# Workbench top glue up question



## BerBer5985 (Oct 10, 2011)

I'm going to the start the glue up of my workbench tomorrow and I'm using Douglas fir 4×4s for the top. My question is do I need to joint two faces making them 90 degrees on the bottom and sides, or just the sides that are being laminated together and then flatten with a hand plane after it's all glued up?? Might be a dumb question but I have to ask.


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## SNB72 (Dec 25, 2011)

I would say that you could do the latter. The top can be flattened and the underside will prob. never be seen, thats my 2cents


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## jmos (Nov 30, 2011)

I would four square them. (and I did.)

I just glued up my workbench top, and I'm happy all the boards were the 4 square. Look at it this way, if you use cauls on the top/bottom when clamping from the side, you'll get glue-ups that are very flat (I just clamped flat scraps top and bottom at each end and in the middle, worked very well). I was planing on gluing up a few boards at a time and sending the sub-assemblies through the jointer/planer before final glue-up, and ended up not having to they were so close to flat. Also, depending on how your going to mount your top, you'll want decent flatness on portions of the bottom, likewise future clamping might be impacted if the bottom is too far off flat.

I would spend the small amount of time now. Just my thoughts.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

<< $.02 I didn't make the maple top bench that I have, but, when I got it from a friend, the top was pretty beat up. all I did was flip it over, (i found a place where i could take it, and they ran it through their drum sander, yes, industrial/seriously large), then threw some/many coats o poly on the top, and viola, a new bench… SNB72 is right about the bottom never being seen, but, in this case, it saved me from making a whole new top


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