My workbench (yes, it's a Roubo)

[SawDustB]

I've needed to build a real workbench for a while. Right now, most of my work happens either on a workmate or on the table saw surface. I had another thread discussing the design decisions for the bench here: 

 

http://www.woodtalkonline.com/topic/21063-pondering-bench-design/

 

The bench design is going to be following the Guild project as closely as possible. The summary (from the other thread) of what I plan to do:

1. The bench will be between 5.5 and 6 feet in length. I bought 8/4 hard maple in nominal 12 foot lengths so it's a couple inches longer (enough for the top). It will be as close to 6 feet as I can get, depending on defects and slab glue up. I'm OK if it ends up being 5' 10" or something instead. @TIODS has helped me with a few suggestions for the shop, but we both agreed that the 6 foot bench is probably the right fit for my workspace.

2. My bench is going to follow the plans as much as possible. This means I'll be making the overhang on the right side of the bench match the 19 and change in the plans rather than the 18 I had planned.

3. I'll take part of the difference in length from the left overhang, and part from the middle. I want at least a four inch overhang, and if I remove length from the middle it'll be an exact multiple of the dog hole spacing. This means everything should work out around the legs with them.

4. The vises will be assembled based on vise screws I'm buying from Lee valley. I also plan to put on the criss cross mechanism with the leg vise.

5. I'm thinking for the end cap I'll do the unglued condor tails with bolts. Especially with doing my own vise, I want to be able to remove it if necessary.

6. The bench will be hard maple, with either walnut or cherry for the end cap and chop. Still deciding.

7. Square dogs. I'm convinced based on all the arguments that they're awesome. I'm also going to add a few round holdfast holes according to the plans.

8. I'm going to use the knock down bench bolts for the assembly. I'm also going to try to get some of the rockler bench wheels so it can be mobile.

My build thread may be a little unconventional in a couple of aspects, since I'm not using the Benchcrafted hardware for everything and I'm missing a couple of the tools usually used in the build. I'm used to adapting with what I have, so it should all work out fine, right? 

[SawDustB]

So far, I've only picked up lumber for the top (and a bit extra, 2-3 legs worth). Since my hardwood place is nearby, and I'm cramped for space, my plan is to more or less completely build the top, then get the rest and build the base. The other factor was that I'm pretty sure i was already over the weight limit on my roof rack. I'm building the top from 12 foot long 8/4 pieces, mostly 5-6 inches wide but also a couple 9 inches. I know the ideal would be 4.5-5 or 9-10 inches, but I took what I could get. I chose 12 feet so I could get 2 boards from each, since they're all a couple inches oversized.

This was my pile after coming home:

The next order of business was to make them 6 feet instead of 12. My daughter insisted on helping:

I started with the jigsaw, but with my daughter wanting to be up close and the younger one napping, I brought out my inner Neanderthal. I really need some better hand saws. That one's great for 2x4s, not so much with hard maple.

Finally, I was left with this. Next up is jointing. I tried flattening one board, with a Stanley 5 and 6. It worked well enough, but the problem is I'm building this bench because i have no good place to plane... And I'm jointing by hand before these hit the planer. One down, 13 to go.

[Alan G]

Good Luck with the build!

[mat60]

That maple will be a great top. Be nice if you had a old door or something you could lay over your saw horses so you had something to build on. I'm going to enjoy this project man.

[wdwerker]

After hand jointing that pile you should have arms like Popeye's !

[Brendon_t]

How close are they to true as they sit. If it were me, I would check and eliminate any twist then hit or miss plane them. A little bow is quite easy to pull out with so many other boards on the pile.  If you choose to plane one side down first on all of them, more power to ya.

[SawDustB]

32 minutes ago, mat60 said:

That maple will be a great top. Be nice if you had a old door or something you could lay over your saw horses so you had something to build on. I'm going to enjoy this project man.

I do have some plywood I could lay across. My plan is to build the top then use it on sawhorses to build the rest.

32 minutes ago, wdwerker said:

After hand jointing that pile you should have arms like Popeye's !

