I too am building a Roubo

[FtrPilot]

I am relatively new to woodworking, about 3 years. I started in a friend's basement, building
wall cabinets for my garage. I had so much fun, I decided to accumulate tools and set up my
own shop.  Unfortunately, I don't have a basement, so my shop is in my garage and severely
space limited.

I am at the point where I need a real woodworking workbench. I researched on-line the
different workbenches for sale, and through my searches, discovered Benchcrafted, and their
Roubo design...I am really glad I did.  After several months of back and forth, make or buy,
I finally decided to make the Roubo.   I purchased the traditional "C" style, and that locked
in my decision.

My friend Bob, with the basement workshop, is also my mentor. He is helping and mentoring as
I progress with woodworking. Everyone should have a friend like Bob.

Bob and I then went looking for wood to build the bench top. After several trips to some
local lumber yards, I decided on Alder for the bench top. I know that Alder is one of the
softer hardwoods, and not traditional for workbenches.  However, the boards we found were
absolutely gorgeous. The boards are bought, decision final, and I am sticking to it.

I am building the base out of white oak, which Bob had stored in his basement.  Not just any
old white oak. These were 4"x 6"x 7' beams that were salvaged out of an old North Carolina
tobacco barn, around 1992. The beams sat in a friend's garage for a couple of years, then
given to Bob in 1996. Bob has stored them in his basement since then and has used a couple
for various project. When we laid out the Roubo project, Bob offered to use the beams for the
base. I offered to pay for the beams, but he said he got them for free, therefore, I get them
for free.  As I said earlier, everyond should have a friend like Bob. Based on the growth
rings, I would estimate the oak trees were about 75 years old when harvested. Assuming the
tobacco barn was 50 years old when torn down, that would mean that the trees were planted at
the time of the civil war. Wow!

The boards for the shelf are also white oak. They are coming from a friend in east Georgia.  
Three years ago, he had a tornado go through his back yard. Fortunately, his house was
undamaged.  However he had 3 large oak trees knocked down. He is an experienced woodworker
and has harvested the trees for some other projects.  He has more than enough left to
complete my shelf.  I will pick them up in mid April.

The Benchcrafted Roubo dimensions are 87" x 24" x 35". Due to limited space in my garage, I
am building my Roubo at 78" x 24" x 35". The Benchcrafted design is based on 8/4 boards. My
alder boards are 10/4. These changes significantly impact the tail vise install and the dog
holes. I have made drawings to reflect the changes.  However, Bob and I have also glued some
old 2x4 and 2x6 segments together to practice routing the tail vise cavity and practice the
tail vise install, including condor tails.

Benchcrafted recommend building the base first, which I am doing.  Today, I finished the
first dry fit of the base, with Bob's help.  Attached are pictures of the base.  I am happy with the
progress.
 

[Eric.]

Looking good so far.  Now for the fun part.

[Shane Jimerfield]

That's gonns be a great bench. Good work so far.

I love reclaimed wood and those beams look perfect.

[Coop]

Not only is going to look good but it has history!

Good luck on your build.

I was going to say "I need a Bob" but that just doesn't sound right

[bushwacked]

Very cool. Can't wait to watch this build as well

[estesbubba]

That's one beefy base! I hope to have my bench started within a week.

[FtrPilot]

To estesbubba...I went to your web site, and took your shop tour. I am impressed. You obviously don't park your cars in the garage.  The only thing missing is a Roubo.  Looking as some of the fabulous things you have made, your current bench has served you well.  However, it is time for a Roubo.

 

Regarding the base...if you build your Roubo according to Benchcrafted plans, then your base will be a little beefier.  The plans call for each leg to be 5 3/8 x 3 1/2.  Mine are 5 3/16 x 3 1/2. Also, the plan overall dimensions for the base are 52 3/8 x 24.  Mine is 49 7/8 x 24.

 

I look forward to seeing some of your pics.

 

Regards,

FtrPilot

 

 

[FtrPilot]

Since I have a mentor who is teaching and helping, I need to describe the work to date, and who performed what.  

I did the planning, using the Benchcrafted 3d model.  I broke out the individual parts of the base, with their dimensions, and provided them to Bob.  He then did the preliminary cutting, jointing & planing of the oak timbers. The timbers were in rough shape, and looked more like railroad ties, then oak.

I then took the 4 legs and cut them to the desired length.  Bob and I then planed them to the same final dimensions of  5 3/16 x 3 1/2.  I fed them into the planer, and Bob then handed them back to me.  With 2 of us working together, this went pretty fast.

The leg mortises for the upper and lower side braces were routed using a jig that I developed.  

The leg mortises for the front and rear braces were routed using an edge guide. I drew the mortises on the leg then carefully routed them.

After I routed all of the leg mortises, Bob showed me how to square the corners using chisels.  He gave me a 30 second demo. I then squared all of the mortises. I definitely had a learning curve. These are the first mortises I have done.

All of the above work was done in Bob's basement.  

I then took all of the parts to my garage to route the tenons.  I routed all of the tenons on my Woodpecker's router table.  All in all, very happy with the fit.

Back to Bob's basement where I drilled the holes for the barrel nuts & bolts. Bob and I then assembled the base for the first dry fit.

All of the above occurred over a 6 week time period. However, 2 of the weeks were spent in the UK, celebrating my Father-in-Law's 90th birthday.

I will update this post with a picture of the jig that I developed for the leg mortises.

 

Here's a picture of the base, with one of the alder boards I will use for the top.

 

 

Here's pictures of my current setup. You can see why I am building a Roubo.

 

 

 

 

FtrPilot
 

[Gary]

This is looking awesome! You'll wonder how you ever got by without a good bench. The workholding possibilities are great with this bench. Milling stock is far easier as well since you don't have to chase a lightweight bench across the floor. Plus all of your force gets transferred to the workpiece and isn't wasted in bounceback when chiseling, etc.

