My workbench (yes, it's a Roubo)

[SawDustB]

I've been continuing slowly on the bench. The base and sides of the top are planed, scraped or sanded (or all three). I've put finish on the shelf and the gap stop along with the dead man. I've also done some more flattening on the top, to the point where I'm thinking I should just do some lengthwise planing to clean it up. Lots of little details... which brings me to the holdfast holes. I kind of forgot about these, but it would be nice to drill them while I can still flip the slabs over to finish the holes on the underside. I can't use the exact pattern from the Roubo plans, since my bench doesn't have the left hand overhang. Where did you put the holes in your benches? Here's my thoughts at the moment:

The left most holes are just inside the stretcher, with enough clearance that the holdfasts should be fine. They're somewhat in line with the leg vise, if I want to use those together. The back row is more or less like the plans, although there's one less hole so the spacing is 16" instead of 15". The front slab holes are pretty close to the plans, but it seemed to me like it would make sense to line them up with the back holes to allow a wide planing stop. The only holes I've really added is the ones toward the front of the back slab. The reason I added them is with the Gramercy holdfasts, there would otherwise be sections in the middle that aren't covered at all. The holdfast layout in the plans seems to be taken from an article by Chris Schwarz, but his holdfasts had a longer reach so I'm thinking the extra holes might be nice. I'm planning on putting two holes in the solid parts of the gap stop, to allow me to install a light for detail work using the veritas accessories.

I know there's the theory that you should drill holes wherever you need them later, but I'd rather do it nicely now with a plan, so that I don't end up with random holes around the bench. It's also easier to finish this off without the slabs being bolted down yet. Anyway, I'd appreciate feedback. Thanks!

[pkinneb]

Bench is looking great!! Not much help as i drilled the suggested holes by BC. I did add one recently for a planing T stop I use with my front vise toward the back of the bench. It looks like your back left hole may work but would be better to the left a few inches if possible. See six essential bench jigs (Pekovich) FWW Iss 258 for more info.

[SawDustB]

Bench is looking great!! Not much help as i drilled the suggested holes by BC. I did add one recently for a planing T stop I use with my front vise toward the back of the bench. It looks like your back left hole may work but would be better to the left a few inches if possible. See six essential bench jigs (Pekovich) FWW Iss 258 for more info.

Great, thanks. I saw that article as well, that's one of the uses I thought of for that hole. The holes at the left end are as far as they can really go (the tape is approximate). They're 1 inch on center from the edge of the stretcher, so there's 5/8" of clearance for the holdfast to do its thing. I can't put holdfast holes on the other side of the stretcher, or it gets within 4" or so from the end of the bench and there's a risk of splitting.

[Brendon_t]

Out of the ten, I'd say that about 5 of them are an initial waste. I started with 4 holes content to drill more if and when I needed them. I now have 5 holes. The new hole was only needed because the panel I was needing hold covered the other closest. Don't turn your bench into Swiss cheese just because. A bit of strategic thinking about how you work should be able to give you the location where a few should start.

[SawDustB]

Out of the ten, I'd say that about 5 of them are an initial waste. I started with 4 holes content to drill more if and when I needed them. I now have 5 holes. The new hole was only needed because the panel I was needing hold covered the other closest. Don't turn your bench into Swiss cheese just because. A bit of strategic thinking about how you work should be able to give you the location where a few should start.

Thanks Brendon. That's fair. The only holes I know for sure I'll use are the 2 on the far left. As for the rest, I don't really know how I'll use the bench to be able to say. I think another one or two in the front slab for a bench hook or other appliances would be useful. I don't really know how I'd use the holes in the back slab.

 

Which ones would you keep?

[Brendon_t]

I think the 3 in the front slab would be fine although I would stagger one closer to the front, one to the back. My two most used are the top center there on the rear slab.

[SawDustB]

For better or worse, my bench now has 8 holes in it. I amended my plans to make them line up with the dogs for the tail vise, and eliminated a couple. I'm not sure I'll use them all, but this way I'll actually use the hold fasts instead of agonizing over drilling holes.

 

I had ordered leather on eBay for the vises, but after a month I gave up and bought some scrap from a local store. It's smooth on one side, so I was planning to glue that side down so the grippy side faced the work. I'd heard hide glue worked well, so that's my current plan. I know I could use contact cement, but I hate using the stuff.

 

At that point I have nothing except finish application, so I'll have to stop avoiding it.

[SawDustB]

So many dogs to put leather on... I've also glued it into the wagon vise, and the leg vise chop. The only remaining pieces to glue on are the bench side of the leg vise and my hold fasts. I used hide glue (seemed appropriate for leather) and it worked fine once I figured out to put a thin layer on. This was my first time using old Brown glue and had to put the bottle into warm water first to get it to flow.

