Cross-laminated workbench?

[Ed in Tampa]

The thing about plywood warping got me thinking. Plywood has better width stability than solid wood, but I didn't even consider warpage. In my experience, plywood doesn't stay real flat unless braced. So warpage must be the "dimension" that moves due to those internal stresses.

Then I found this independent research paper, which certainly seems to confirm that theory:
http://69.89.31.187/~jamesho5/wp-conten ... ontent.pdf

So no cross-laminations for my workbench top.

Your suggestions for board and grain orientation make a lot of sense. At first, they seemed contrary to conventional wisdom, which says that quarter-sawn boards laid flat would give the best width stability. But I finally realized that a flat-sawn board is quarter-sawn when viewed from its edge. Thus flat-sawn boards laminated together on edge should give the same width stability as quarter-sawn boards laid flat. But be a whole lot cheaper. Score one for Brunswick!

Year ago I was looking for a work bench top and maple was out of my price range. Then I saw an ad for used bowling alleys. I went and looked and learned a lot. The first ten feet and last ten feet of an alley is maple and pine is used in between. The seller using a chain saw cut a 6 foot length of maple for me.
When I got it home I realized it was too wide so my buddy said he would take half. Half an alley with a tool tray would be the exact width I wanted, so we tried to separate the boards in the middle.

Here is what I learned, the boards are placed on edge and nailed together using cut nails that would span three thicknesses. Also the boards were cut with key and keyway sort of a wide but shallow tongue with sloped sides that fit into groove the same width and depth as the tongue and with the sloped sides. So between then the tongue and grooves and the cut nails at about 6 inch intervals we could not pull the strips apart.

We doned flak suits full face shield and using an old circular saw with a carbide blade we ripped them apart. Sparks and a lot of noise with two guys so scared we couldn't stop until they were cut apart.
Long story short framed the my half of alley with 8/4 maple incorporating a snazzy tool tray and I ended up with a unique workbench top with walnut inlays that were used as aim marks on the lane.

In my opinion standing the boards on end is the way to go. Check to see if you can find a used bowling alley. I got my 6 ft long hunk for about $30. That was over 30 years ago. In fact I think I need to sand it down now after 30 years of abuse. I will probably lose my spiffy lane markers.

[BuckeyeDennis]

Year ago I was looking for a work bench top and maple was out of my price range. Then I saw an ad for used bowling alleys. I went and looked and learned a lot. The first ten feet and last ten feet of an alley is maple and pine is used in between. The seller using a chain saw cut a 6 foot length of maple for me.
When I got it home I realized it was too wide so my buddy said he would take half. Half an alley with a tool tray would be the exact width I wanted, so we tried to separate the boards in the middle.

Here is what I learned, the boards are placed on edge and nailed together using cut nails that would span three thicknesses. Also the boards were cut with key and keyway sort of a wide but shallow tongue with sloped sides that fit into groove the same width and depth as the tongue and with the sloped sides. So between then the tongue and grooves and the cut nails at about 6 inch intervals we could not pull the strips apart.

We doned flak suits full face shield and using an old circular saw with a carbide blade we ripped them apart. Sparks and a lot of noise with two guys so scared we couldn't stop until they were cut apart.
Long story short framed the my half of alley with 8/4 maple incorporating a snazzy tool tray and I ended up with a unique workbench top with walnut inlays that were used as aim marks on the lane.

In my opinion standing the boards on end is the way to go. Check to see if you can find a used bowling alley. I got my 6 ft long hunk for about $30. That was over 30 years ago. In fact I think I need to sand it down now after 30 years of abuse. I will probably lose my spiffy lane markers.

Fascinating! Sideways T&G construction, and reinforced with nails. From now on, I'll try to control my cringing when someone lofts a bowling ball three feet into the air. When I was a teenager, that was grounds for ejection from the alley. Nowadays, no one seems to pay any attention.

So did the seller just get lucky, and miss all the nails with his chainsaw? And what if you want to drill some dog holes?

[dusty]

Way back in my high school years, my mother owned the lunch counters in the major bowling alley where we lived. I spent a couple summers working there.

During one of those summers, Brunswick came in to add eight lanes and to resurface the ones already there. During that process some of the original lanes were replaced completely and others were flipped over and resurfaced.

Unfortunately, I was not curious enough to pay attention or I would be able to answer some of these questions. But since they sand those lanes when they resurface, I suspect that the spots are embedded quite deep (maybe all the way through and the nails that they used during construction are centered.

They would not want to run the sander into those nails any more than you would want to drill into them.

Watching them resurface was interesting. The machine rested in the ball gutters, was leveled and then set to run the length of the lane, while sanding, unattended.

[Ed in Tampa]

Fascinating! Sideways T&G construction, and reinforced with nails. From now on, I'll try to control my cringing when someone lofts a bowling ball three feet into the air. When I was a teenager, that was grounds for ejection from the alley. Nowadays, no one seems to pay any attention.

So did the seller just get lucky, and miss all the nails with his chainsaw? And what if you want to drill some dog holes?

Actually he hit more than a few nails. Ever see a nail snagged by a chain saw and fling? WOW!

I'm currently pondering the dog hole nail problem. When I originally built the bench I added a board to the front and in this board I had cut rectange dog holes. I also built a recessed tool tray on the back edge and at the end a bench vise. I then framed the whole bench with a thicker maple that was dovetailed at each corner.

I want to add some round dog holes but I don't want to mess up a good bit by hitting the nails I would also like to rout slots to hold T-track rails but again I don't want to mess up a router bit by hitting a nail.

The cut nails are about at the center of each board and like I said the span three boards each.

The lane markers are only about 1/4" thick inlays as I have chipped a few out. The are thinner now that I have sanded the top of the bench originally to flatten it after all it went through.

The lane I got was not level on the bottom and I had to rout two grooves as each end to attach a mounting board. I routed it about 1/8 deeper than the lowest board and about 4 inches wide I then had a perfect flat place to attach mounting boards.

I think if I was going to do it again I would have probably separated each board removed the nails and thickness planed each boards bottom so they were all the same width. Then I would have put them back together using a rod through them all at about 1 foot intervals. Sanded flat the finished top. That would have given me the freedom to place dog holes and rout grooves for t-track where ever I wanted them.

More than once I have considered junking the top and using two sheets of
1 1/4 thick MDF and build a new top. Or I might redo the design of my first bench top. 2x4's standing on edge. I planed each 2/4 to remove the radius most 2x4's have on their edge corners. Then I stacked them together and bored a hole through them all about every foot and used all thread to hold them together. I then attached 3 2x4's on the bottom, at the middle and each end. This was the best bench. You could set a 427 engine block on it or drill and slice it without feeling you ruined a piece of furniture.

My dad's work bench was just that a work bench. With my bowling alley I spend more time trying to figure a way to protect it from what I doing on it that it is worth. Give me something ugly and let me make it uglier by working on it.

[JPG]

Long but interesting!

http://hardwoodfloorsmag.com/articles/a ... 6&zoneid=3

[charlese]

Yes, VERY INTERESTING! Thanks for posting it Red!:D

One thing in the story made me feel quite quite exonerated. Never again will I accept criticism of my preference of water based finishes. I can always fall back on the bowling alley example.