Is anyone here experienced in working with some of the newer engineered woods out there? Stuff like LVL, parallam, glulam.
I've put some thought into making a 'traditional' woodworking bench, which typically involves considerable expense in hardwood and effort in dimensioning the stock. I want mine to weigh in at 300+ pounds and I want it to never move, cup, rack, or split, and stay straight as an arrow for assembly and glue ups.
But I remember a recent trip to Menards where they stocked enormous and massively heavy LVL beams. The stuff is essentially plywood, but instead of stacking the veneers in a perpendicular grain pattern, all the veneers are arranged in parallel, resulting in an end product with a tremendous advantage vs solid wood in stability, rigidity, consistency, and strength, and suitable for clearing spans which would traditionally call for steel I-beams. It would be easy to work with, because the material is manufactured to be straight and consistent from the start. Only problem is it's ugly as shit but I don't mind.
Any thoughts?
>>995587
The bench I made has a top of 2x4s. Once it was glued up and I secured it (threaded rod through each end) it was rock solid. Planed the surface flat and its stayed that way season after season. Its about 4 years old now and not a single problem. I've seen many, many guides online on how to do it this way, which is why I did it.
Look at Glulam. I believe it is a little stronger than the others when it comes to things like shear strength.
It's generally stronger than the others and it can have some pretty nice looks to it. If you go with PSL I'd recommend having it wolmanized. I've seen it take it ground moisture and swell.
Would personally rate LVL. My house frame is made of the stuff, it ended up being in the rain and sun for 2-3 months due to various bullshit and it didn't even need planing for drywall. straight as a fucking arrow. Awesome shit.
LVL (Microlam), PSL (Paralam), Glulam (I've seen them as the brand name Powerbeam) etc are all great for the purposes they're made for. Its great over long spans, use for headers above windows, doors and stair openings. Paralam especially would work for adding weight, we use them over garage doors for headers and they are a motherfucker to set by hand.
Making a traditional workbench and lagging it to a wall, or bolting it to a floor would probably be just as good as making it weight a ton, either way I would still make the top out of a good quality hardwood and plane it down flat and be able to check and adjust it over time. MY personal workbench is 4' X10' framed with yellow pine 2x6's and 2x8 that I got from work. Then I spent the money on 8/4 maple for the bench top and glued it up, planed it dead flat. I usually check it and plane it back down to flat every year or so and its never too far off.
Tricoya is pretty good it's MDF that you can use outside.
