On Dec 22, 12:00*pm, "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.

Ideas appreciated

Leon

I think it's going on four years ago that I built mine with a three-
layer MDF top. Someone had given me two really nice vintage quick-
release vises, I had a load of rough-cut oak 2x4's (two inches by
four, real measurement) I got cheap, and I had some MDF from some
shelves I'd taken down. I finally decided if I didn't make it out of
what I had, it wouldn't get built for years, so I laminated three
sections of MDF together, and edged it all around and built the bottom
frame with those oak two by fours. Round dog holes and retractable
casters. Finished it with Waterlox.

I figured the dog holes would deteriorate but when they did I'd drill
a bigger hole, plug it with hardwood and drill a new hole. Turns out
so far I haven't needed to. Maybe because I don't pull the dogs in and
out a lot. They've held up pretty good. The whole bench has. I thought
I'd have built another by now but this one keeps doing what it's
supposed to.

It's nice and heavy. Stays put when it's not on wheels. (It's kind of
frustrating when I forget that) It sure has stayed flat. But if it
ever goes out of flat I won't try to fix it. I'll make a hardwood top
now that money's not quite so tight and I've found a couple good
suppliers.