I can only hope! I'm only planning to get it flat enough to let the planer do the rest. I'm WAY too lazy to completely surface everything by hand. We'll see... if it's way too much work, I'll just quietly build a planer sled in the background 

21 minutes ago, Brendon_t said:

How close are they to true as they sit. If it were me, I would check and eliminate any twist then hit or miss plane them. A little bow is quite easy to pull out with so many other boards on the pile.  If you choose to plane one side down first on all of them, more power to ya.

I was pretty picky with the stock, so there's no major twist or anything to deal with. I tried with one board just to get it flat with the hand plane relative to the planer bed, but didn't worry about planing out the tiny bit of cup in the board. With 8/4 at 5 inches wide, the thickness planer should deal with that. With a second board that looked pretty good, I tried just skip planing with the planer and did no jointing first. It's not bad, but there's maybe 1/8 of twist over the 6 foot length. I stopped when it didn't seem to be working, and I'll have to tackle it again with the planes before I use the planer again.

While I like my hand planes well enough, I have no intention of doing any more work at this step than I have to.

[wdwerker]

The biggest trick to using a long planer sled is providing a level smooth infeed and outfeed surface to support the sled. I set up a third table alongside the planer so I can slide the sled back for the next pass.  I use a stack of playing cards to level the board. If there is a twist clamp one corner down and see how many cards will fit under the opposite corner. Put half of the stack under each corner and tape them down. I screwed "L" shaped blocks at each corner to keep the board from moving around. 

[SawDustB]

Thanks Steve. I'll keep that in mind if I end up trying it. Of course, I went and watched the milling video (which I should have done first, but I was already out in the garage) and it seems that skip planing is probably OK for this project. I think I'll still do a bit of hand jointing on the worst ones, but that confirms my thoughts that it doesn't need to be perfect. I'm never sure if it's a problem to clamp out minor bows like that, but I guess if I can push it together by hand it's probably fine.

[..Kev]

6 minutes ago, SawDustB said:

Thanks Steve. I'll keep that in mind if I end up trying it. Of course, I went and watched the milling video (which I should have done first, but I was already out in the garage) and it seems that skip planing is probably OK for this project. I think I'll still do a bit of hand jointing on the worst ones, but that confirms my thoughts that it doesn't need to be perfect. I'm never sure if it's a problem to clamp out minor bows like that, but I guess if I can push it together by hand it's probably fine.

Yep..  You'd like them to be as good as you can get them but, if you can press them tight by hand, you're good to go.

[Coop]

Good luck on your build bud, you have another follower here!

[Chet]

3 hours ago, SawDustB said:

My daughter insisted on helping:

This is great, get her involved when you can you never no the interest you might spark in her.  I see she has a safety helmet on. 

[SawDustB]

This is great, get her involved when you can you never no the interest you might spark in her.  I see she has a safety helmet on. 

Yup, the helmet was in response to me saying it was too dangerous for her to stand right beside me while I used the jigsaw. She added gloves when I said she might get a splinter. I gave up and used a hand saw, and we had a very extended conversation about how it worked. She kept wanting me to turn the boards over and show her how it was cutting.

[Brendon_t]

5 minutes ago, SawDustB said:

Yup, the helmet was in response to me saying it was too dangerous for her to stand right beside me while I used the jigsaw. She added gloves when I said she might get a splinter. I gave up and used a hand saw, and we had a very extended conversation about how it worked. She kept wanting me to turn the boards over and show her how it was cutting. 

It looks like she's taking up the supervisory position well.

[wtnhighlander]

If she is showing that much interest, the spark may already be smoldering. Fan those flames as often as you can!

[MattF]

I will be watching this one. 

 

My son is 4 and is always allowed in the shop when Daddy is in there. He is 4 and loves it. I'm trying to pass on another woodworking generation. The more people that can make something with their hands the better, in my opinion.

[SawDustB]

I will be watching this one. 

