Early Access Video: Will 2x4s RUIN your workbench?
Added 2023-11-04 11:00:05 +0000 UTCFriends:
There's always a lot of workbench talk around the internet. People have ideas...or they just repeat stuff other people have said. Recently, I've seen videos claiming that you can't build a good workbench out of 2x4s (tell that to Paul Sellers).
Many of the naysayers make valid points: 2x4s are made from younger trees, they're wetter, and they're more likely to contain the pith. Because of these defects, a workbench made from 2x4s is more likely to twist and the parts might delaminate. It's all true...unless you know a few simple tricks.
You can use 2x4s to make a wonderful workbench as long as you handle your stock with forethought and care. In this video I humbly present 5 strategies for working with 2x4 lumber and turning it into your dream bench. (Oh, and I'm also hyping my yearly plan sale. This doesn't concern my Patrons who already have all those plans for free anyway.)
Also, James Wright is currently on vacation and I'm having a small medical procedure next week (nothing serious). So we can't start looking at the scholarship applications as quickly as we hoped. As a result, we're going to leave applications open until Friday the 10th. If you're even thinking of applying, go ahead and put that application up. Who knows what might happen?
Happy Saturday!
--Rex
Comments
Leaving Rex's plans out of the equation. I did buy a set of plans for a porch swing my wife loved. It was one of the most horrible, ill thought out set of plans one could ever build from. One sort of assumes that purchased plans are worth the premium. This experience lead me to understand that not all plans you can buy are helpful or worth the money. Sometimes a little research and effort can ne just as good if not better.
Ronald Rowe
2024-07-07 21:02:51 +0000 UTCI built the English Jointers bench years ago. I used pressure treated wood and the bench sits outside under a patio cover. It is an awesome bench that gets used almost every day. Inside the shop I built the quick stack bench and it doesn't get used as often but I do have work coming up that will use it.
Skully Wood and Metal
2023-11-21 14:29:32 +0000 UTCHey Rex, I don’t know if you’ll see this, but I’m very dyslexic and am building your plans for the English joiners bench, and I ended up buying the wrong amount of 2”x4” because two boards are displayed on the stock selection page, same as the 2”x10” and 4”x4” My brain skipped over the (3) super easy. No big problem I’m just short on my diagonal braces and have to get another board but I thought it might help formatting for people with my condition to add a third visual 2”x4” board on that page. Love all of your work, and am so so happy with my (soon to be finished) new bench.
Christian McConnell
2023-11-21 05:15:15 +0000 UTCLove when you bring the humor into the videos. I tnd to avoid 2 x 4's for anything I might care about but they are a cheap and easy solution to small things. I like to cut them down to use for parts. One great use for my cut offs has been planing the faces then gluing up two scraps and turning it into a sled handle that I shape a bit so its comfortable. Keeps my hands safe, uses up some "unusable" wood.
JJ Hoffman
2023-11-09 23:57:42 +0000 UTCAll hail grand master Rex! JK—typo fixed.
Alex R
2023-11-09 00:26:42 +0000 UTC“cultist”? are we part of a cult? 🤣
Jo Moreau
2023-11-09 00:10:10 +0000 UTCAll good advice! The only thing I could add—and frankly this took an embarrassingly long time for me to do—is to “see” the board(s) inside a given piece of lumber waiting to be crosscut out. Like, sure a board might have a few huge, ugly knots but between those knots are long stretches of uninterrupted grain. So I say don’t fixate on how few boards something can be built out of; instead, have your cutlist with you while at the lumberyard and focus on finding boards that pair well with it. This approach makes for a slightly more expensive build, but ultimately you get a much better end result.
Alex R
2023-11-08 21:35:55 +0000 UTCGood joints and good work holding seem like a more important thing. Bad lumber can be stripped out and replaced (particularly in Rex’s builds). I guess if your slab top has delaminated, that would be annoying. You’d have to plane it and rebuild the top. If you know how to use the hand tools. I guess if it doesn’t fit in your planer or jointer this becomes too hard. But, you can’t fix a dumb joint, and crappy work holding is just frustrating. I’ve been more frustrated by an inexpensive vice that I ever have been by workbench top. And, I’m not hand ripping a bunch of a 2x10.
