Another Roubo, but this one's mine!

[Jake Goodson]

I found Sawmill creek recently, don't post much, but have become very familiar with the search function in getting info on hand tools & techniques. I recently took the plunge & started a Roubo, after too long to admit it's finally done:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_KaNj49ebJIk/ShRD0dVNgpI/AAAAAAAABBg/0I6K3yDJMHM/s800/IMG_0225.jpg
It's 10' long, 24" wide, 32" tall, has a Benchcrafted tail vise and sliding leg vise. For those interested, pics of the build are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jacob.goodson/RouboWorkbench#

Thanks to the Creek for all the help & advise,

Jake

[David Gendron]

Realy nice bench, well done, I wish I could have a 10' long bench(mine is 5')! What kind of wood did you use?

[Sam Takeuchi]

Yeah that's a great looking bench! 10' you say? You didn't flatten the top by hand, did you? If I were making a bench that size, 10' top is enough to make me give up in despair if I have to flatten by hand.

My bench is 5' as well and it's not fully flat. I flattened only the part I use the most, so only 2.5' worth of flat surface and the rest resembles Grand Canyon. You did a great job!

[Marco Cecala]

Nice job, and good work on your bench. I am putting the top on the legs of mine this week. Is it just me, or does it seem the bench weighs 500 pounds?

[Jake Goodson]

Thanks! Some answers:

David- It's mostly southern yellow pine. I live in Louisiana, we are awash in the stuff. I got some great lumber from a supplier 2 miles down the road, started with 8 2"x12"x24'. I tried the local home centers but couldn't find enough decent stock. The right end cap is Walnut and both leg vice front chops are Cherry. I'm lucky enough to have a shop big enough for a 16' bench, but not big enough to make one over 10'. The outfeed from the tablesaw and jointer would have required a few new windows ;)

Sam- I did flaten it by hand ("flat" being a relative term...), but cheated. I glued the top into 4 sub assemblies ~6" wide each, then ran those sub-assemblies through my power jointer & planer. The final glueup still took a lot of hand planing afterwards, I think I filled up 4 garbage bags with plane shavings.

Marco- I feel your pain... I attached the legs to the top by flipping the top upside down & setting the legs/stretchers into it. I could do this alone, but did need some help to flip the whole thing back upright when it was done. That flipping operation cost me a few cold beverages, but was the only part I couldn't do solo. Good luck!

[John Schreiber]

That looks great, your workmanship is impeccable. A 120 inch bench must be amazing. You could probably live on it/under it.

Andre' would be proud.

[Tri Hoang]

Nice job...very well done. How thick is the bench top? I wonder how long are the long stretchers and whether the top could sag a little in the middle over time? 10ft bench is a lot of work surface. I wish I could fit even a 7ft one in my tiny shop.

[Zahid Naqvi]

nice, I think you should post more :D

[Sean Hughto]

What's not to like?! Great job!

One thing though, as you apparently needed to spend all you had to produce this bench, I'll start up a SMC collection to see if we can get you a broom. ;):D

[Michael Sobik]

Nice work! That is a gigantic bench. I'd love to have a 10' bench. Maybe someday...

[george wilson]

A very nice bench.Nice and solid. Do be careful how much wood you pile on the table extensions of your table saw. If you broke one off,it would be a disaster,especially if it took a chunk of the main top with it. I don't trust Taiwan iron's unknown tensile strength.

[Don C Peterson]

Very nicely done! One of these days I'll get around to making a new bench...

[Jim Kountz]

Nice looking bench, you do good work and should post more often!!

[Jameel Abraham]

Nice job Jake. 10'. Ahhhhhh.......

[Doug Mason]

I like it!!! It's the "keep things simple" type of bench.

[Jake Goodson]

Thanks all for the kind words! To answer the questions:

- The top is 3.75" thick, was supposed to be 4" but I got a little carried away with the flattening... I wasn't sure about stretcher length and overhang with a 10' top so I e-mailed the Schwarz. He wasn't too woried about it, just said to make sure I had enough overhang for whatever end vise I picked. I ended up with 15" overhang on the left side, 24" on the right side, and 72" between the legs. The legs are 5" wide, so the whole thing is actually a little over 10'
- I had a shop broom, but needed something to make the vise handles out of ...

