Building a workbench

[Kevin in California]

Guys,
I have started making the parts for a workbench. I am using TOP CHOICE douglas fir 8 ft, 2 x 4's, cutting and milling them down, laminating them to have 2 7/8" x 3" trestles, legs and stretchers, and the bench top will be 3" thick, laminating probably 18 boards.
My dimensions will be 66" long, by about 27" deep, and 37" tall.
So far I have the trestles laminated, with mortises cut in BEFORE laminating, done on the table saw. The legs I'm doing the same way with mortises for the stretchers. I will probably put a vise on the left front and put on an end vise.

I read a lot about using softwoods for a bench top, a lot of people against, and many for it. I decided I like the idea of the cost, and I'm having fun so far doing it.

I might still purchase a Ramia beech bench with under cabinet for about $1000, but if I like how this turns out, I might just try and be satisfied with it too.

I'll post some more pics as it progresses.

Kevin

[Dave Bagwill]

Looks like a fun project! Brian Burns is a big fan of softwood for the top, he just changes it out when/if it gets too unworkable,

[Tim Benware]

Nice Kevin. I have four large benches and one small one in my workshop. Three of the large ones have soft wood tops that I cover with 1/8" hardboard, when it wears out I remove it and replace it with new (3/4 of one is carpet over the hardboard). My other bench is a Sjobergs with a hard wood top.

[Kevin in California]

Tim, which Sjobergs do you have? What is your opinion of it?

[Tim Benware]

Tim, which Sjobergs do you have? What is your opinion of it?

Not really sure. I bought it from a guy older than me that was totally retiring from wood work. It is just the top and I made the stand for it. It was an older model but is really well built. I can't remember how long he said he'd had it but have no doubt it will out last me.

[John Parchem]

Looks like a fun project!

[Kevin in California]

I now have the legs dimensioned to 2 7/8" square and cut to length at 34". I'm ending up with a little over the 2 7/8" after surfacing the 2 x 4's and laminating 2 together, so the width of the trestles, legs and stretchers will all mate up at the same width.
Next I need to clean up the mortises a little bit with a chisel for any misalignment from the laminating process since they the mortise halves were pre-cut. Then I will cut the tenons on both ends of the legs, which I'm going to do on my bandsaw. When I fit the legs into the bottom and top trestles, I will be doing a drawbore pinning through the tenons to pull the parts tightly together. I have some scraps of mahogany I'm thinking of making some dowels from so the contrast of the dowel heads to the fir will look nice.