Quite often on here people ask for suggestions on work bench tops. Answers(all good) range from buying a butcher block cabinet top from Lowes, to solid core doors, to stacking pieces of 3/4 inch plywood together. I'll describe how woodworkers make a workbench top. To do the best job a jointer and planer are required, and a table saw is almost absolutely necessary.
Get, preferrably for free, a supply of rough, dry, hardwood lumber. East of the Mississippi and for some distance west of it, this means hard maple, oak,
hickory, pecan, beech, soft maple, sweetgum, and ash. Poplar is classed as a hardwood, but it's not all that hard. Sweetgum is hard and tough, but difficult to dry without it twisting.
If you are West of the Mississippi you need to get local advice on wood. There are some West coast oaks but I'm not familiar with them. Parts of Texas has mesquite, but if you collect enough mesquite to make a bench you can sell it and but a ready made bench.
A good bench top is glued together, most modern water resistant yellow glues are fine. To hold the top together you need pipe clamps. 4 or 5 with long enough pipe to make the clamps should be enough. Use 3/4 inch clamps. Jorgenson is the best US made clamp, but HF ones will work. If you get HF ones, take them out of the box and check to see if the screw functions smoothly. Ask me how I know! The 4 or 5 clamps is assuming a bench not over 5 feet long, if its a longer bench you need more clamps. You will need clamps for welding prijects, so it's not a one time deal.
Decide on your top's thickness. A 2 inch top is heavy, more than that is REALLY heavy so plan accordingly.
The top is made up of strips of wood which must be square before being glued. Run one edge over the jointer to remove any curves in the wood. If it has much of a curve, you can reject that piece of wood. Jointing produces a square edge which you place against the fence in the table saw and rip a length of board of appropriate width. Take the board back to the jointer and joint one side. Now the board is thicker at one end and/or in the middle so you have to run it through the planer to the board of even thickness all the length of it. You should do this in stages, ending with planing all the boards one after the other to get them all the same thickness.
Put half the clamps jaws up on whatever surface you are going to glue up on. Have them setting up on some surface, like short 2 x 4s, so that you can turn the screw crank without it hitting the surface you are working on. Working rapidly, apply glue with brush or card to the surfaces to be glued, while they are standing up right. When through applying glue, turns boards over to face each other and start clamping. Put the remainder of the clamps on top and apply final pressure. Pressure should be enough to close all cracks between boards. Too much pressure can squeeze so much glue out the joint is starved for glue, so don't apply your full strength. You should only do a 12 inch width at a time, because in spite of you best efforts, some boards will be higher than others. To solve this you have to run the glued up strips through the planer again. Then taking great care to keep the edges true, glue your planed strips together for the final width.
The ends will not be even. You should keep one end even and true during the gluing process by tapping in the boards that are sticking out. You can clamp a straight board in place for a guide and cut the other end true with a skillsaw. Mark your line first.
Put a finish of your choosing on the top. Tung oil Finish is good, but there are others.
A frame can be made of steel. In that case, you can drill holes and run lag bolts into the top to fasten it. If so, drill the holes slightly larger than the size of the bolts and do not fasten the bilts tightly Wood will take in and give off moistrue and the top will expand and contract. If fastened too tightly the changes can split the top.
KEH
Get, preferrably for free, a supply of rough, dry, hardwood lumber. East of the Mississippi and for some distance west of it, this means hard maple, oak,
hickory, pecan, beech, soft maple, sweetgum, and ash. Poplar is classed as a hardwood, but it's not all that hard. Sweetgum is hard and tough, but difficult to dry without it twisting.
If you are West of the Mississippi you need to get local advice on wood. There are some West coast oaks but I'm not familiar with them. Parts of Texas has mesquite, but if you collect enough mesquite to make a bench you can sell it and but a ready made bench.
A good bench top is glued together, most modern water resistant yellow glues are fine. To hold the top together you need pipe clamps. 4 or 5 with long enough pipe to make the clamps should be enough. Use 3/4 inch clamps. Jorgenson is the best US made clamp, but HF ones will work. If you get HF ones, take them out of the box and check to see if the screw functions smoothly. Ask me how I know! The 4 or 5 clamps is assuming a bench not over 5 feet long, if its a longer bench you need more clamps. You will need clamps for welding prijects, so it's not a one time deal.
Decide on your top's thickness. A 2 inch top is heavy, more than that is REALLY heavy so plan accordingly.
The top is made up of strips of wood which must be square before being glued. Run one edge over the jointer to remove any curves in the wood. If it has much of a curve, you can reject that piece of wood. Jointing produces a square edge which you place against the fence in the table saw and rip a length of board of appropriate width. Take the board back to the jointer and joint one side. Now the board is thicker at one end and/or in the middle so you have to run it through the planer to the board of even thickness all the length of it. You should do this in stages, ending with planing all the boards one after the other to get them all the same thickness.
Put half the clamps jaws up on whatever surface you are going to glue up on. Have them setting up on some surface, like short 2 x 4s, so that you can turn the screw crank without it hitting the surface you are working on. Working rapidly, apply glue with brush or card to the surfaces to be glued, while they are standing up right. When through applying glue, turns boards over to face each other and start clamping. Put the remainder of the clamps on top and apply final pressure. Pressure should be enough to close all cracks between boards. Too much pressure can squeeze so much glue out the joint is starved for glue, so don't apply your full strength. You should only do a 12 inch width at a time, because in spite of you best efforts, some boards will be higher than others. To solve this you have to run the glued up strips through the planer again. Then taking great care to keep the edges true, glue your planed strips together for the final width.
The ends will not be even. You should keep one end even and true during the gluing process by tapping in the boards that are sticking out. You can clamp a straight board in place for a guide and cut the other end true with a skillsaw. Mark your line first.
Put a finish of your choosing on the top. Tung oil Finish is good, but there are others.
A frame can be made of steel. In that case, you can drill holes and run lag bolts into the top to fasten it. If so, drill the holes slightly larger than the size of the bolts and do not fasten the bilts tightly Wood will take in and give off moistrue and the top will expand and contract. If fastened too tightly the changes can split the top.
KEH