[SawDustB]

All the leather is now glued on. I was left with a small handful of scraps, so pretty much the perfect amount. I added a little leather piece under the gap stop, but it's sitting about 1/32 proud so I'll have to trim the slots on the underside. With any luck I can get back to finishing later today.

 

I'm trying to decide on hand wheels for the vises. The three options I'm thinking of are:

1. Buy grizzly hand wheels through Amazon or eBay and drill them out to replace the outer piece on the vise screw. I'm looking at an 8" and 5" wheel.

2. Make wooden wheels that attach on the existing cast piece. This might look cool, and would be an interesting challenge.

3. Use a dowel with the vises for now and see what I want to do later.

 

I think I'm leaning towards the first option. It looks like a 3/4" hole would need to be bored through the wheels, but that should be doable with a decent bit. The only trouble is that it's hard to find matching wheels in the two sizes. I've got one I'm looking at, but the 5" is back ordered.

[Eric.]

What kind of glue did you use to attach your bench to the ceiling?  That's some strong shit.

[SawDustB]

3 hours ago, Eric. said:

What kind of glue did you use to attach your bench to the ceiling?  That's some strong shit.

Well, I did tell you my shop was space constrained. I had to get creative to fit it in. Hide glue is amazing stuff.

Stupid Tapatalk... It keeps deciding it knows better than me which way is up on my pictures.

[shaneymack]

Looks awesome, Brian, even upside down ! Roubo looks great from all angles.

 

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

 

 

[Brendon_t]

Looking good.

If I was scrapping together essentially a knock off of the bc hardware, I would absolutely want a wheel as big or possibly an inch larger than the bc wheel. I love that I can throw the wheel and the weight acts like a flywheel to keep it going a while. The tail vise gets less use on my bench and I wouldn't care as much about the wheel size, but it would definitely be a wheel, not a dowel.

[SawDustB]

Looking good.

If I was scrapping together essentially a knock off of the bc hardware, I would absolutely want a wheel as big or possibly an inch larger than the bc wheel. I love that I can throw the wheel and the weight acts like a flywheel to keep it going a while. The tail vise gets less use on my bench and I wouldn't care as much about the wheel size, but it would definitely be a wheel, not a dowel.

Right, that's what I'm thinking right now too. The hand wheels I'm thinking of are cast iron, so they should work well for that. The 8" wheel is a good size, I think. 9" would work too but seems like a less common size. I can't find one that matches a 5" hand wheel. The way I laid out my tail vise I'm stuck with a 4-5" wheel. I'm just a little too high for a 6".

[Brendon_t]

Since they are cast iron, could you just rattle can them with a nice flat black to make them look more similar? Personally, I wouldn't care of they were different. There is only a spot or two where you would have to stand perfectly in my shop to be able to see both at the same time.

[SawDustB]

I wasn't really thinking about vintage cast Iron, that I'd need to paint. I can find those cheap enough on eBay, but the shipping is twice as much as the hand wheel.

 

This is one of the possibilities. I can get it in 5 and 8 inches, and it's cast iron. Looks like a pretty cheap finish on it.

 

 

These two are the grizzly ones I like best at the moment. Here's the 8 inch:

 

And the 5 inch to go with it:

 

My only issue with it is that the 5 inch is back ordered indefinitely. Cosmetically they're fine. I may end up just ordering them direct from grizzly.

[wtnhighlander]

I think a beefy roubo would look awesome with handwheels made from cast iron barbell plates!

[SawDustB]

I think a beefy roubo would look awesome with handwheels made from cast iron barbell plates!

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[SawDustB]

Well, the black and chrome handwheels won out. My wife told me to just buy them already and stop talking about it . Because they were out of stock from Amazon, I had to order them from Grizzly directly so it'll be a couple of weeks. I also spent some time last night applying a full second coat of the varnish oil on the bench. I think I'm going to call that good, once I've wiped down the surface. Last thing to do is to apply some wax to the moving parts and reassemble everything. I'll put some pictures up once I do.

[Brendon_t]

Sounds like a keeper.

[wtnhighlander]

Sounds like a keeper.

The bench, or the wife?

[Brendon_t]

27 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

The bench, or the wife? 

The bench from experience.

[SawDustB]

The bench, or the wife?

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[Brendon_t]

2 hours ago, SawDustB said:

Well, I would have said both.

Notice the multiple edits....

[Majones32004]

The bench looks nice! I plan to accent mine in a similar fashion but I'm still waiting for the hardware.  Do you have a rough estimate on how much lumber was needed for the leg vise, dead man and end cap accents? as well the middle piece (tool holder/stop) of the bench top?  I plan to purchase 8/4 Walnut but not sure if 12/4 is more appropriate...