Questions answered - Why laminate legs?

Greetings.  

I greatly enjoyed your video about making a workbench in the back yard.  Lots of great info.

Questions:

1. you made the top out of spruce, and the legs out of pine, is that correct?  

2. I understand laminating the top, by why laminate 2X4's instead of using a 4X4?

Best regards,

Tom

Hello Tom,

1) Somewhat! The wood that I used was the equivalent of SP&F in the US (spruce pine and fir). In other words it could be pure or a hybrid.

2) I wanted something so real that it would meet the needs of everyone anywhere. Everyone in Europe and the USA can get hold of four-bys. My two-bys came from B&Q - the equivalent of The Home Depot or Lowes in the US. I also wanted to buy stock people could hand plane the surfaces of that didn't necessarily matter so that they could practice their hand planing to gain mastery of the plane without risking anything and at the end of the day still have a solid thing that they made that had a true functional value and they could either be proud of or have their first stepping stone to perfecting or at least establishing planing skills. Simple yet effective, this project provided the ideal vehicle for that.

The back yard thing may seem a bit gimmicky but I wanted something real for that too.in the US, which is where you are, four-bys are standard stock in dimensional building lumber from HD and Lowes. That's not the case at all in Europe and the UK, although you could find it if you dig deep enough. European housing is not made from stick-frame stock but usually brick, stone or similar.

Thanks for the questions. I may post them on my blog so others an understand the reasoning too.

Best regards,

Paul