My workbench (yes, it's a Roubo)


SawDustB

Recommended Posts

9 hours ago, estesbubba said:

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. 

Thanks Mike. The forum decided to eat my reply the first time. I'm thinking about the knock down hardware in case I decided to move this down to the basement at some point, since I think it'd be hard to get the base down there in one piece. I'm just trying to figure out how much of a pain it is. The doubled front stretcher really feels like a bit of a clunky solution, although obviously it will work.

 

I'd love to have the parallel clamps, I just keep having a hard time pulling the trigger because of how expensive they are in Canada. Essentially all you can get are Besseys, so there's no competition (and never any sales). I've got a number of F clamps, and a LOT of the heavy duty quick clamp style, but I'm just trying to decide whether I could buy some more heavy duty F clamps, or fewer of the parallels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, SawDustB said:

I'd love to have the parallel clamps, I just keep having a hard time pulling the trigger because of how expensive they are in Canada. Essentially all you can get are Besseys, so there's no competition (and never any sales). I've got a number of F clamps, and a LOT of the heavy duty quick clamp style, but I'm just trying to decide whether I could buy some more heavy duty F clamps, or fewer of the parallels.

Good parallel clamps are hard to beat. I don't have good F style clamps but i grab the parallel clamps over my F style clamps any time I'm working on something larger then 12". For small work i still like F style clamps because they are easier to wield. Buy them slowly over time start with 2 and go from there. I personally use my 24" ones the most.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Chestnut said:

Good parallel clamps are hard to beat. I don't have good F style clamps but i grab the parallel clamps over my F style clamps any time I'm working on something larger then 12". For small work i still like F style clamps because they are easier to wield. Buy them slowly over time start with 2 and go from there. I personally use my 24" ones the most.

Oh, I'm not questioning the value in them - I want parallel clamps. There are a few woodworking items where the US market and Canadian market are totally different, and this is one of them. They're more expensive to begin with here, and the best sale you usually see is 10-15%, even on black Friday. The F style clamps I have are actually pretty good, the heavy duty ones from Lee Valley. I could have bought cheap ones, but I didn't - I'm trying not to get clamps I'll want to replace. I was thinking of getting a pair of the 31 inch clamps and a pair of the 40 inch ones, then I'll throw on all my other clamps for good measure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, SawDustB said:

I'd love to have the parallel clamps, I just keep having a hard time pulling the trigger because of how expensive they are in Canada. Essentially all you can get are Besseys, so there's no competition (and never any sales). I've got a number of F clamps, and a LOT of the heavy duty quick clamp style, but I'm just trying to decide whether I could buy some more heavy duty F clamps, or fewer of the parallels.

If you're patient, there are deals to be had. I got the bulk of my parallel clamps from Lee Valley. Once they had a sale on Bessey that amounted to about 60% of the regular price. A few years later they brought in another brand of parallel clamp that I like as much as the Besseys & they were a real good introductory price.

But good sales seem few & far between. I have probably close to 30 parallel clamps now, but I wish I had more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, drzaius said:

If you're patient, there are deals to be had. I got the bulk of my parallel clamps from Lee Valley. Once they had a sale on Bessey that amounted to about 60% of the regular price. A few years later they brought in another brand of parallel clamp that I like as much as the Besseys & they were a real good introductory price.

But good sales seem few & far between. I have probably close to 30 parallel clamps now, but I wish I had more.

I'm kicking myself now for not buying those parallel clamps when they came in at the introductory price. At the time, I was just starting into woodworking... With the exchange rate getting worse I've also noticed that the prices on the clamps are higher than they were. If I go get a few, it's likely going to be at busy bee. They seem to have the best prices on the Bessey clamps, which is all that I can get in my region. If I was further west then I'd think about getting the Irwin clamps at Lowe's, but for some reason they won't ship them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, SawDustB said:

I'm kicking myself now for not buying those parallel clamps when they came in at the introductory price. At the time, I was just starting into woodworking... With the exchange rate getting worse I've also noticed that the prices on the clamps are higher than they were. If I go get a few, it's likely going to be at busy bee. They seem to have the best prices on the Bessey clamps, which is all that I can get in my region. If I was further west then I'd think about getting the Irwin clamps at Lowe's, but for some reason they won't ship them.

When you shop for clamps, check multiple stores for different sizes. One store may have a great price on the 60" clamp, while another might have a better price on the 24", etc. There doesn't seem to be any reason to it.

Of local stores, I find that KMS, Canadian Woodworker and Lee Valley generally have better prices than Busy Bee. Maybe it's just the Calgary location, but I feel like I have to take a shower every time I've been to their store, or even talk to them on the phone. They have horrible customer service.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, drzaius said:

When you shop for clamps, check multiple stores for different sizes. One store may have a great price on the 60" clamp, while another might have a better price on the 24", etc. There doesn't seem to be any reason to it.

Of local stores, I find that KMS, Canadian Woodworker and Lee Valley generally have better prices than Busy Bee. Maybe it's just the Calgary location, but I feel like I have to take a shower every time I've been to their store, or even talk to them on the phone. They have horrible customer service.