Jake

[Richard Dooling]

That is one fine tool you have built yourself!

[Thomas Williams]

Very nice bench. Is your shop inside your house?

[Jeff Skory]

Beautiful bench!! And both a sliding deadman AND a sliding leg vise. Very, very nice. Tomorrow I'm picking up some wood to get mine started.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Very nicely done. I would have loved 10 feet or even the full 8, but space constraints made me go down to 7 1/2 feet. AT 3 1/2" thick I don't see you having any problems with deflection of the top. Congratulations.

[Peter Scoma]

real nice bench. I imagine your other work is equally as impressive.

Nice tile floor in the workshop too! What room is that..........

I imagine you are a bachelor

PS

[Jake Goodson]

Yep, the shop is inside the house. The previous owners had a 2-car carport that they walled in & installed an HVAC unit for, they used is as a play room for their kids. When I bought the house I made it a woodshop (still a playroom of sorts). Only downside is no outside access, everything comes in through either the windows or the kitchen...

Because it's such a nice room I'm also terrified of putting holes in the wall, hence no hanging storage yet. My job dictates that I'll eventuallly have to sell this house & move, when I do I'll have to make it look like a real bonus room again. I'm thinking of adding a french cleat along one whole wall & hanging everything off it, limiting the damage, but that's another thread.

And yes, I'm a bachelor, don't know how you guessed :D

[Jeff Dege]

I could do this alone, but did need some help to flip the whole thing back upright when it was done. That flipping operation cost me a few cold beverages, but was the only part I couldn't do solo. Good luck!
I built a much smaller bench, and ended up using a makeshift block-and-tackle. (Among the many convenient uses for bench dog holes, that you can run rope through them while lifting the bench isn't often mentioned.)

http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FDF/0YZI/FTY4CGZJ/FDF0YZIFTY4CGZJ.SMALL.jpghttp://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FYN/BUS2/FTY4CGZK/FYNBUS2FTY4CGZK.SMALL.jpg

[Paul Saffold]

Jake, that is a very nice bench.

I want to comment about using a french cleat to limit damage to your walls. In a previous house I made a nice small oak cabinet to put by the phone. It had a shelf for phone books and 2 lipped drawers with hand cut dovetails (my first). I was very proud of the cabinet and used a french cleat so I could take it down when I moved. Moves are often very hectic and this one was. The cabinet came off the cleat OK, but when I tried removing the cleat from the wall things did not go so well. There was so much adhesion between the cleat and the paint that the paper started to pull away from the drywall. I didn't have time to make a proper repair to the drywall so the cabinet got rehung and is still in the house.

Maybe someone here on the Creek has ideas on how to avoid this problem because the f.c. are a great way to hang things.

Paul

[Marc Casebolt]

Great bench, I really like mine.

Me and my son built two of them at the same time a few years ago, and I agree they are heavy. One day during build process I was away and he was in the shop alone working on the benches. I came back to find that he had placed one bench on top of the other one so he wouldn't have to squat down to work on it. Did I mention that those things are heavy? Ours are about 8' X 30" with a 5" thick top.

I no longer even pretend that I could kick his butt.

Marc

[Jacob Mac]

Beautiful work. You mentioned getting things in and out of your shop is difficult. How do you plan on moving that monster when you sell your house? :eek:

Also, how long did you let the SYP acclimate to your shop before you started making your bench?

[Jake Goodson]

Jacob-

I let the lumber acclimatize in the shop for ~ 3 weeks before cutting. I don't have a moisture meter so I was just guessing. I wish I would have left it longer; after I glued up the top I flattened it & then went out of town for 2 weeks. When I got back the top was crowned & had to be flattened again. The top has behaved itself since.

The yard I bought the lumber from stored it outside under an awning, so the moisture difference between there and an A/C shop must have taken more than 3 weeks to settle-out.

As for moving the 10' beast when the time comes, did I mention my employer's relocation benefits include paying for movers?

[Bob Easton]

FABULOUS looking bench Jake! Very nicely done!

Now, I have to tell you that 10 feet is too short. No bench is ever long enough. My 12 foot English bench just barely handles the bottom of a boat I'm building, and is a too-short bench for the 16 foot boards used for planking stock.

More about the boat at: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?cat=7

http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bottom-done.jpg

http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/plank-prep.jpg