Complete woodworking newbie here.
We had a maple tree cut down and sawn into kiln dried slabs. Some are 19’ long by 2 3/8” thick.
I’d like to get boards out of the slabs to build a workbench that has a 3 1/2” thick top.
I was thinking of tracing out the desired length boards on the useable parts of the slabs and cutting them out with a beam saw and then working to square them up with on buddy’s table saw, jointer and planer.
Is that the right way to go?
Thanks in advance.
Rodney
Replies
First, get them off the concrete by about a foot. Concrete is damp. Then put stickers between the slabs.
I'm suspicious of your math. I don't think you can easily get a bench top the thickness you want out of this lumber. You would have to laminate pieces together to get the thickness you want, having previously planed away a good deal of their thickness. Work benches don't have to be made of wide boards, and in fact many are made with boards on edge--as many as 20 of them for a typical bench. I think you should save these for another project, such as a dining table, where the width would be advantageous.
Thanks for the tip about getting the wood off the concrete.
I was thinking of cutting boards that are 2 3/8” thick and 3 1/2” wide and gluing them together lengthwise butcher block style to get a top that is 3 1/2” thick. Will that work?
Yes it will work but to get 3 1/2 thick you will need 3 3/4 and once the glue is dry, take it to a large planer to get it flat.
Brings moisture to my eyes to think you would rip beautiful live edge maple slabs to make a bench top. I got 2x8, 2x10 douglas fir and ripped those to width to get my thinkness when turned on edge. I have a really nice edge grain fir bench top, heavy and more than hard enough to stand up to any abuse it might get. Save the maple for live edge or other furniture projects.
Crosscut overlong and rip into 4" strips at the bandsaw. Sticker them under some weight for a week or two. Next, jointer, tablesaw, planer to get to 4-square but still oversize. Sticker again and weight-wait again.
Final round of milling (still over your 3.5" thickness and immediate glueup into slabs that will go through your planer. Plane to final thickness.
Use dominos, biscuits, dowels, or splines to align the slab's top surface for final glueup.