Comments on: Cold Feet

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:01:17 +0000

I can completely sympathise with your situation/decision – had the same thing when I finally thought I might ‘go for it’ with my workbench. Priced it up, saw three zeros, and walked away!

I’d be tempted with the OT timber – as much as there is a variety of timbers/colours/hardnesses, if you are careful with your mixing and matching, you’d end up with a unique-looking bench, and by assigning hard timbers to the top and softer timbers to the base (or the other way around if that is preferable) you can also deal with that variety without compromising your bench.

And the price is right!

By: Gye Greene

Gye Greene — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:23:00 +0000

It tickles me that they have a category of “miscellaneous” at your local lumber yard.

What everyone else said makes sense to me. Esp. since you can pick the individual boards, and they’ll plane it to thickness for ya — sure! why not…

(Personally, I tend to go for the oddball, no-name bargains…)

–GG

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:08:43 +0000

Thanks Kari, for reminding me about getting a lighter color for the top. A lot of the wood here is reddish, but there are varying shades of reddish.

Ma: I’d like to think this is a 10+ year bench, but there are a lot of factors that would determine that! But as long as I’m in Malaysia and working wood, I would imagine this’d be my bench. And yes, if we moved (within Sabah anyway), this bench would follow.

Bob: What a beauty! Love that bench you built.

By: Bob Easton

Bob Easton — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:26:21 +0000

My workbench is built from some of “the Borg’s” cheapest, knottiest, construction lumber. The bench does its job wonderfully, and I feel absolutely no remorse when it gets banged up a bit. To “ma’s” suggestion of amortizing the cost, I really like the value I see in this approach. The bench will last a very long time and the money that could have been spent for better lumber went instead into boat building projects.

My workbench: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?cat=11

By: ma

ma — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:06:28 +0000

Not being a woodsmith, for me the deciding factor of which wood to use would boil down to 2 questions:
1. would this be a one or two year investment, or five??
2. would the bench be moveable to another home??

The accountant in me mentally amortizes the cost over “x” number of years of anticipated use.

But I’m sure YOU already thought of that! Good luck!

By: The Village Carpenter

The Village Carpenter — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:35:01 +0000

If you wind up buying the O.T., you might consider choosing the lightest color. In Chris Schwarz’ book, he brings up an important point that it’s easier to sight down the sole of a plane and adjust the iron when you have a light colored background (your bench). It’s much more difficult to see against dark wood.

You’ll probably be fine with the cheaper wood. I built a sturdy bench years ago out of 2x4s and it’s held up great (although it does get dinged easily).