[Brendon_t]

I'll definitely be following this one. Cool story.

I WANT A BOB.. ha ha snicker snicker

[FtrPilot]

I took some close up pictures of the the legs to show some of the patchwork I have done.  The Oak beams had some nail holes, knot holes, checks, and other imperfections that needed repair, but do not impact strength.  As a bonus, you can check out the mortises and my chisel work.

 

This picture shows circular plugs on the top leg.  I used plugs to patch all nail holes,  On the bottom leg, I used rectangular patches to patch checks.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any "before" pictures.

 

 

 

 

This picture shows a square patch I used to cover a knot hole.

 

 

 

 

This picture shows some knot holes that I filled with epoxy.  I added sawdust to the epoxy mixture to try to match color.

 

 

 

 

This picture shows a leg with a rectangular patch down the entire length of the leg.

 

 

 

 

This picture shows a plug and a football shaped patch.

 

 

 

Here's a picture of my cat, making it very difficult to post these pictures.

 

 

FtrPilot

[Coop]

I'm impressed with your mortises.

Looks like the cat got your mouse.

Keep the pics a coming!

[FtrPilot]

Production Update...

 

Three days ago, I glued up the right side of the base in Bob's basement.  We debated on the best way to do the glue up, and decided that since the dry fit went so well, we would glue up the right side with the base assembled.

 

Here's a picture:

 

 

 

We were able to square all edges using just 4 clamps.  Here's a picture with an engineering square.

 

 

 

Two days ago, I worked in my garage to cut the dados for the ledgers, in the front, rear, and 2 lower side rails. You can see the dados in the first picture above.

 

I also milled the ledgers from an white oak board that I had left over from a previous project.  The fit is very snug, so I will round the edges and sand the ledgers prior to glueing them.  I will show pictures of the ledgers when I document final assembly of the base.

 

 

Yesterday, Bob and I unclamped the base, then I drilled the holes for the dowels.  This morning, I cut a spiral groove in each dowel, and sanded them lightly to ensure a tight fit.  I then glued the 8 dowels...Here's some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

This afternoon, I cut the dowels flush.  Picture below.

 

 

All in all, very happy with the progress.

 

 

FtrPilot

[wtnhighlander]

That is a massive base, I can't wait to see it with the top on! Nice work!

[estesbubba]

Looking good. Bob is a lot better helper than what I have for my Roubo build...

[Brendon_t]

Man those ate some big old honkin legs. .

[bushwacked]

Looking good. Bob is a lot better helper than what I have for my Roubo build...

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427336031.920172.jpg

Haha you can send your helper down to Texas any day

[FtrPilot]

No progress on the Roubo, as I have spent the last 3 days harvesting a sweet gum tree.

 

 

Next up is the leg vise install.  I am reading the install manual (pdf) for the 6th or 7th time.  I hope to start routing & drilling the leg on Tuesday...Monday will be spent on another hobby.

 

 

Looking good. Bob is a lot better helper than what I have for my Roubo build...
 

 

Good looking pup...

 

Also, I am following your Roubo build and looking forward to your next update.

 

Regards,

FtrPilot

 

 

[FtrPilot]

Leg Vise...

 

Yesterday, in Bob's basement, I drilled the hole for the Crisscross mounting pin in the left front leg.  I then took the leg to my garage and routed the crisscross mortise.  Back to Bob's basement to dry fit the crisscross...no problems.

 

This afternoon, I glued up the right side.  Here's the picture.

 

 

 

In the picture, you can see the ledgers, which are dry fit into their respective dados.

 

Plan is to leave the clamps on for 24 hours.

[Brendon_t]

Are you building the chop out of alder as well?

[FtrPilot]

Are you building the chop out of alder as well?

 

Right now, that is the plan.  However, I plan to cut, mill, and glue the top before attacking the chop.  If I don't have enough alder for the chop, I have access to cherry and white oak as a backup.  Right now, I plan to make the Gap stop out of cherry.

[FtrPilot]

The base is essentially complete and has been moved from Bob's basement to my garage (workshop).  The deadman runner has been made, but is not attached to the front rail. I will attach the runner during dry fit of the top and completing the deadman mortise in the top.

 

Here's a couple of pictures:

 

 

 

Note in each picture that I have attached UHMW feet on the legs.

[Tpt life]

Looking good Phantom! Are you at all concerned about the UHMW making the bench scoot or am I over thinking its friction reducing property?

[FtrPilot]

Looking good Phantom! Are you at all concerned about the UHMW making the bench scoot or am I over thinking its friction reducing property?

 

Due to my workshop (garage) space constraints, my Roubo will normally be located against a wall.  However, I expect that I will occasionally need to move the Roubo to the middle of my shop. I have looked at several wheeled options, including the casters in the following link... at $70 each.

 

http://www.amazon.com/FOOTMASTER-GDR-60F-BLK-Ratcheting-Leveling-Caster/dp/B00I2JH1NK/ref=pd_sim_sbs_indust_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0DN25PYFSHSNRK59AM2X

 

Right now, the UHMW is my low cost solution. Based on info from some other blogs, the weight of the finished bench is sufficient to keep it from sliding under normal use.  However, the bench can be moved with some effort.

 

Phantoms Phorever

[Brendon_t]

I have seen some pretty awesome lever actuated casters that allow the bench to sit on it's own legs until you strip on the toggle that engages the caster. Once you win the bench race, tap it back and it sets back on the legs. If I remember right, they were in the high $30 range . I'll do some searching to see if I can find it again.

And the base looks great BTW. can't wait to see the tops attached and finishing touches.