The others use MDF for their bench tops, but this was never an option for the Dash-Board. The typical 18mm thickness is super heavy, and if you try to shave weight by going thinner, it becomes so flexible and fragile that you might as well use a slice of bread.
I chose Baltic birch from the beginning because I needed a material that would be strong even in a 12mm thickness, so the bench could be a more useful size than what Herr Festool keeps pushing off the dock, while maintaining portability.
Combined with our unique, extruded aluminum frame and multiple stretchers designed specifically to be inflexible, the top is kept flat and the bench remains very light for its size, far lighter per unit of surface area than the others.
Baltic birch is also handsome and durable, especially when sealed. (I recommend EM9300 from Target Coatings as an excellent and user-friendly sealer to protect your top from moisture and dirt.) If a repair is ever necessary, a bit of putty, sanding, and refinishing is all you’ll need to restore its glory.
It’s also really helpful that, unlike the others, our concept doesn’t insist that you should carve up your bench top like you’re out to julienne a bag of carrots; all sawing operations are directed to the replaceable cut strip and off the edges of the top, where the only thing you’ll cut apart from your workpiece is air.
