Workbench environment

[matthew-s]

Unfortunately, I don't have a climate controlled space big enough for something approaching a traditional workbench (Roubo style or other).

 

Instead, I have an unheated detached garage.  Living in NJ, I see big temperature and humidity swings over the course of a year.

 

Will one of these heavy wooden workbenches survive in such an environment?  Most of the photos I've seen to-date show them in pretty nice living quarters.

 

Thanks.

 

[SignWave]

I have a similar situation. I also have a detached garage that hosts my workshop, and I have some significant temperature and humidity changes. Mine might be a bit hotter overall in the summer and not quite as cold in the winter, but it's still an issue.

 

I don't have a high-end workbench, but I do have a wood workbench with a laminated top. The top is doug fir (construction 2x's) and is just shy of 3" thick. Overally, it's stable, but I have seen some minor changes on the surface that I've had to take a plane to. I suspect that this is partially due to the humidity changes and partially due to the "quality" of the wood that I used. I might not know what I'm missing, but I have no regrets of using lower grade materials. It's a workbench, after all...

 

One other thing I contend with is that the floor is a concrete slab, and it absorbs moisture when it rains. I pretty much have everything on casters or on leveling feet (including the workbench) to keep the wood from soaking up moisture from the slab. I know this helps because the wood that I haven't done this with shows marks from the moisture.

 

I've thought of adding a humidistat controlled exhaust fan, but for now I just have some fans that I use to ventilate the space, especially after a period of rain or high humidity.

 

Other than the above, I also bring some of the materials like glue and finishing products inside when it gets cold. This winter, I've also brought projects inside at night to allow the PVA glued to set up overnight, clamps and all. And rust on tools is also a problem. I'm experimenting with Boeshields and paste wax, and don't regret having a granite table saw. Just putting metal tools in a closed cabinet seems to help reduce rust, when possible.

 

It isn't my dream environment, but it's nice to have the space and I'm making it work.

[TRBaker]

Matthew, I live in Mobile, Alabama and have the same issues. My shop is  a detached metal building without heat, a/c, or insulation. Humidity is the killer here. I have to take particular care to keep all the tools clear of rust. For this reason, I have never built an expensive workbench. I would love to have one, but there is no sense in trying to keep a perfectly flat workbench in an environment that has an ambient humidity of 60% or higher, year round. Mobile and Seattle are usually neck and neck for the city with the most rainfall/year. Just maybe, one of these days, I'll be able to afford a climate controlled shop. If that ever happens, I'll build the bench.

[Bombarde16]

Looking over the famous plate in "Art du menuisier", I hardly think that Roubo expected his workbenches to live under laboratory conditions.  If anything, things would have been even worse during the winter because they would have been heating their spaces without humidifying them.

 

So, absolutely, you can use a historically inspired bench in an unheated garage.  The benchtop will move as the seasons change and there's nothing wrong with that.  Remember, the purpose of a bench is workholding:  By anchoring your work to an immovable object, you're free to keep both hands on, say, the safe side of a chisel.  The bench doesn't have to be optically flat to do this, just flat enough and massive as all get out.

 

Assembly tables are a different beast.  There, you do need a dead flat surface year round, whence the torsion box and construction and dimensionally inert materials employed by David Marks.

 

EDIT:  ...And, in fairness to our host, Marc has a video of the same.

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/my-new-assembly-table/?category_name=the-shop

[Vic]

After touring castles in my wife's homeland, the Bavarian area of Germany, it is my contention that if built correctly, humidity and temperature swings have little effect on the integrity of a piece. Castles are rarely conditioned and I've seen some magnificent carving and marquetry pieces that are beautiful after hundreds of years. Wood moves, if you build for it, you're golden.

[Eric.]

Good points, Rob and Vic.

 

I guess my Roubo is about six or seven months old now, and it lives in my garage, which is heated, but only when I'm out there working.  It's also only partially insulated and somewhat drafty.  So my bench lives through constant and severe temperature swings.  I also live in St. Louis, and our weather is famously inconsistent.  A saying around here is: "Don't like the weather?  Wait an hour."  Which means my bench also endures frequent and significant changes in humidity...the real culprit in wood movement, not temperature.

 

So far I've seen minimal movement in the top.  I can feel a few very slight ridges here and there in the slabs, but along its length and width, it's still just as flat as the day I completed it, minus those miniscule ridges and dings.  The drawbore pegs are now fairly proud of the legs, since we're in winter and everything has shrunk a little (fairly proud meaning a few thousandths...just enough to grab a fingernail).  The place where I can see the most movement is in the shiplapped shelf...those boards will expand and contract visibly within hours, since they are free to move as they please.  Right after I completed the bench last summer, we had a huge load of Gulf moisture push into the midwest during a tropical storm, and literally overnight the 1/16" gaps in the shiplaps closed completely and actually began to buckle when they ran out of room (of course I shaved off a bit more after that)...but the top moved not at all, at least not detectably using a straight edge.  So I think once everything is glued up and locked together, movement is minimized if things are properly constructed.

 

Using quartersawn stock will also help reduce movement if you can find it and afford it.  But ultimately, screw it.  Build your bench, use it, love it, and if and when it needs flattening, flatten it.  Wood is gonna move...we shouldn't let that stop us from building.  We engineer with movement in mind, and address issues if and when they arise.

[matthew-s]

Thanks guys.  So it's possible, but it will just happen to be a harder life for the bench.  No surprise there.  I was worried it would tear itself apart over the course of a few years.

 

Eric - is that your bench in your avatar? I can tell it is very pretty.  If that is surviving well, whatever I build should have a fighting chance  

[Eric.]

Yep, built the Roubo with Marc and the Guild...

 

[AndyF]

One option is to build the top using plywood or particleboard, but to still use a traditional design. My benchtop is laminated particleboard which is topped and edged with 1/4" hardboard, making it about 2.5" thick. (See the joiner's bench plan in Sam Allen's book Making Workbenches.)

It hasn't moved a bit even though it has spent most of its 10 years in an attached garaged which is sometimes heated with an unvented kerosene heater.

(Ok, really it has moved, but that was to the basement and back and to the new house garage and then to the basement workshop of the new house. )

[matthew-s]

Yep, built the Roubo with Marc and the Guild...

 

 

Gee whiz.  What are the accents?  Maple and mahogany?

[Eric.]

I bought a bunch of soft maple, then used whatever else I had laying around for accents...front laminate is curly maple, dog strip is sapele, and the rest is walnut.

[matthew-s]

I bought a bunch of soft maple, then used whatever else I had laying around for accents...front laminate is curly maple, dog strip is sapele, and the rest is walnut.

 

Ah - walnut, of course.  What was I thinking.

 

Great work.

[tim0625]

Which glue did you use and how did you finish it?

[Eric.]

Which glue did you use and how did you finish it?

Just used regular Titebond and finished with BLO.