Introducing Le Roubo

[Josh Bowman]

I made a large leap forward on the bench project. Even though I'm not done, I couldn't resist showing my current progress. If anyone wants, I can post the journey from rough boards to finish.....when I get finished. These benchs are real muscle intensive to build. Men were really men long ago.
Now I just have to figure out how to get it on it's feet!

[Michael Peet]

Looking great, Josh! Looks like you're just about done.

I just spent the weekend prepping some of the rough lumber for the top of mine. I am using a bandsaw and my trusty #7. I am bushed.

Funny, I never tire of a good bench thread.

Mike

[John Schreiber]

I'm sure Monsieur would be proud. By the time it is assembled that far, I was able to flip mine slowly onto lower horses solo, but it's much easier with a neighbor's help.

[David Gendron]

Look ealy good! It would be intresting to have more details on the vises the why and how of your choice!

[Jim Koepke]

Now I just have to figure out how to get it on it's feet!

Looks nice.

My curiosity is likely not the only one wanting to see the full journey.

Not sure about your height from the saw horses to the floor in relation to the legs, but you may be able to roll it over and onto the floor with minimal help.

You may want to take the front jaw out of the vise.

jim

[Bob Jones]

Josh,
I would like more details and pictures of your wagon vise. I am about to order hardware for a roubo myself. Thanks!

[Tri Hoang]

Looking great, Josh. I need to stop planing & start building one soon. I vote for more detailed pics & construction note on the wagon vise as well.

[Lowell Smith]

:D


I made a large leap forward on the bench project. Even though I'm not done, I couldn't resist showing my current progress. If anyone wants, I can post the journey from rough boards to finish.....when I get finished. These benchs are real muscle intensive to build. Men were really men long ago.
Now I just have to figure out how to get it on it's feet!

I enjoy these 'works in progress' threads. It helps emphasize the tremendous amount of work and time that goes into them. It also seems to generate additional comments and questions that might not otherwise arise.

Looks terrific!

[Charlie Gummer]

That's awesome Josh! A Roubo is in my very (hopefully) near future, I too would love to see the complete journey.

[Kevin McMichael]

Canoes and kayaks take up a lot of room. I also suffer from this. Nice bench, I have the wood fro mine waiting for me to purchase glue and some more clamps.

[Josh Bowman]

Josh,
I would like more details and pictures of your wagon vise. I am about to order hardware for a roubo myself. Thanks!

The wagon vise was cheap. I hope it's useful. I used it upside down already to point the dowels used for the drawbore. When I find a longer screw, I'm going to use a garter so the handle does not get so much in the way.
I cut my top boards to length to allow for the vise, so I didn't have to chop them out. I then cut the chop from scrap and it's about 6 inches long. I used a press screw from woodcraft which is about 11 ½” long and some misc hardware from Lowes. The vise moves very well, I noted after I installed the drawer slides that under load the slides bowed some. So I used the window brackets Z shaped piece to brace it. A note about the underneath drawer slides, I only used the bottom part with the bearings. I drilled a hole in the main part of the slide to allow a screw head to pass so the bearing runner could be screwed to the bottom of the chop. Now will be the smoke test, if dirt that collects in the bottom half of the drawer slide gunks it up. I have a plan B if that happens. The first picture shows the wagon vise opening by simply leaving a couple of boards short. The 4th shows the chop before it was planes down level with the bench.

[Josh Bowman]

Doesn't Jr's hold fasts look nice?

[Josh Bowman]

This journey started back in the winter. I was talking about building a Roubo to a friend and told him how I dreaded picking thourgh the lumber at Lowes. He said he had a cousin up on the moutain that had 10 year old maple. So I bought a truck load of rough lumber for 70 dollars.

[Josh Bowman]

I mentioned to another friend that I needed a larger planer.....300 dollars later I had his late fathers Delta 380 clone in my shop. I started milling and glueing up pairs of boards.....unfortunately my jointer was not adjusted correctly nor was I for 8 foot boards! I did a test clamp up and found the pairs did not align well.

[Josh Bowman]

My buddy had me over and we used his 8 inch powermatic and his need for perfection and got all the pairs so they jointed almost without a gap! That made the final top glue up go without a hitch.

