What I really Realized - Roubo Me

[Todd McDonald]

A while back I posted a thread about milling curly maple neander style. I appreciate all responses from that thread. A few planes later I realized I was missing something to help out milling neander style. Probably as important as the planes. Thanks to The Schwarz.

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I am always a chicken to take in flight photos because I worry about screwing up. So this almost complete picture is all I have of the journey. The missing shelf board and sliding deadman is next to come.

My gym called me and asked where I have been for the last 2 months.

[Brian Kent]

That is one classy looking beast!

[Rick Erickson]

Oh man! I love it. I have a European bench that I really like but after reading Schwarz's book I certainly see the limitations in it. I've made several modifications and jigs for clamping as a result. I never really thought about it until I read his book. Would love to make one of these. Great job!

[Jim Koepke]

Great looking bench. Is that Douglas Fir?

jim

[Carl L Goff]

Todd, you done good. I really like it. It looks like it will stand anything.

[David Gendron]

Great work on the bench, you will certainly enjoy it!

[Todd McDonald]

Great looking bench. Is that Douglas Fir?

jim


The lumber for the bench is SYP #1 Dense. I used 15 2X12X12. THe chop and shelf is ash and the end vise is popular, had both of these laying around, well not enough ash hence the missing board. Maybe I will just call that the expansion slot:D

The final dems: 4.25" X 24.5" X 94"

[Joe Cunningham]

You sure it's sturdy enough? Looks kinda wimpy. :D

I need to make a real bench...

[Dan Sink]

I'll be spending my next 6 months of free time working on re-finishing the upstairs on our story-and-a-half house. But after that I plan to build that bench as well.

How do you like the leg vise? I bought a Jorgensen vise that I planned to use as a face vise. My thought was to extend the top a bit farther on the left and put the vise just left of the leg.

How was the glue up of the top? Did you have access to a jointer and a planer? I don't have access to either of those, but I do have a #7 that I got to use to flatten the top. I don't have much of a workbench right now (an old door on a couple of sawhorses), but I was thinking about using the #7 to try and flatten and square each board before glue-up. It'd take some rigging to hold the boards, but I fell confident I can figure something out. But do you guys think a #7 will accomplish the task?

The drawbored joints look great, how was that experience? Did you use a dowel plate to make your own dowels or did you use pre-dimensioned dowels?

Sorry if these questions seem ridiculous. I'm a newbie. But once my upstairs is done then I can finally build the woodworking shop in my basement that I've always wanted. The bench is going to be the last phase of that project. I'm just brainstorming ways to build Schwarz roubo bench without a jointer or planer.

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Great job Todd! Looks perfectly flat too. I know what you mean about getting a workout. I'm currently building one myself....heavy lifting.
It's hard to see the dog holes in your picture....did you go with round or square?

[Matt Radtke]

I'm just brainstorming ways to build Schwarz roubo bench without a jointer or planer.

I building a Roubo-ish top right now. Turned 5 2x12s into 15 2x4s and I just started glueup this past weekend. Doing 4 boards at a time leaves me with a workable 3 1/4" x 6" x 90" slab. I've been stealing small chunks of time during the week to make it more flat with a number 5. This weekend, I'll do up another 4 boards. The weekend after, another 4 boards. Then I can slap the 3 sections together, flatten the whole thing with my 7 and 8, and get to work on my doghole strip. Already have the pieces laid out, but I need the bench mostly done so the dogholes don't match up with the legs.

I don't have a powered jointer or planer. I specifically started down this hand plane slope because I didn't want them.

[Mike Brady]

That is one fine looking bench. I'm noticing a lot of these on the forums as the result of the Schwarz Workbench Book. I have started thinking more seriously about building one but was stopped short by the nearly $1000 material cost using white ash and a couple of good vices. I figured about 130 bf of 8/4 wood (ash here is $3.25 /a bf); and adding another 10% for waste makes the wood total about $500. The vices, if you use, twin screw plus a wagon or end vice add another $500. SYP is not available in Chicago and I don't know if I would be happy with the other softwood construction lumber species. Does the $1000 cost sound typical?

[Dan Sink]

That is one fine looking bench. I'm noticing a lot of these on the forums as the result of the Schwarz Workbench Book. I have started thinking more seriously about building one but was stopped short by the nearly $1000 material cost using white ash and a couple of good vices. I figured about 130 bf of 8/4 wood (ash here is $3.25 /a bf); and adding another 10% for waste makes the wood total about $500. The vices, if you use, twin screw plus a wagon or end vice add another $500. SYP is not available in Chicago and I don't know if I would be happy with the other softwood construction lumber species. Does the $1000 cost sound typical?

Schwarz recommends construction grade douglas fir in his book for those of us that live in the midwest. That's what I plan on using. I'm going to rip 2x10s or 2x12s from the Home Depot. I haven't priced out the wood yet, but I don't imagine it being more that $200 or $250. I'm only going to put a front vise on it for now and will add a tail vise later as finances permit. The Jorgensen I bought was about $140, so I'm hoping to do the whole thing for about $400 in initial materials cost.

[Matt Radtke]

My total is coming in well under $100. If I recall correctly, I spent the following on lumber. Granted, mine is more english trestle base instead of a true Roubo, but still.

Top: 5 2x12x8' @$8. = $40
Legs: 2 4x4x8 @$10 = $20
Stretchers: 1 2x12x12' = $16
Total: $76

[Jeff Skory]

Nice bench Todd. I built one about 6 months ago and love it. Never knew what I was missing until I had this and can't imagine life without it.

Mike, I built mine using construction grade lumber from Lowe's. Granted I sorted through about 100 different boards to find the best ones (quite a workout!!) but the overall cost really is quite low.

