My bench build

[Bobby O'Neal]

Getting ready to start a Roubo with a wagon vise. Going the SYP route and today was step one with a trip to get lumber. Got almost everything in one trip. Still need a few more boards but I'll go back and get more later. Ordered a screw from Lee Valley and a veneer press screw from Rockler for the vises. I am tempted to make the chop and deadman out of the SYP but I think I will go get a piece of Ash. I'll update with progress and pics after some acclimation time. This will be a hand tool dominated project. I sold my planer and won't be using my TS in a trial run of a shop with the only power tools being small ones that you take to the wood. That is, unless I found a killer bandsaw deal.

[Mark Dorman]

Looking forward to the build pics. I built mine on saw horses and it was a treat to get it done and have something solid and stable to work on. What kind of glue are you going to use?

[Jim Foster]

Looks like you have a good start! I did not have any bench when I started and could not have done mine without several sets of saw-horses.

[Bobby O'Neal]

You can see I have a bench shaped object in the background. This will be the last rodeo for that device. I will screw it to the wall so it doesn't collapse while planing on it.

I bought a gallon of Titebond Extend the other day. Hopefully that will be a saving measure during glue ups but I don't plan on tackling anything huge. Just reasonable amounts at a time. I'd rather have five smooth, successful glue ups than one hectic one.

[Jim Foster]

Also, lots of clamps are helpful.

[Jason Coen]

Also, lots of clamps are helpful.

Ha, understatement of the year. Prior to starting on my split-top bench, I spent a couple of months buying a 12" Jet bar clamp every week or so. I wound up with a dozen or so, and I still could've used more when I started gluing. :(

That size clamp has turned out to be incredibly handy now that the bench is done.

[Bobby O'Neal]

I need to come up with a good way to get a gauge on how the top glue up will go so I can be sure that I am good on +/- 24" clamps for the final top glue up. Any left over funds and I'd love to have some more 12" clamps. They're a very handy size, agreed.

[Bobby O'Neal]

I finished getting everything to rough dimensions for drying/acclimation. I wound up going and getting one more piece as a spare for the top because one board in particular went haywire during its 10' rip. Go figure. It moved a lot during the rip and when I'd reached the final 4"-6" the cut off just blew itself off the other half, falling to the ground. So the two pieces that came out of that rip are pretty well bowed and may not make the final cut for the top.

I did all of the breakdown with a circular saw and am very glad my tablesawless experiment was underway because that could have been bad on the one board in particular. All in all it was no big deal breaking the stock down that way. The rest of the dimensioning will likely be done with planes, save a few cross cuts.

Now the waiting is the hardest part.

[Bobby O'Neal]

A box from Lee Valley arrived today with a vise screw, handle and drawbore pin. I also went to the real lumber yard and got a piece of ash for the chop and maybe also for the deadman. I notice the Schwarz Roubo plans called for the deadman to be SYP but I wondered if the ash wouldn't wear better as a deadman. It me be a wash but I have enough ash to do it so why not.

The real lowlight of the day was learning my lumber supplier is closing in March. That could complicate things for my projects.

[Bobby O'Neal]

So I got started by giving everybody a tune up and sharpening.

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I also had to rig up some stops on my current "bench."

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I started out doing my initial cross grain planing with my scrub but for boards this small and relatively flat my jack seems more efficient.

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Here is a short stretcher glue up. I used the Schwarz suggestion of nailing stops in place for alignment and it works well. And I promise I didn't plant the book. It's just that good. I knocked the stops off after taking the pic.

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Here is a leg glue up. Two, actually. I put some kitchen plastic wrap in between the two sets. This glue up didn't go very well though. I feared running out of time and didn't get a flush end. Not a big deal but just a little more work later.

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[Brent VanFossen]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and progress. I'm quite interested, as I have the wood for mine, and am about to start my bench.

[Brian Troxel]

Brent, I'm in Vancouver and about to start working on my bench also!