[Josh Bowman]

So now I turned to planeing the top flat! A Stanley #5 then 7 then a #4. Within an hour I had the top very flat.
So then it's off to making legs and tenons with my Grizzly tenon jig.

[Josh Bowman]

Next, I chopped mortises and built strechers. Dry fitted, pared and dry fitted again. I found rubbing a pencil on the tenon would rub off on the tight spots in the mortise and show me where to pare.
I then built a wood screw vise that got replaced with a Veritas twin screw of Tri's. Anybody need some 1 1/2" screws? ;)

[Josh Bowman]

Thanks to Ken Shepard's encouragement, I started drawboring the final assembly. Unfortunately they were not all successful. The stretchers to legs did fine, but the legs to top drawbores were only 50 % good. I think I did not prep the hole well enough and taper the pins enough for the 6" long 3/8" dowels to pass to the other cheek of the mortise. Good enough though, since I used glue and had lots of clamps on hand.

[Josh Bowman]

The final chapter.
Still not complete, I lack finishing the leg vise and shelf. I have some dog holes to be placed. And I really want to learn how to carve 2010 in the chop of the leg vise. But I have to give many thanks to SMC for the tips and photo's shared by the members. Many of my friends came together to help with advise and ideas. This really is a compilation of many people. Chris Schwarz was very much an inspiration and answered many of my emails with opinions and ideas.

[Bob Jones]

Very nice. Thanks for the info on the wagon vise. Interesting idea with the drawer slides. I am considering using a screw like on your leg vise for my wagon vise. Not sure yet. I just don't want the screw to stick out from the end very much. Thanks for writing it up!

[Josh Bowman]

Very nice. Thanks for the info on the wagon vise. Interesting idea with the drawer slides. I am considering using a screw like on your leg vise for my wagon vise. Not sure yet. I just don't want the screw to stick out from the end very much. Thanks for writing it up!
Mine is about 11 1/2" and I can't really garter it, because it would reduce the movement to about 3 inches, as it is it will move 6 inches.. I'd say 16" would allow a garter.
Here's Jr's
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=131859&highlight=wagon+vise

[Michael Peet]

Thanks for posting the pics, Josh. I love seeing these come together.

Nice job.

Mike

[Josh Bowman]

I looked at the fine Bench Crafter video, and decided I could make my leg vise work better. I went to the local roller rink and they gave me a couple of old wheels, a quick stop at Tractor Supply for bolts and then some scraps to hold the wheels. Just like the Bench Crafter, I tapped the wood instead of using lags or nuts. It worked very well. Now I can spin the screw handle and my vise will glide away.

[Steve Branam]

Very nice! $70 for a truckload of maple, I'm jealous!

I documented my Roubo build here (http://www.closegrain.com/2009/10/my-roubo.html) (in 16 parts, plus 2-part video at the end).

You can also see where I dropped it on my foot laying it back down. Lucky I didn't lose a couple toes. Get help lifting it!

[Josh Bowman]

Very nice! $70 for a truckload of maple, I'm jealous!
I documented my Roubo build here (http://www.closegrain.com/2009/10/my-roubo.html) (in 16 parts, plus 2-part video at the end).

You can also see where I dropped it on my foot laying it back down. Lucky I didn't lose a couple toes. Get help lifting it!
Wow Steve! I'm inpressed you used all hand tools to build it. I had enough trouble just using power tools and hand tools. It seemed it was so massive that it took each tool to it's full capacity. Thanks for the post, wish I had seen it before. How long did it take you?

[Steve Branam]

Thanks! Of course, I used SYP, which is a lot softer than maple, so that helped.

Here are the stats from the last page on it:


"I kept a log of all the time I spent on the bench. Spread over 20 calendar weeks, it totaled 88 hours and 26 minutes. There was probably a good hour or so spent fiddling with the camera, so call it 87 hours."

[Josh Bowman]

This is the last of the gloating:D
Except for some accessories, I'm done! Now I have to figure out how to use it. That's the fun part. The thing is like concrete, very solid.

[Josh Bowman]

Well I was almost done Gloating. Here's the last of the pictures