"Leon" wrote

For years I have been threatening to build a legitimate work bench. I
have been using fold up ones and steel ones but I want a wood top with dog
holes and a couple of vices.

Because there is a rather large investment in the "TOP" I have kicked
around using several different less expensive materials. In recent years
the replaceable MDF top has been popular with many magazines. I forget
what I was building several months ago but I ended up having several
pieces of 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood stacked up and noticed that they
looked quite substantial.

I am wondering if any one has used Baltic Birch ripped in to "lot's" of
strips and glued up on the faces to make a bench top. Basically the edges
of all the Baltic Birch plywood would be facing up and down to form the
top of the top.

I am not sure if this applies or not. But I knew somebody who lived down
the street from a waterski factory. They had some monster 17 ply board. He
used to haul the scrap away. If I recall correctly, they were about 1 1/8"
thick and about 18" wide by about 5' long. He had hundreds of these things.
All of them very heavy, thick and straight.

He used them for everything. His shop floor was made from these. He made all
kinds of benched for himself and others from this. Big, heavy and thick. He
often used harboard as a replaceable top.

I wouldn't cut them on edge. If youhave enough plywood to make a tope, do
that. Lay it flat and cover it with hardboard. I have build a number of
shop benches and cabinets out of scrap. When there was enough materials, I
would build something else. This sounds similar.