I’m taking an ash tree down on my property next week and I’m gonna build a work bench with it. I want it to be a hefty boy, so I’m going the roubo route.
Question is, since I can ask the mill for specific cuts, is there any reason I shouldn’t just get one monstrous 6" slab from the middle of the trunk and use it?
I can think of a few reasons not to use a single 6" slab from the middle of the tree.
- Drying a slab that thick has got to be a pain. A sawmill can almost certainly cut that, but are you having it kiln dried? Can the kiln dry it?
- Transporting such a thing is going to be a nightmare. How are you planning to haul it home?
- You probably don’t want the pith in the middle of the tree. The weak center in the middle of the bullseye. There’s a chance it’s going to be rotten, and even if it isn’t it’s almost certain to be a bit weak.
- How stable is a sold slab compared to several segments glued up? Get some quarter sawn 8/4 or even 12/4 and glue up the bench from those. It should stay flat forever.
- I don’t know the moisture content, it’s already mostly dead, just standing.
- it’s ten feet from my house, logs will be stacked and milled in the driveway after the crane takes them out of the backyard
- fair point about the pith, that was kind of what I was getting at with the question, so thanks
- of course you’re right, for the same reason plywood is so dimensionally stable. BUT, theres a few other factors I’m considering
First, cool factor. I just kinda like the idea of just a few massive hunks of wood stuck together into a table. Appeals to the caveman brain
Second, actually practical, laminating the top basically quadruples the surface area id have to get square and true, and since I’m likely doing this all by hand, that’s like two months of work right there, I’ve got a one year-old bumbling around here
I think it’s a good bet that if the wood is in usable condition, it probably needs to be dried. Kiln drying takes months, air drying takes years. You’re not going to cut the tree down, saw it into planks or slabs, and then make something out of it that week.
If it’s not leaving your property, we’ll assume air drying. Rule of thumb is 1 year in the barn for every inch of thickness, so if you want a 6 inch slab, expect to let it dry for 6 years. That’s a rule of thumb, I have no experience or study air drying lumber of that size. You’re off the edge of my map.
I don’t know how much a slab of that size will warp as it dries, especially with the pith in it.
I’ll grant you, cutting it up and re-gluing it does add a WHOLE lot of jointing. Building a slab top workbench is a lot of work with hand tools no matter what you do.
You might have to rip a few inches out of the middle of the slab to remove the pith anyway (and you’d wind up with a couple quarter sawn boards doing that).
Mind you, a 6 inch slab is pretty thick for a woodworker’s bench. 4 or even 3 inches would be more typical. I’ve seen workbenches made of laminated 2x4s that wound up 3 inches thick that take holdfasts just fine.
Keep us up to speed, let us know what you find once you’ve got the tree knocked down.
o7
All very reasonable points, and while I’m aware it’s very unlikely I can just dive into work, I kinda wanna anyway. Say it’s like 30% and I make the table, so i have to plane it periodically to reflatten? I don’t see that as a big deal
On the other hand, if it is genuinely green, a 24"×6"×96" slab would be like 500lbs, which is a little over what I think i can safely maneuver by myself.
Are you planning to air dry it? I believe the rule of thumb is 1 year per inch of thickness so you may have to wait a few extra years to get down to a reasonable moisture level unless you have access to a kiln or can build a solar kiln.
Other than that, I’m guessing it’ll be tough feeding it through a jointer or planer, so you’re probably better off using hand tools to flatten and true it. Chris Schwartz made a Roubo that way using 2 slabs of cherry.
Sounds like it’ll be a great bench in the end though. Best of luck
Well the tree is about 75-80% dead already, so i don’t really know what state the wood is gonna be in when it comes down.
I plan on largely using hand tools, I don’t have the space or money for power tools. Plus there’s a unique feeling of satisfaction knowing I can make things with a saw, set of chisels, and a couple hand planes
I was also going to mention checking out Chris Schwartz work on workbenches.
In the book The Anarchist Workbench he mentions making a bench out of solid slabs and the issues you might face. The book is available on his website as a PDF here. Mainly about getting a full slab that is solid enough throughout for the bench top. He specifically mentions soft spots and sponginess issues. But in his case it was a matter of how long the wood was left outside. Might not be much of a concern for you, depending on how dead the tree is I suppose.
In the article that is linked in the video that karpintero referenced he also mentions some of the difficulties of working full slabs with hand tools. Which is something to keep in mind. Definitely not going to be a one weekend project regardless of if it’s the full slab or not.
Might be worth seeing if there were a local shop that would square it up for you.
I think it really just comes down to how comfortable you are with taking on a large project like that.
Personally I was all excited to make a bench and then once I got to looking into it the more I realized if I started it I would probably never finish it so I never started it.
But it would be cool to see updates on what ever project you make. Good luck!
I’m really not gonna know if this is anything but a pipe dream until the tree removal company cuts into it. For all I know it’s rotted all to hell and is worthless
But if it isn’t, what an opportunity. To take a tree from my backyard and turn it into a hopefully gorgeous workbench. That’s a dream come true
Old tree or emerald ash borer?
Borer
i thought this was going to be a “loss” meme.
