Reply To: Poplar for a Workbench?
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Projects / Poplar for a Workbench? / Reply To: Poplar for a Workbench?
Whatever represents the least cost + opportunity cost to you for the legs (if you have enough), to save money and maintain opportunity. By opportunity cost of course I mean even if you have some amazing wood that you got for free…fiddleback walnut or curly koa or something, the monetary cost of that wood was nothing to you, but the opportunity cost of using it would be high — you could make beautiful pieces from such wood, or even sell it for a substantial amount of money. Or even if the wood wasn’t particularly valuable, but you really like it personally, etc.
Now compare that situation to the poplar…even if you had to pay for the poplar, if it’s just plain Jane poplar, then the opportunity cost is low, because you can always get more plain Jane poplar for little money, at least here in the States…YMMV, but hopefully you get the point.
So curly koa == free + high oppty cost vs poplar == low cost + low oppty cost is the evaluation I would do for the legs.
I like softer woods for the top, because I never got a good answer to the question: if you drop the piece you’re working on, and it falls and hits the benchtop, or if you just accidentally bang your workpiece against the benchtop, which would you rather have dented, the workpiece or the benchtop?