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I am planning on building a woodworking bench, using a glued up top. I have several slabs of well seasoned 8/4 rough milled maple that need to be ripped and planed. Doing some homework on the process of making this sort of workbench top, I have come across two references to using "flat sawn" lumber, oriented on edge, meaning the width of the individual boards is vertical, a series of which are glued together, across their thickness. One is from my "guru" pattern maker friend and the other is from a book (The Workbench, Lon Schleining). I'm trying to understand this, as I have been thinking it should be quarter sawn, as much as possible.
Primary question is: what is the rationale for using flat sawn? A corollary question is, will it be a problem including a significant proportion of quarter and rift sawn grain?
Thinking about how the wood will move, flat sawn will shrink/expand in its width with cupping toward the convex side. But glued up, it will be largely constrained from cupping, so the primary change in dimension would be in the thickness of the finished top. Quarter sawn will shrink/expand in its thickness more than width and in the glued up finished table top, the whole top would become wider or narrower. I'm sure if I have this wrong, all y'all will let me know.
If I were buying the lumber to make this workbench top, I might be able to select the grain in favor of flat sawn. But, with cutting the boards out of these slabs, there will be a range of grain orientation, with a significant amount being quarter, rift and some flat sawn.
I'm visiting friends and see they have a large "butcher block" island counter (1-1/2"x40"x72"), which has end grain orientations ranging from quarter sawn to rift sawn, but no flat sawn. If grain orientation matters in these sorts of glue ups, I would think this countertop would show it, eventually, but my assumption is that it will not.
Please help me understand,
Rick
Primary question is: what is the rationale for using flat sawn? A corollary question is, will it be a problem including a significant proportion of quarter and rift sawn grain?
Thinking about how the wood will move, flat sawn will shrink/expand in its width with cupping toward the convex side. But glued up, it will be largely constrained from cupping, so the primary change in dimension would be in the thickness of the finished top. Quarter sawn will shrink/expand in its thickness more than width and in the glued up finished table top, the whole top would become wider or narrower. I'm sure if I have this wrong, all y'all will let me know.
If I were buying the lumber to make this workbench top, I might be able to select the grain in favor of flat sawn. But, with cutting the boards out of these slabs, there will be a range of grain orientation, with a significant amount being quarter, rift and some flat sawn.
I'm visiting friends and see they have a large "butcher block" island counter (1-1/2"x40"x72"), which has end grain orientations ranging from quarter sawn to rift sawn, but no flat sawn. If grain orientation matters in these sorts of glue ups, I would think this countertop would show it, eventually, but my assumption is that it will not.
Please help me understand,
Rick