[Rich Greinert]

So... how did you explain this to the gym?

[Jim Koepke]

So... how did you explain this to the gym?

Maybe tell them you were doing some bench presses at home?

jim

[Mike Brady]

I appreciate the information about construction lumber as an alternative. I'll do some checking at Lowes and HD around here. I have seen a bunch of pine and fir benches being built by forum posters and I wonder if they are satisfied with the weight and the relative softness of construction lumber. Maybe I have answered my own question by recognizing that a lot of these benches exist. Chris Schwarz emphacizes that you should use what is cheap and available, and he's the man. It appears that making it massive is the operative idea.

Update:
Just went to HD, and no joy on the doug fir. Special order only, which is useless because they will send the c**p off of the top of the pile. I'll try Lowes next. In this economy, many of the good commercial lumber yards in the area have closed. The wood I want is called Douglas fir, HT/ KD, select grade, which basically means it is kiln-dried to about 10% moisture. I did find that grade in some decent 4X4's, but they look too skimpy for legs. I could laminate them into a 3-1/2" top, I suppose.

2nd update: Accordinging to Lowe's commercial dept, none of their suppliers are carrying Doug fir. That market has been filled by the engineered products like glue-lam. Hemlock fir is available, again by special order only. Some of this is related to the fact that Chicago is far from the saw mills.
Looks like my best option would be the locally harvested ash from all of the emerald ash borer -infected trees at $3.25 bf. Thats back to the $1000.00 bench....ouch.

[Todd McDonald]

I'll be spending my next 6 months of free time working on re-finishing the upstairs on our story-and-a-half house. But after that I plan to build that bench as well.

How do you like the leg vise? I bought a Jorgensen vise that I planned to use as a face vise. My thought was to extend the top a bit farther on the left and put the vise just left of the leg.

How was the glue up of the top? Did you have access to a jointer and a planer? I don't have access to either of those, but I do have a #7 that I got to use to flatten the top. I don't have much of a workbench right now (an old door on a couple of sawhorses), but I was thinking about using the #7 to try and flatten and square each board before glue-up. It'd take some rigging to hold the boards, but I fell confident I can figure something out. But do you guys think a #7 will accomplish the task?

The drawbored joints look great, how was that experience? Did you use a dowel plate to make your own dowels or did you use pre-dimensioned dowels?

Sorry if these questions seem ridiculous. I'm a newbie. But once my upstairs is done then I can finally build the woodworking shop in my basement that I've always wanted. The bench is going to be the last phase of that project. I'm just brainstorming ways to build Schwarz roubo bench without a jointer or planer.


Hi Dan,

I did use a power jointer and planer, with lots of infeed and outfeed supports. First I would rip a 2x12 in half on the band saw. Then use the power jointer to face and edge joint. Then rip to 4 1/2", making sure to take out as much of the pith as possible. Then to the power planer, each board is different thickness. I only milled what I would work on during that day. So mostly four boards for a glue up. As stated below I used my #62 to level the 4 board laminations. Once all the "4's" were complete I started glueing the sections up 4 boards to 8 boards, etc... Then eventually I had a top... Continued to use the #62 and then #8 during the process on both sides. Let me tell you this top is a major hand full to move, both weight and length. Schwarz does a great job explaining this process in his book.

I have not decided on the Dog Holes yet.... Not really looking forward to using a 10" Hand brace to auger them out.

[Tom Millington]

It must be a local thing Mike. I just bought enough douglas fir 2x8's to make a workbench at my local Lowes. I'm located in central NY which is even farther than the pacific northwest (where the df mostly grows) than Chicago. I've noticed that the local supply of df comes and goes. They will have it in stock for a while then it will be just terrible spf for months at a time. When I saw they had df back in stock I grabbed a friend and we rummaged through ALL the stacks to find the cleanest/straightest boards!

[Shawn Albe]

I building a Roubo-ish top right now...I don't have a powered jointer or planer. I specifically started down this hand plane slope because I didn't want them.

Question to you and others that have built Le RouboSchwarz: If you only used hand planes, how was it? Given the choice would you do it again that way? Since I'm still a rookie with hand tools, right now I'm feeling a little chicken $h!+ right now at the thought. But like you, I don't really want a bunch of money and space tied up in stationary power tools right now. Just wondering if I should try to pick up a used jointer on the cheap for a bench build and then decide whether to keep it or not.

Opinions appreciated.

[Todd McDonald]

Maybe tell them you were doing some bench presses at home?

jim


I told them I been working on my ASH BOTTOM shelf:D

[Todd McDonald]

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[Tom Godley]

Nice bench -- what did you finish it with ?


I made one out of maple and I am still undecided on a finish

[Bob Easton]

Question to you and others that have built Le RouboSchwarz: If you only used hand planes, how was it? Given the choice would you do it again that way? Since I'm still a rookie with hand tools, right now I'm feeling a little chicken $h!+ right now at the thought. But like you, I don't really want a bunch of money and space tied up in stationary power tools right now. Just wondering if I should try to pick up a used jointer on the cheap for a bench build and then decide whether to keep it or not.

Opinions appreciated.

Shawn, while not a Roubo, my Nicholson bench was built to the plans in the Schwarz book. Where I differed was making it 12 feet long for handling boat lumber. While it doesn't have the extra thick top of the Roubo, it actually has more surfaces needing planing than the Roubo, the top and both aprons. I did ALL of that work with hand planes. I even dimensioned the lumber with hand planes.

If your worry is flattening the top. fear not. It's not that hard. Besides, where are you going to find a planer that can handle 24 inch widths "on the cheap."

More about my bench here: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?p=223

[Todd McDonald]

Nice bench -- what did you finish it with ?


I made one out of maple and I am still undecided on a finish


BLO then Paste Wax.