I would get them at Lee Valley, but for the four clamps I was thinking of getting (2x40" and 2x31") it'll cost me an extra $50 compared to buying the K body clamps at Busy Bee. It seems like the Lee Valley ones are about $10-$12 more per clamp in pretty much all sizes. There aren't really many other local options here, at least not stores that have sales on anything. I actually like the staff at our local Busy Bee, but they're very large power tool focused so I tend not to be in there a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9558cba8741cec062dc9c743b54c5f25.jpg

You guys are a terrible influence.

So I have been making progress. I have 6 boards that are jointed and planed, and a couple more that are just jointed. As I said before, I'm just going for removing any bad twist or bows. Next up is straight line ripping done of the pieces. I made a new jig that was long enough, but I haven't tried it yet.

be432e78567f2ad0cfdcdf3695fdbfe9.jpg

Also, as I showed in my last post I now have parallel clamps for the glue up. I don't have a domino for alignment, so what did you guys do? My options are either just cauls, dowels, or a spline. I don't have a biscuit joiner, and don't think I'd use it.

I was thinking a longer open time glue might be a good idea.@shaneymack the Lee valley glue claims a longer open time. How have you found it compared to something like titebond 2? Titebond extend doesn't seem to be easily obtained around here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tb3 is my go to for longer glue ups where I don't want to mix up epoxy.

and yes, we are a bad influence in just about every conceivable way.

I thought about TB3, but I feel like it might look awful with maple. I'll do my best, but I'm not expecting perfection on the glue lines.

Your collection has just started with parallel clamps - once you use them you'll be wanting more. 

TB3 will leave glue lines in light woods like maple. 

Oh, I wanted the parallel clamps before. This is the excuse "I wouldn't want to screw up after buying all that expensive hard maple".

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Brian, I haven't had the chance to really test the open time on the glue. With the stuff I've glued up, I haven't had any issues with needing to rush. It sure is more luquid than tb2. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

No problem Shane. I figured I'd ask, since you're the only one that had mentioned it. They claim a longer open time in the description, but I didn't know what that really meant. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/27/2016 at 3:00 AM, SawDustB said:

I just wish I could find safety glasses in her size, since she gets mad about being kept further away.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=31223&cat=1,44178 

I found a pair of regular kid sized glasses, but I can't remember where. 

Amazon has a big selection:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s_ss_i_0_17?k=children's+safety+glasses&sprefix=children's+safety

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think jointing all this on my less than ideal setup will make me appreciate the bench all the more. Check out my open air jointer... Pretty sweet.

a0fe03c1f354b74a1f485e16e4ba0154.jpg

And this is my daughter being helpful. I like to call her dust collection.

78f26997336ba501567373c38f503621.jpg

This is where I am now. The stack on the left is jointed and initially planed, the stack on the right is just jointed. I should be able to start figuring out which pieces are in the top this week, since this will definitely be enough.

120d66ca00a19916d97c128475a99b6d.jpg

I'm thinking I'll use dowels for glue up alignment. I can borrow a jessem jig for it, and I think it'll lower my stress level for the glue up. I'm worried that the one board at a time method won't take out bows, since some of the boards were basically skip planed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

453e9b3edf5cba81515513134defb731.jpg

It may not look like much, but I now have a stack of planed boards. I had to empty the dust deputy on the planer 7 times for this. I kept them as thick as possible, and all are at 1 7/8+, with some closer to 1 15/16. I'm hoping to start arranging them tonight, so I can figure out how much more I need to plane down.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good point about stickering... I'm going to try to start ripping one edge tonight and then putting them up on the sawhorses. My hope is still to not need all of it for the top, since I was able to stay on the thicker side. I need to figure that out before I rip any of the wider boards to width, since right now they could give me stock for the legs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Brendon_t said:

Let's hope you don't have much to remove for sake of the depth.  I think when I built mine,  I came in under by about a half inch so I had quite a bit of material to remove after adding one more board.

I think I should be OK for the back slab. Most of my boards are right around the 1 15/16 point, and I need them to be just shy of 1 7/8 to use 6. So I don't see an issue there - taking 1/16 off each board is pretty much ideal.

The front slab will probably require me to mill the boards down quite a bit... To get the solid part of the slab from 4 boards instead of 5, that would require them to be just over 1 15/16. I doubt I have 4 boards that thick, so I expect I'll be stuck with milling them down by almost 3/8" to use 5 at 1 9/16. I've also considered using a single piece of 4/4 in the front glue up to avoid all of the milling, but I know that's considered cheating :). I'll have to measure them all up tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, SawDustB said:

 I've also considered using a single piece of 4/4 in the front glue up to avoid all of the milling, but I know that's considered cheating :). I'll have to measure them all up tonight.

Cheating schmeating. If your existing boards milled well and are straight, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to use a thinner board rather than a thick one and take it away evenly. Now, If I had one bowed a bit, I would take the width from there.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.