JKlarinet
2023-11-08 17:50:20 +0000 UTCI especially like the Douglas Fir at my Home Depot. It's...awfully nice for $3 each. FWIW, my store has 8' 2x12s in SYP. I was just as surprised as anyone.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:31:55 +0000 UTCI'll make more if these, since I like them, too. It is a tiring way to shoot, though.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:29:55 +0000 UTCThe bucket trick is a classic!
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:29:30 +0000 UTCI really appreciate that!
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:29:10 +0000 UTCIf money is an issue, build the Minimum Timber bench. It's seriously about $65 in lumber; a fraction of what you'd spend on the Quick Stack. It doesn't knock down, but so what? Dump it and just build another if you move. Oh, and if there's any amount of building going on near you, you can probably find the wood in dumpsters for free.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:28:58 +0000 UTCI started relatively recently and built Rex's English Joiner's Bench fairly easily. After a couple of years with it, I'm glad I built it and not the Roubo. I'm at the point now where if think about making a Roubo or Anarchist's style bench, but if I'd tried when I first started, I'd still be working on it or would have given up.
Geoffrey Wilson
2023-11-07 14:28:16 +0000 UTCYou're totally right...it's just one more thing that someone has to do and our staff is stretched pretty thin already.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:26:15 +0000 UTCThanks! We always try to push the style into new places. I've been making a lot of shorts and that's totally influenced this style.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:25:32 +0000 UTCYeah, I think having a good bench is about 100 times better than planning the "perfect" bench.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:24:18 +0000 UTCYeah, I leaned on the plan sale pretty hard, but I need to take advantage of the holiday buying spirit. The commerce part of this job is kind of a drag, but it's necessary.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:23:36 +0000 UTCThe 4x posts at my home center are often very nice. I would much rather use them than glue up 2x4s.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:22:16 +0000 UTCThat's very much appreciated!
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:21:25 +0000 UTCMe too! But I know a couple of phrases.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:21:14 +0000 UTCI'm sure it will be fine, but I'm not allowed to eat anything on Wednesday. I plan to be cranky.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:20:58 +0000 UTCSo many people plan a Roubo....and never finish it. Build something lighter and cheaper first. You'll get essential experience and then that Roubo build will be WAY easier if you already have a bench.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:20:33 +0000 UTCI think that even a decent woodworker should be able to knock together a bench in a couple of days, use it for a year or two, and then abandon it if necessary and just build another wherever you land. The ability to build it (quickly) is more valuable than the bench itself.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:18:29 +0000 UTCIt's crazy how nice old 2x4s are. The trees were older, the grown rings tighter. The modern stuff can't compare.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:17:05 +0000 UTCI've come to feel that building ANY decent bench and getting to work is better than constantly planning that "dream" bench. I'm not working on my dream bench. I'm working on a design that I could make quickly and get working.
Rex Krueger
2023-11-07 14:16:16 +0000 UTCFunny how you get that bench made, know you could do better as your skills grow, yet, because it works, it never is replaced!
Chris St. Cyr
2023-11-07 03:24:27 +0000 UTCI like watching bench videos but I’m still on my first bench I built before the internet was something most people knew about. Every mistake Rex discussed in his video on bench mistakes are in my bench. Every couple years I tweak things so it is better. A couple of weeks ago I added some bracing because it was getting way too wobbly. Next bench project will be to replace the top and at the same time reduce the width from 36” to 24”. Currently the top is 3/4 plywood that needs to be replaced. Rex and other content producers seem to make lots of noise about benches but I think many hobbyist build one or two in a lifetime.
Chris St. Cyr
2023-11-07 03:22:44 +0000 UTCI tried the whole Schwarz "pick through the lumber racks every time I'm at the home center for something else and grab one or two good (2x12) board and throw it in the truck"... except my truck is a 1 ton dually - not something I routinely drive to the home center for a box of screws. And a 2x12 of any length ain't gonna fit in my car! In the process of sorting through way too many 2x10s and 2x12s, and finding all sorts of knotty, checked, bowed, cupped and twisted crap, all so I could in theory rip them in half (or less, if you have to cut out the pith)... I started noticing that the 2x4 and particularly the 2x6 piles at the local stores... actually looked pretty dang good. Yeah, they'd still have to be heavily sorted, but way less so than the 2x10/2x12 stuff I was seeing. Go figure.
Monte Milanuk
2023-11-05 09:00:03 +0000 UTCI like this style of video! Its good to have the calmer furniture forensics type of videos, but this more fast paced video is a fun change and has some really good information!
