finally acquire a (cheap) bandsaw which actually works pretty good for being an old Taiwanese knock-off. But the way I laid out this board (I could have done it different if I was using my noggin), it needed to be ripped all the way down the middle before cross-cutting, to avoid marring some of the pieces with the cc saw. So ripping something that long on the BS without any help would have been difficult and probably dangerous.
Turning impaired.
