Roubo Workbench - Work in progress

[KenOfCary]

Some have asked to see pictures of the Roubo workbench that I've been working on for a few months. It is based on a 5"x18" Maple Slab for the top. The Slab was obtained locally from saw4you here on the web site. Jack has a lot of really nice Maple if you're in need of some.

Here is what it looks like now.

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It started out looking more like this.

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Here it is almost squared up. Just need to finish hand ripping that 1" center strip that the track saw couldn't reach.

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I will post more pictures of the process if there is interest. The next step is to finish smoothing the last 2 legs and then mortising out the top to fit the leg tenons and sliding dovetail.

Edit:Thank you McRabbit for the picture lesson. There are pics of the progress thus far in my member gallery.

- Ken

 

[Cuprousworks]

Ken:
I would like to see and read more about your bench progress. I was able to see the pics in your gallery.

I see that you installed a Benchcrafted tail vise, did you use their split top plans as well? That's in my longer-term plans. I've got the wood for a bench, just working on the courage to start it.

Mike

 

[eyekode]

Ken I looked at your pictures in the gallery. That is an awesome chunk of wood. What are your plans for a front/leg vise?
Salem

 

[kooshball]

Ken I looked at your pictures in the gallery. That is an awesome chunk of wood. What are your plans for a front/leg vise?
Salem

+1

 

[McRabbet]

Ken,

You said:

Edit: I guess I need to figure out how to add pictures to a message.

Here are the steps to correct your pictures. (1) Open the post and click on the Edit Icon at the lower right. A new Edit Window opens. (2) Move your cursor to the first offending Red X picture place and select it. Once selected, press the DEL key. While the cursor is at that place in your text, (3) Click on the right-hand most iconthat is in the group of eight icons in the Edit Window. This is the Picture Insert Tool and it links to your gallery and shows your pictures starting from the most recent uploaded. (4) Click on the thumbnail of the picture you want and it will be inserted at that point in your post. (5) repeat steps 2-4 for each of your bad entries and Click on Save to save the new post.

You can use this tool to enter photos from your gallery in any thread you open. Hope this helps!

 

[KenOfCary]

Ken I looked at your pictures in the gallery. That is an awesome chunk of wood. What are your plans for a front/leg vise?
Salem

Thanks, I have a 2" wooden screw for the front leg vise. And a piece of 2" thick Maple for the vise chop. I'm planning on following Chris Scharz plans for that one pretty much as they are in the book/magazine.

I have his DVD and have been following it pretty closely except for some of the dimensions and using the wagon vice instead of a more traditional end vise.

I'm also using a combination of power and hand tools to get the job done.

 

[KenOfCary]

Ken:
I would like to see and read more about your bench progress. I was able to see the pics in your gallery.

I see that you installed a Benchcrafted tail vise, did you use their split top plans as well? That's in my longer-term plans. I've got the wood for a bench, just working on the courage to start it.

Mike

I just used my Festool router and the short track to progressively route out a channel about 17" all the way through (Had to do that from both sides to meet in the middle.) And then another adjacent channel about 2 1/2" deep for the screw. I followed their plans pretty much to the letter. My Dovetails for the end cap are not very pretty but they're functional.

Here you can see the start of the tenon on the bottom of the end and the through chanel (almost through.) I havent started routing the chanel next to the through chanel that will hold the screw. The traveler runs in the through chanel.

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The end cap has a 2" wide by 1" deep motise that fits into a tenon the I carved into the end of the bench with the router as well. To put on the end cap, you have to slide it onto the tenon to the side of the dovetails and then bang it sideways into the dovetails. There are 1" diameter dowel nuts holding those 8" bolts in. That was fun getting those to line up. (You probably don't notice the 1/8" hole in the top for the 4d nail that I used to push the dowel nuts up a tad to make them line up.)

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Here you can see my not so pretty dovetails and the traveler along with the screw which runs beside it. It took a lot of fiddling to get everything running parallel so it wouldn't bind. Seems like it would run just fine and then when everything was tightened up and bolted on it would bind again. Much trial and error, routing 1 mm deeper or shiming here and there to get it right.

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-Ken

 

[KenOfCary]

Some asked about the front vise plans. Here is a pic of the screw for the front leg vice.

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I've spent the morning planing the legs smooth. I used a sweet Stanley #4 smoother that I picked up at the store above the Woodwrights School in Pittsboro. An excellent source of good handtools at very reasonable prices btw. Check it out if you're ever in or near Pittsboro when it is open. The hours are somewhat eratic, basically it is almost always open if there is a class going on in the school below.

While I was there, I saw the Roubo bench that Roy made for the TV series back in 2007 I think it was. Here is the link to the programs in the 2 part series.

http://flash.unctv.org/woodwrightss/wws_2705.html
http://flash.unctv.org/woodwrightss/wws_2706.html

The other plane in this picture is a low-angle, bevel up smoother from Veritas with a 38 degree bevel blade to give a 50 degree overall bevel for those tricky reversing grain portions of the wood. Didn't have too many of those, but there were a few in the legs.

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Here is the jig that I made to cut the shoulders of the dovetails on the band saw. I used the band saw to make all of the rip cuts for the leg tenons, then a smal crosscut carcass saw to cut out the shoulders. The middle had to be hacked out with a mortising chisel.

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- Ken

 

[eyekode]

Woah, nice screw . Did you get it from Lake Eire Toolworks?
Salem

 

[Splint Eastwood]

Ken,

Nice WIP pics!

Looks like it will be a very nice bench!

M

 

[KenOfCary]

Woah, nice screw . Did you get it from Lake Eire Toolworks?
Salem

Yes I did. It has the brass collar like the one Chris Schwarz used in his book. I'm very pleased with the looks and workmanship of it.

- Ken.