DIY Laminated Hardwood (Maple) Workbench Top

You may recall my recent post about my simple workbench. The bench is a good size suited to my space, but when I built it, I was a bit unsure about the top. I used good quality birch plywood, but it proved to be fairly soft - that is, it began to get dented right away, and a finish right on the ply would look bad.

I longed for a nice butcher block top. I love maple, and I figured it might hold up better than the plywood top. The problem was the cost was a bit prohibitive, especially with shipping. I considered just sticking a hardboard top on it - it would resist glue and when it got too hacked up, I could just change it out. Looking at them in the local Despot though - boy is that stuff UGLY! I am going to build guitars, and I kept thinking I want a nice looking bench top to inspire me.

And I also wanted a project I could work on and develop some planing/hand tool skills that would come in handy (heh) for building instruments. Better to mess up on a $10 Despot board than a $100 piece of tonewood, I think.

Finally I hit on the idea of making my own laminate top from maple boards I could get at the Despot.  I knew from past experience I could get some decent looking figured maple there, so off I went, measurements in hand.

Here's what I came home with. This is the very rough layout.

The table is 30 inches wide. Originally I was going to get six 1x6 boards, but I couldn't find many with much flame. However, there were a lot of 1x2s with nice flame. So I got the crazy idea of laminating some 1x6s interspersed with 1x2s.

Using the 1x2s helped save a little money too.

Here's a closeup of what I'm planning.

I went though a lot of wider boards trying to find some with nice figure. And you can see how the 1x2s have good flame.

I cut the boards to the approximate length of the table - some were a bit longer. But I left some overhang to work with after they're joined.

Watched some Youtube videos and read my handplane book and did the jointing with my new hero, a Stanley No. 7 jointer plane. I haven't seriously wielded a plane since shop class in high school. Learned a LOT doing the jointing. And for the most part, it came out ok.

One issue I had was that the 1x2s had a lot of bow in them. In the picture above, you can see that in the space between boards. But clamped together, they came out nicely. As you will see.

I lined up some Titebond, a glue brush, jar for the glue, and clamps. Many, many clamps.

I decided to glue two wider boards with one 1x2 in between them at one time, then add boards as I went, rather than try to glue up the whole thing in one shot.

Here's the first group. It went fine, and was manageable.

Then I glued another 1x2 and 1x6 to this, etc.

Going piecemeal allowed me to ensure the joints were as tight as possible on each segment.

Here's the whole top after gluing.

Note that the 1x2s sit proud of the other boards. This is by design. It would have been too hard for me, as a beginning jointer, to try and get everything really close.

I figured I'd just plane down the protruding boards.

That applied to both sides of the tabletop. I started with the bottom side.

 I needed it to be reasonably flat, in order to ensure there was a strong glue joint between the plywood and the underside of the top.

Got some good glue squeeze out in the laminating process, a good sign. This will just plane away.

I used a long level to find high spots in the panel. There was one board that had an upward curve (and was therefore cupped on the other side). Again, this is the bottom side - it will be glued to the existing plywood top.

Note the light coming through the left side of the level - this is how much the top is away from being flat at this point.

First I planed down the thin boards level with the adjoining boards - I did this lengthwise, with the grain. It went fast.

Then to get the high spots: the process was to find the high spots, mark them in pencil, then plane with a jointer until it was all level. I did this on a diagonal, one direction then the other, until the top was flat.  I would guess I made twelve to fifteen passes until the panel was flat.

I did use both hands on the plane! I just took this shot for fun.

My new hero - recently acquired Stanley No. 7 jointer. It's a Type 13, made from 1925-28. I did a lot of reading up on planes and found the best ones are pre-war Stanleys. This was the golden age where craftsman used hand tools - there were no electric planers or drills. So the quality of these planes is good because people made a living with them, day in and day out.

I sharpened the iron up to 8000 grit with water stones and then stropped the iron with a leather strop. Also did some general tuning.

I did shop new planes, but the good ones (i.e. Lie-Nielsen) cost a small fortune. Here's the equivalent Lie-Nielsen - I paid about 20 percent of this for my Stanley. The Lie-Nielsen is probably better made, and incorporates the famous Bedrock-style frog, but for a novice, my old Stanley does great. I'm not going to doing a lot of this kind of work anyway.

Once I got the hang of it, and had the plane tuned perfectly, it was a lot of fun and really rewarding! With each pass I got nice shavings and the plane just ran easily over the top. It was a great learning experience for me to set the plane up and use it.

I will invest in some good Hock blades at some point, but the old plane irons worked great for now.

Once the bottom was flattened, I spread glue on the ply table top to attach the new maple top.

This Original Titebond has about a 5-minute set time. I needed it! I used a brush to spread the glue - I should have used a roller.

Here's a nice thin ocean of Titebond.

I was prepared for putting the top on. Had all my clamps adjusted to fit, and I had some heavy stuff to put on the center of the top.

Made alignment marks on the top beforehand, so it was a matter of lifting the top up, setting it on the glue, making quick adjustments to the alignment, and clamping it down.

I had a lot of squeeze-out on all the edges, so I was a happy boy.

I'll write more about leveling the top side next time, but this is an idea of how it went.

Lots of shavings, adjusting the frog as needed to get a good cut, and keeping the sole waxed. I also did some passes with my No. 4 smoother. What fun and a real sense of accomplishment. I can't wait to thickness guitar sides!

Here's the No. 7 in the back with its older brother, a No. 4 smoothing plane. I can see why some folks collect these - they are super cool, and they work great.

The No. 4 is a Type 11, made from 1910-18, Stanley made thousands of these, and a great many survived. I shopped on that auction site until I found the right combination of condition and price. They're really wonderful.