AArDvarK asks:

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?

Poplar, either aspen or tulip variety, is fine as a secondary wood. I'm not
sure what you mean by laminated here, but make sure you use freshly machined
wood, good adhesive, and clamp well (sandbags work on wide surfaces, as do flue
blocks and cement blocks and even bricks--set on rough boards to protect the
good surface--if you don't have a vacuum press, which most of us don't).

Charlie Self
"I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.' "
Garrison Keillor