 

My son is 4 and is always allowed in the shop when Daddy is in there. He is 4 and loves it. I'm trying to pass on another woodworking generation. The more people that can make something with their hands the better, in my opinion.

My daughter just turned 3. I often only get time if she's out with me, and she's always interested in helping. I just wish I could find safety glasses in her size, since she gets mad about being kept further away. She does have her own hearing protection, and she likes to add her own safety equipment (like the helmet).

[SawDustB]

I had a chance to do a little more last night. I had two boards that needed to be ripped down into two halves. While my jigsaw was fine for the cross cuts, it wandered all over on a rip cut. Instead, I ended up using my circular saw, a new Bosch one I picked on sale.

It worked great! About 2/3 of the way through cutting, I remembered that I had bought a dust adapter for it. With that in the shop vac, it was almost dustless. Anyway, I figured this was a better idea than trying any of it on the table saw. Now I just have to get back to the rough jointing...

[Brendon_t]

I had to do the same thing on about every board.  Mine really wanted to close on the blade. 

[SawDustB]

I had to do the same thing on about every board.  Mine really wanted to close on the blade. 

I didn't have that problem, at least. All of my stock seems fairly stable so far. I think the jigsaw just couldn't do it with the blades I've got. Your bench was the one from the ash log you cut up and air dried, wasn't it? All of my stock is kiln dried from the dealer, and may have been around for a while since I guess they move a lot more 8 or 10 foot stock rather than 12.

[SawDustB]

I had a couple of questions that I thought you guys might help with, seeing as a number of you have built the Roubo.

1. Did any of you do the knock down hardware option on the base? Specifically, this seems to require a doubled front stretcher on the bench so the tenon is offset. I just don't remember seeing that on anyone's build.

2. I seem to be getting over 1 7/8 per piece that I've milled so far. Is there any reason not to use 6 pieces for the slabs rather than 7?

3. Since I'm not doing a bench crafted tail vise, any reason I can't leave the top a little thick (1/4 inch) to give me more for the final flattening?

4. Is there glue up reasonable to do with f style clamps and cauls, or should I really be picking up a few parallel clamps?

Thanks.

[Brendon_t]

1 hour ago, SawDustB said:

Your bench was the one from the ash log you cut up and air dried, wasn't it? 

Yeah, the from scratch build. Mine was kiln dried also,  my kiln is what you call the valley outside of la. 90 days of 90+ degrees and sub 5% humidity. Nuclear wasteland

[SawDustB]

Well, if nothing else at least the snow tires make a good planing stop...

[estesbubba]

2 hours ago, SawDustB said:

 

I had a couple of questions that I thought you guys might help with, seeing as a number of you have built the Roubo.

 

1. Did any of you do the knock down hardware option on the base? Specifically, this seems to require a doubled front stretcher on the bench so the tenon is offset. I just don't remember seeing that on anyone's build.

 

2. I seem to be getting over 1 7/8 per piece that I've milled so far. Is there any reason not to use 6 pieces for the slabs rather than 7?

 

3. Since I'm not doing a bench crafted tail vise, any reason I can't leave the top a little thick (1/4 inch) to give me more for the final flattening?

 

4. Is there glue up reasonable to do with f style clamps and cauls, or should I really be picking up a few parallel clamps?

 

Thanks.

1. I didn't use the knock down hardware and don't see a reason to do it. You can remove the tops to move it and the base isn't that heavy for a few people. 

2. I did this too you'll be fine.

3. Shouldn't be a problem just pay attention to other dimensions and adjust accordingly. 

4. I used a bunch of parallel clamps and don't know if F will have enough clamping power. Others might know. 

[Chestnut]

1 hour ago, SawDustB said:

Well, if nothing else at least the snow tires make a good planing stop...

I'm excite to watch this build. I bought the rubo on sale as well as soon as i saw your post about it being for sale. I won't be getting around to building mine until i get into my new shop ... where ever that shop may be. Has the milling by hand been terrible or is it going better then you expected?

On a side note it entertains me how few people understand how awesome winter tires are.