Hello

Im new to the forum, this is my first real post.

Im in the prosses of building a work bench.

2x4" pine laminated with maple outside edges.

My question is, do to the bench being in a non temp. controled environment here in Wi. will glue on its own work well or would I be better off running threaded rod through the "stood on end" lamenated lumber to keep from splitting.

I hope I have explaned my self well and thank you.

You explained yourself well! And welcome to the site! 

I can only tell you what I would do. I live in SO. California and weather is pretty stable. That being said, I would most definitely run all-thread through those bench lams and plug em. Here in CA, I would do it. Your only talking a couple more hours in labor, and in the context of the importance of a flat and solid bench, why not go that extra mile. The fact that you questioned it, means you need to do it, you'll feel better about the longevity of the bench if you do. Pictures please!!!!

So far ive planed the bords and did a lot of moving things around.

Ill be bolting together, thank you.

Edited January 4, 201610 yr by Scout80
Wasnt done with the text

Wood expands mostly across the grain- in your case(bottom to top). You are using the same type of wood for all of the pieces so the expansion rate for the entire piece should be pretty much equal. Rods will certainly add stability. The only caveat I can see would be that, with my luck, the rods would be exactly where I'd want to create a dog hole or mount vice hardware. 

The outside edges of the top are maple.

But yes, that was exactly why i didnt want to run bolts through.

The only thing with this operation that raises a red flag with me, is the pine, I'd opt for the rods just because of the pine, if it were a complete solid maple top, I may dismiss the bolts.

Here is a good article from Christopher Schwartz, regarding a quip about rods.

Quote

Rule No. 1: Always Add Mass
Early Roman workbenches were built like a Windsor chair. Stout legs were tenoned into a massive top and wedged in place. Traditional French workbenches had massive tops (6″ thick), with legs that were big enough to be called tree trunks. Later workbenches relied more on engineering than mass. The classic continental-style workbench uses a trestle design and dovetails in the aprons and vises to create a bench for the ages. The 19th-century English workbench uses an early torsion-box design to create a stable place to work. And good-quality modern workbenches use threaded rods and bolts to tighten up a design that lacks mass.

It looks like you have some mass going on there Stout, so perhaps I am blowing smoke by stating you should need rods, but I am only telling you what I would do.

Here is the entire article: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/rules_for_workbenches

 

Your top is pretty beefy, even in the aforementioned article it is stated that Pine should be fine. This could be a toss up!

Edited January 4, 201610 yr by Courtland

Here's a link to an expansion calculator- http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl?calculator=shrinkage

It should give you an idea of the difference between the expansion of the two species.