estesbubba Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 I feel like Icky Woods finally getting some cold cuts as I started my Roubo today. I bought 170 BF of 8/4 and 40 BF of 4/4 hard maple. First thing was to put sharpened knives in my jointer and planer. I got both done in about an hour but if Grizzly has summer sale on Byrd heads it might be time. I laid out all my 8/4 boards to try and come up with a plan for minimal waste. The puppy decided they were more comfortable than the concrete. I decided to mill up 2 of the rough boards to see how it would go. Wrestling these suckers around is a workout. I hit the rough edges with the jointer then cut to 4.5" wide on the bandsaw. I face jointed and planed, then edge jointed and planed the other edge. It's a good feeling seeing these monster boards come out dead on! The front calls for 5 8/4 boards but these milled up so nicely I'm only 1/2" shy of final width right now. Should I just mill a little thinner and add a 3/4" board in the middle? Seems like a waste to plane a bunch more off these and use another 8/4 board. What do you guys think? Windows open in the shop and starting on my new bench was a great day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 I just might make my bench a little wider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FtrPilot Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 .........The front calls for 5 8/4 boards but these milled up so nicely I'm only 1/2" shy of final width right now. Should I just mill a little thinner and add a 3/4" board in the middle? Seems like a waste to plane a bunch more off these and use another 8/4 board. What do you guys think? Congrats...looks like you are off to a great start! I would mill all of the long boards before making the decision. Personally, I would keep to the plans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 You would need to carefully look at the plans and make sure it won't affect the vises or dog hole strip. But a slightly bigger overhang shouldn't be an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 Deviating from the plans opens the door for bonehead mistakes...otherwise, no reason not to...just complicates things a little. If I were to make the bench deeper, I'd wanna do it on the rear slab instead of the front where all of the important and challenging stuff happens. I'm too OCD to have that one 3/4" board mixed in with all the rest of the 8/4 boards...otherwise, no reason not to...just unnerves you every time you see it for the rest of your life. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 I agree with Eric, I'd add it to the back slab, just keep it in your mind that the back slab dimensions are a bit bigger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonD Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 Nice progress. I think the others read into your question differently. As I understand it you are keeping the slab to the dimensions in the plan and the question is whether to use another 8/4 board and plane a lot of waste off of each board or just use a 4/4 board and plane off much less waste. If that's the case I don't see a problem at all. I did that for the back slab. I put it in the middle and it looks fine IMO. There's a picture in my build thread if you want to see how it looks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 ==>What do you guys think? Depends on how OCD you are... Actually, I'm not sure that's a joke... There's a lot of OCD in building a bench... There’s a blog entry by either JA or CS on milling the top – I forget which… Basically, you start with one more stick than you need, divide the total into the final width and mill accordingly… All sticks in the top will be the same width… After seeing photos of his benches, I suspect it was from JA*… For my build, the top was 12/4 QS Sugar (rock) Maple and the base was a heavy 8/4- Pennsylvania Black Cherry... I bought extra sticks of both for the inevitable mistake... Now for the real quesiton: round or square? *BTW: I also believe this came-up during Marc's Q/A with CS... Could be wrong... But.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted March 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 Nice progress. I think the others read into your question differently. As I understand it you are keeping the slab to the dimensions in the plan and the question is whether to use another 8/4 board and plane a lot of waste off of each board or just use a 4/4 board and plane off much less waste. If that's the case I don't see a problem at all. I did that for the back slab. I put it in the middle and it looks fine IMO. There's a picture in my build thread if you want to see how it looks. Brandon, yes I'm not changing the dimensions of the project as it's already going to be challenging enough. Since this is part of the front top section that needs to be 7 13/16" I'm thinking of using 3/4" board. This section will have dog strip and face added to it so it will already have varying widths on that section. When I mill up more boards from the rough stock I'll see if I can use 4 of them. Putting a contrasting wood down the center will actually be off once the dog strip and laminate are added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 Awesome! Can't wait to see this build. How did the bandsaw do with the boards? What blade did you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted March 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Awesome! Can't wait to see this build. How did the bandsaw do with the boards? What blade did you use? Bandsaw did fine using 1/2" 3 TPI blade but those monster rough boards don't glide smoothly across the table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted March 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Originally I thought about using walnut or cherry for the end cap and chop. Since I have the machined wheels with rosewood knobs, I want these to stand out and leaning all maple now. Walnut or cherry won't match the rosewood which might look out of place. What do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenaqua Posted March 24, 2015 Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 I like your progress. If ocd isn't an issue then go ahead with the 3/4" board. I dont like the look of a different color end cap but I think the chop or sliding deadman look good as a different wood species. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted March 24, 2015 Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Bandsaw did fine using 1/2" 3 TPI blade but those monster rough boards don't glide smoothly across the table. Ya I bet not! Glad to hear the grizzly was up to the task with a good blade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted March 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2015 Milled up some more boards and will be able to use 6 boards instead of 7 for the back which is nice. Front is 1/2" shy from being able to use 4 so I'll mill up one more. Very happy how flat these all turned out. About 4" total waste from the edges which isn't bad and still have 92 BF of 8/4 left plus some shorter stuff so should be good on wood. Milling these monster boards is a workout but actually really fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted March 28, 2015 Report Share Posted March 28, 2015 Looks great so far! I bet that was fun wrestling those boards around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonD Posted March 28, 2015 Report Share Posted March 28, 2015 Nice. Keep the progress up :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted March 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 You guys think I should run the boards thru the drum sander or light sanding by hand before gluing? Ran thru planar on slow speed but a few light lines from knife nicks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Why the slow speed? Just curious cause I don't know. Figured it's one speed handles all?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FtrPilot Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Great progress...where was your helper? You guys think I should run the boards thru the drum sander or light sanding by hand before gluing? Ran thru planar on slow speed but a few light lines from knife nicks. I am not planning to sand before glueing when I get to this stage on my Roubo. I am interested in how the other folks answer your question and the rationale they provide. Are your concerned with the light lines from the knife nicks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Nah, not necessary. There's so much glue surface and glue and clamping pressure that it won't matter. In fact an argument could be made that those little planer lines will actually be an advantage...think toothing plane and veneering. Get back to work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted March 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 I edge jointed, planed the other edge, then planed the back to final width. It came out great. Next I milled another 8/4 board for the front and kept taking a 16th off each board to hit 7 13/16. Misread my ruler and took one pass too many and ended up at 7 3/4 After hours of jointing and planing I was brain-numb at the end and stupid mistake. Don't know it's going to cause problems with other measurements down the road. I might just mill another to be safe and punish myself to think things out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 It seems to me that a 16th is about a rounding error.. I would go through my steps ahead and think through it. With a clear head, you should be able to see if it will cause any issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenaqua Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 I left mine about 1/32" wider than the plans. I plan on adjusting this when I get to the short rails of the base. Or you can adjust it in your gap stop thickness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FtrPilot Posted April 1, 2015 Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 It would impact your end cap, depending on how you plan to do the endcap mortise and the front top tenon. My plan is to extend the mortise all the way to the end of the end cap. Here's a picture showing how I plan to do mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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