David Bumpus
2023-11-05 03:28:29 +0000 UTCNice video. I got a 18" slab made from 2x4s and has used Paul Seller's "sawhorse " style to plane the boards! I used 5 gallon buckets. That way my boys could try their hand at planing too!
Bradley Barth
2023-11-05 00:54:55 +0000 UTCGreat tips Rex. Thank you and hope all goes well for you.
Matt Evans-Koch
2023-11-05 00:42:26 +0000 UTCI’m going to look at that Quick Stack Course. At the moment I can’t even afford the timber, bu maybe I just need to study some more 😜
Jo Moreau
2023-11-05 00:18:31 +0000 UTCOne tip, you can help your video SEO slightly by just giving the auto generated transcripts that YouTube does and proofreading them. You'll see "plaining" instead of "planing" because the two sound alike. It might be slight but I sometimes watch videos with the sound turned of and the subtitles on so I see this stuff.
Sean McGown
2023-11-04 18:02:08 +0000 UTCI like the new look in the videos. The quick cuts, handheld shots, quick hard-hitting promotional part. Good job, the variety is terrific.
Sean McGown
2023-11-04 17:59:37 +0000 UTCI can never get enough work bench videos. Like most of the commentators to this video I've spent lots of time in the planning process of making the perfect but inexpensive work bench. Right now, I'm looking at how to incorporate AI elements. Seriously, life is short and I'm a certified senior citizen with not lots of time. I bought some 2x6's and I'm making my top from them and I'm attaching them to a box frame. I don't see the benefit of perfection. There are other projects for that.
Richard C von Brecht
2023-11-04 16:09:11 +0000 UTCBut wait! There's more! :) Great video. I originally planned to build a fancy gorgeous maple and walnut bench, but opted for the 2x4 slab - and glad I did. I need to do work, not focus the looks. Will probablly build an English style in the future.
Rick Prosser
2023-11-04 15:47:24 +0000 UTCAlways select your lumber for its intended purpose...always think about where in your project each piece will go. When framing a structure and using bunks of 2x material I still selected, inferior pieces for short blocks and "cripples" and nice grained straight ones for walls that "showed". Pro tip #1, the longer 2x material in the big box store is usually superior, selected out of the log at the mill to be straighter. Pro tip #2, check out the 4x material for legs, stretchers, laminated tops etc. A small adjustment for 3 1/2" thick material, you avoid the work of laminating 2x4s for the 3" legs and stretchers, and some of the 4x material is really sweet, vertical grain and clear;)
John Griswold
2023-11-04 15:37:12 +0000 UTCBest wishes for a swift and painless procedure!
Graham Dumas
2023-11-04 13:38:48 +0000 UTCThanks for the translation. I knew I should have taken Latin in high school.
Bob Templeton
2023-11-04 13:35:01 +0000 UTCRex, I hope your procedure goes well!
Geoffrey Wilson
2023-11-04 13:30:51 +0000 UTCSo I just got my first shop and I’m in the process of upgrading my harbor freight bench. With the cost of lumber in my area yellow pine is my only option for a good quality work bench. While intimidating I was going to try my hand at the Rubio bench, but I may decide to go with the English style instead. I already got the plans and while I will probably modify to add storage I see Rex has good results from using them.
Wayne Miller
2023-11-04 12:25:41 +0000 UTCAnother tip: you are not obliged to build for the next century. In a few years, you may move place, build bigger or smaller pieces, your skills and tools will evolve and you will need a different workbench. For a hobbyist, building quick and cheap has to be considered.
Pierre-Olivier Fineltin
2023-11-04 11:58:48 +0000 UTCGreat video. My 2x bench has been going strong for 20 years. I offer one additional tip. Try to scrounge used 2x's from tear-downs and renovations. You will need to pull nails, deal with splinters, etc., but it's well seasoned, sometimes better quality than what's available from the lumber yard, and FREE! Check Craigs List and Marketplace, or contact local home renovation companies. It's usually not worth their time to reuse materials that they pull out, and they're happy to have someone drag it away.
Brian Taylor
2023-11-04 11:56:49 +0000 UTCI used to think the same thing. After building and using my Paul Sellers workbench made from 2x3, 2x4, 2x6, and 2x8 construction lumber I can say I was wrong. It’s a great workbench and instead of my “perfect” workbench I was planning since 2005 and never built, I am making things now on a good bench.
Bruce E Harang II
2023-11-04 11:09:02 +0000 UTC
