Ihave been wanting a bench that I could walk all the way around and would hold one of the 33% planes I have in the works. Ihave a couple drawer units I built for another project. and some oak book shelfs from a yard sale. The idea was to use a drawer unit on each end and book shelves in the center. One side is going to be dedicated to my parts trays, the side had to hold 48"x12"sheets of ply and longbalsa. I also am mounting it on heavy duty casters so I can move it out of the way when not in use. I decidedto use Masonite solid core flush doors for the bottom and the build table. 6' 8" x 30' x 1 3/8" bottom and a 6' 8" x 36" x 1 3/4" for the top. These doors were a very bad choice.

When I got the heavy monsters home. and setting on edge, Inoticed the top had about a 3/8"bow end to end.Something you can't see with them standing on end atHome Depot Ihave some angle iron from a box spring frame that will work just fine for a strong back on each edge of the top so I wasn't to concerned. My drawer units are centered over the casters on each end. Iattached one drawer unit and was starting to install the book shelf sides. Iam using 1/8" Luann plyas a back between the two shelfs and when I placed the ply in place to space the two shelf sides on the first drawer unit, Iwas off by about 3/8" top to bottom over the 27" height of the drawer unit. Started checking things out with a builder square and I discovered about a 3/4" bow in the bottom door. Ican pull it out with just a little tug on the top of the drawer unit. The door is like a piece of 1/2" ply for strength. Now I'm going to have to get some more bed rails and probably some 2x4's to add some strength to the bottom. I'm having some serious concerns now about the decision to use the doors as I fear they are just going to wilt around what ever strong backs I add.

So don't use these doors for your build bench. The Masonite skin will not take screws well, and the core isn't particle board like the guy at Home Depot said, but more like very tightly packed shredded wood. I can stick my jack knife in the ends about a 1/2" with little effort. No expectations of a screw holding in it, every thing will have to be through bolted.

Don</p>