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The company that is next to my office is a millworks company that specializes in custom molding. After talking to the owner he said alot of time the companies that they order from separate there molding with piece of poplar, oak mdf and other woods that are not the grade they can resell there big contract customers. I told him I would take any scrap hardwood or mdf that he wasn't going to use or was going to throw out. So Last week I go to take out the trash and they brought over about 8 8'x6"x 3/4" poplar tongue and groove pieces that they had left over. The owner said he had more that were 16ft long that he could cut down for me.
So my question is would I be able to make the base of a workbench out of this poplar obviously I would rip down the boards to take the tongue and grooves off and laminate multiple pieces together to form all the legs ad stretchers? My plan is to have a top made of maple that is about 4 inches thick to be able to use holdfast.
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Absolutely! No problem. Nice find. Of course, you will cut out any weak knots and/or other bad spots.
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Absolutely! No problem. Nice find. Of course, you will cut out any weak spots.
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(07-20-2020, 03:05 PM)briman87 Wrote: The company that is next to my office is a millworks company that specializes in custom molding. After talking to the owner he said alot of time the companies that they order from separate there molding with piece of poplar, oak mdf and other woods that are not the grade they can resell there big contract customers. I told him I would take any scrap hardwood or mdf that he wasn't going to use or was going to throw out. So Last week I go to take out the trash and they brought over about 8 8'x6"x 3/4" poplar tongue and groove pieces that they had left over. The owner said he had more that were 16ft long that he could cut down for me.
So my question is would I be able to make the base of a workbench out of this poplar obviously I would rip down the boards to take the tongue and grooves off and laminate multiple pieces together to form all the legs ad stretchers? My plan is to have a top made of maple that is about 4 inches thick to be able to use holdfast.
Yes and go over to Lost Art Press and find the link to the Anarchist's Workbench and get your free download. The condensed version : pretty much any wood will work for a workbench, some better than others but free is often the best choice.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. -- G. Carlin
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Make them thick enough, and it will do just fine. Especially if you're going to mortise everything together, I think you'll find poplar easier to work than some harder woods. Poplar isn't the stiffest wood, but once you glue everything up it should be plenty strong.
Great score on the wood, by the way!
Steve S.
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(07-20-2020, 03:39 PM)Bibliophile 13 Wrote: Make them thick enough, and it will do just fine. Especially if you're going to mortise everything together, I think you'll find poplar easier to work than some harder woods. Poplar isn't the stiffest wood, but once you glue everything up it should be plenty strong.
Great score on the wood, by the way!
I was thinking of laminating 5 or 6 or them together to give me a 3.75 or 4.5 square leg.
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While you are laminating - form the tenons with the pieces. I am making my base from poplar, so it had better work. If your floor will be damp or wet, coat the leg bottoms with epoxy.
Thanks, Curt
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I made the base for my work bench a few years ago from Poplar, it's worked out fine for me. The top is made from oak slabs with threaded rod to keep them tight and wrapped it in walnut. I made the bench from bits and pieces I had on hand at the time and it was a much needed project.
Would I do it again using the same materials? In a heart beat, I have not complaints for the materials used.
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You can build the whole bench out of laminated poplar. When building YOUR bench you can do it out of whatever you want And free Poplar would work for me. Hard Maple and Red Oak bounce but Ash odsorbs the blow, that is why ash is used in baseball bats. The vibration of the ball isn't transmitted to the hands. I would think poplar might be one of those woods. I am building a roubo with an 8 X 2 top of laminated out of southern yellow pine because it came out of a dumpster at a local cabinate shop. I can have any of the scraps I want for free.
Yes it will take time to laminate ot but isn't that what woodworking is all about just spending time enjoying yourself.
Tom
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So it is decided I will make the base out of poplar. Some of it has the rainbow effect that poplar gets some times I think I will save those pieces to use in the accent areas where they would be noticed. Thanks for the help everyone
