May I butt in? I need advice too. I will use my gorrilla-rack work bench, with
the top metal parts that hold the top assmbled upside-down so they can be
"filled" with the wood, I really can't afford very much maple but my grandmother
gave me her old maple breakfast table, should be about 7 or 8 BF of wood,
need a full 10 BF @ 1" thick for the top only, using a cheaper wood underneath
like maybe poplar, laminated on. Will this idea work? Or should I use another
"under" wood?

(If I used all maple I would need a full 30 BF and that would be WAY too
expensive! 24"x60"x3" thick)

I bought a stack of old woodwork related mags in a public library, and saw both
your birdhouse books advertised in one of them, pretty neat!

Alex