On Jan 25, 8:55*am, "
wrote:
On Jan 24, 8:29*pm, Josh wrote:
I'm about to attempt building "Bob and Dave's Good, Fast, and Cheap
Bench"...
http://www.oldtoolsshop.com/z_pdf/sh...sGoodFastAndCh...
But I've run into a snag before I even begin. *Much of the lumber that
I had delivered to my home green... My 2x4x12s are green, and my 2x8s
are green. I got a bunch of 2x4x8 that are STD-DRY Enough to make the
bench top. *My question is, can I use any of this lumber, can I still
make mortise and tenon joins with green lumber? *I didn't realize I
needed to specify DRY when ordering construction grade lumber. *Any
help would be awesome!
I'm sure your construction lumber is kiln dried. *But you either
forgot or did not know an important fact. *The amount of moisture in
kiln dried construction lumber, what you bought, is about 18%. *Give
or take. *The amount of moisture in kiln dried hardwwod or any wood
used in furniture building is about 8%. *Give or take. *Construction
lumber is designed, made for house building. *It does not need super
low moisture content to be usable. *So the suppliers do not waste
money making it drier than necessary. *They could not compete against
other suppliers because their cost would be much higher for their wood
because of the extra expense of kiln drying longer. *Hardwoods or
furniture grade softwoods have to be much lower moisture percentage to
be usable. *So everyone has to spend the extra money on a longer kiln
drying process or they could not sell their wood at all.
You're trying to use a product not designed for the use you intend.
And now you are blaming the supplier for your mistake.
Personally, I think a workbench should be built as nice as possible so
you take pride in using it. *I'm not a fan of cheap, quick
construction lumber benches. *If you have to have cheap and quick,
then make the base of softwood and make the top of hardwood. *Either
make or buy a hardwood top. *Cheap, quick softwood benches are fine
for construction sites or garage/barn do everything work areas.
The bench you link to has some serious flaws. *The metal vise used as
an end vise requires the long row of dog holes to be centered on the
metal vise or else the vise will rack everytime its used and be
worthless very quickly. *Thus the long row of dog holes are about 6
inches in from the side of the bench. *Too far to be useful. *If you
go down to the bottom of the website you linked to you will see a nice
hardwood bench. *Notice its end vise is the traditional one and its
dog holes are about 1 inch in from the edge. *You can clamp narrower
pieces in the end vise and have the edge overhang the bench side.
Read Scott Landis' workbench book and Sam Allen's workbench book for
better ideas on how to build a bench.
GREEN, unseasoned, and undried Douglas Fir is readily available at
lumber yards in NJ. All construction lumber is NOT kiln dried! That
being said, I called the lumber yard this morning, and they said they
can switch out everything for kiln dried spruce. I'm going to go to
the lumber yard and check out the wood before the deliver/switch it.
I am a major newbie to woodworking and I don't see why building this
bench and later graduating to a better one isn't a reasonable plan.
It seems much better than working on a sears handyman style bench, or
a workmate. Why attempt to build a bench out of Scott Landis' book
with absolutely no experience and using expensive wood? Regarding the
end vise. I was planing on fashioning jaw pads with 3 dog holes in
them. And drilling 3 rows of round dog holes on the bench top..
rather than chiseling out the one row of square holes in the plans.
Do you think this bench is a major waste of time? I thought it was a
good compromise between a handyman style bench and a euro style
woodworking bench.