I’ve heard a lot about building benchwork and people talk about using light-weight soft woods for framework. Having been a contractor and in the building trades for years, unless you buy expensinve clear grain, this wood varies from bow to licorice stick to pretzel. It seems to me only prudent to use lumber you know is perfectly straight to achieve a level table top and this to me means cutting your supports out of 3/4" plywood.
The advantage of this would be that it will be as straight as you can cut–I use a level clamped as a straight edge–and significantly stronger than same-sized fir or white pine. Yet, I don’t recall anyone talking about this. My debate, is whether to go with plywood or steel.
Our modular club recommends 3/4" paint-grade plywood be ripped to 4" for all major structural pieces of the modules. Legs are 2x2. Decking is minimum 2" extruded (pink or blue) styrofoam that sits on corner gussets. Modules bigger than 2x4 feet may have a cross-member, also cut from 3/4" ply.
We used to recommend 1x4 (nominal) clear pine, but the plywood is more economical, stronger, easy to work with, and overall more stable.
You can get the lumber yard to rip it for you - the cuts will come out straight if they use the big wall mounted saw (name escapes me…). Get it cut into 4" strips. You can do the gussets and anything else you might need with a table saw, mitre saw, or whatever you have at home.
If kiln-dried lumber is still dry when you purchase it , and still straight, then I don’t see why it wouldn’t do. My builders’ store went through about thirty 10" 2X4’s, eyeballing each, until they felt that I was getting the eight that I needed.
That said, I would agree that ripped 5/8" or bigger would do very nicely, Mouse.
Thanks for the validation. I know the saw, but most places I know charge $.25 a cut after the first couple.
Using a level and vice-grip type clamps and a good circular (I use a Skill 77 worm drive) You can cut what you need pretty quickly. It is so straight that I use this method that I used it for cabinet work. If you want to get really fancy there’s a 4 foot clamp that just pops into place in second.
I bought the better grade, can’t remember what they call that, and I had to go threw a lot of lumber to find straight ones. If I was to do it over, I would do the plywood ripping instead.
I really wish I would have read more and lurked the MR forums and others before starting my layout, though I did buy about every book from Kalmbach on benchwork, wiring, scenery etc. They did help a lot, though I think a lot of what they have in print is a couple of years out of date on some items.
With all this knowledge you ahev soaked up Spacemouse, you should have one craftsman style layout [:)]
Somebody posted pics of their steel bench work a while back and it was something I wanted to try. I went to Loews, Home Depot and 84 Lumber, and they all looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked for them.Any ideas where to get those things?
What?!?! You gotta be jokin. At the Ace Hardware in the town closest to me, they got one guy that stands there all day long cuttin wood people bought there. FOR FREE.
They were just starting to use steel studs when I left the business in the early nineties. IT was used more by commercial builders than residential, therefore, you might not find it a Lowes. You will have to go to a lumber yard or builder’s supply that caters to contractors (and don’t be afraid to dicker.)
I read the article, and it certainly made me wonder. I especially like the concept that it is virtually free of weather effects. But for me to use this technology, I have to learn a new material and possibly purchase a new set of tools. I’d rather base my judgment on many experiences rather than that single one.
Certainly though, the article makes a powerful argument.
The plywood should be considerably more dimensionally stable than the 1x lumber, no matter what the grade. My concern, while we are on the subject, is screwing into the ends and sides of the plywood. I’ve never been thrilled with the results of that.
Biscuits and gravy, perhaps! Predrilling might get old, but then again, there isn’t that much of it to do. The steel sounds good in a lot of ways. My current scheme, which I hope to have ready for public derision soon, has an area of rather tight clearance between two levels, so a sturdy plywood frame might come in handy.
The biggest problem I had finding straight lumber was the 2x2s. I went through a shelf full of them at Lowes to find about 6 or 8 of them. For whatever reason, they seem to twist like crazy. I had much better luck with 1x4s and 1x3s.
Steel sounds interesting, but I’ve never worked with it. I’d be a little concerned about the increased risk of shorts if the wiring gets nicked, but that is a manageable risk. The other thing I remember reading is to be sure to cover the edges (potentially sharp). I think they said duct tape works wonders for that.