Popular Woodworking 2005-11 № 151, страница 19

Letters

continued from page 14

What Wood Should Western Woodworkers Use for a Workbench?

Your magazine's web site has a downloadable plan for a workbench that I'm interested in building. (I believe this plan is similar to one you presented in a previous issue of the magazine.) The plan calls for Southern yellow pine, which is not stocked in my area. Would Douglas fir be a suitable alternative to the pine ? My general feeling is that Doug fir is a little soft, and maybe a little sappy for a workbench, but I'd like to get your opinion.

Greg Long Corvallis, Oregon

I've built several benches using Southern yellow pine and have been satisfied with it. However, the trick to choosing your wood isn't to worry about the particular species, but instead to focus on the properties of local woods that would be suitable for a bench. You need a wood that is stiff, dense, dry and inexpensive.

By every measure, yellow pine is tougher and stiffer than Douglas fir. Fir might be OK for a bench, but before you go forth, I'd investigate woods in your area that are similar in strength to yellow pine, including larch, oak, maple, ash, birch and beech. All of those species are excellent benchtop material.

— Christopher Schwarz, executive editor

On Norm and Nomenclature

As a follower of Norm Abram's work with wood from the days of the "Boston Old House," I enjoyed the additional background information in the August 2005 issue.

While Steve Shanesy commented on Norm's New England "drawr-ings" (possibly due to an "r" that fell out of some "draw?"), he didn't comment on his contribution to the

demise of the verb "to drill." Why is it that every hole that he makes is "pre-drilled?" The only kind of fastener that goes into place as the hole is drilled is the drill-tipped sheet metal screw. For everything else, a drill bit must make a hole and be withdrawn before the fastener goes in; thus the "pre" is superfluous.

There is a perfectly good use of the word root as an adjective, however. Sometimes a hole must be drilled before parts are assembled

in a way that will make the use of a drill impossible later. When the fastener is inserted at this later stage of assembly, it is correct to say that it goes into a "pre-drilled" hole, i.e. one drilled at some earlier time. However, languages being changing things, I suppose there will be more people who repeat this unnecessary prefix. At least it isn't like "nucular!" PW

Milford Brown El Cerrito, California

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