[Jim Koepke]

Brent, I'm in Vancouver and about to start working on my bench also!

Brian,

Welcome to the Creek. My guess is you mean Vancouver, WA and not B.C.

My shop is not too far from you. Hopefully some of my time will be able to get some more done on my bench build project this summer.

Being retired has sure taken up a lot of my time. How there was ever time to hold a job is beyond me now.

jtk

[Brent VanFossen]

Brian,

Welcome to the Creek. My guess is you mean Vancouver, WA and not B.C.

My shop is not too far from you. Hopefully some of my time will be able to get some more done on my bench build project this summer.

Being retired has sure taken up a lot of my time. How there was ever time to hold a job is beyond me now.

jtk

Brian, Jim:
We should keep track of each other and share notes.

[Bobby O'Neal]

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Got the last parts of the base glued up and now I will clean them up and take a small break from planing and cut joinery for a bit. Also I had to add about a three foot extension to my existing bench to support these long pieces. It will be nice to break that bench down when I'm done.

[Jim Koepke]

Brian, Jim:
We should keep track of each other and share notes.

Sounds good to me.

I like Portland, lots of beer there.

jtk

[Bobby O'Neal]

I got a little more done today. I took one of the legs and get it cleaned up and to a final square and decided to start on cutting a tenon. I didn't get any pictures of the tenon because I actually didn't finish it. I tried a couple of different methods but wasn't satisfied with either saw I own. It seems that despite wanting to be more and more hand tool based, until I get all the hand tools stocked that I'd like, I will need to continue to use the methods I have on hand. I will probably just make the tenons with a dado setup from now on. But I took my cheapo panel saw and tried to lop off one end. Turns out, I suck at that so I went to the table saw and then did the flip flip cut. That left a bit of a raised part that I chiseled away. This was a lot of fun too. I made sure to keep the strop handy when slicing away at the end grain.

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[John Sanford]

Did the bench build stall, or is this merely a "failure to communicate"? ;)

[Bob Jones]

It looks like you have not starting glueing up the top? When I glued mine up I did it in several steps. I started with the straightest 3 boards and glued them up to make a nice straight beam. Every day after that I would open the clamps and add one board to each side. Since the first beam was straight it was ok if the new boards were a little off - the clamps and glue took care of it. I see your near Nashville. If you ever come down toward Memphis, shoot me a message.

[Bobby O'Neal]

I think I stalled and failed to communicate... Such is life I suppose. I chipped away in small, spaced out increments until the last couple weeks. I've made some strides and updates are forthcoming...

[Bobby O'Neal]

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Making tenons on the legs ... A few failed efforts with poor saws, led me to return to my roots (for now). I cut the tenons with a dado stack and did a bit of shaping later when I fit them. I did the same on the stretchers but started fitting them sooner after doing a layout marking session.

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[Bobby O'Neal]

I then moved on to making mortises in the legs for the stretchers. I used the drill and pare method here. I will say one of the few issues I take with this Schwarz plan is having no four sided tenon shoulders. Makes for tricky fitting. I could have adjusted for that on the front end and didn't, so that's on me.

I did some fitting with a shoulder plane and chisel and eventually got pretty good joints. After getting everything cut and ready for dry assembly on the base, this is where I stumbled through the time-space continuum. I didn't get much done for a while but things started picking up and momentum goes a long way.

[Bobby O'Neal]

Next came the seemingly endless process of milling up the boards for the top. It went well considering this was my first go around at a predominantly hand tool based milling process. I did get a reference straight edge with a piece of MDF trim and a flush trim bit in my router. I would definitely go this route again. I don't own a jointer and time is of the essence. I then put that edge against the table saw fence and got my initial top thickness. I glued the top up in two halves and got a good help out of planing a slight hollow in the face of each board to make the edges mate well. Indie this on individual boards and on the two halves.

[Bobby O'Neal]

When I had both halves glued up, I flattened the bottom side of each one to reference off the bars of the clamps and squared the edges I had designated to be to the inside. I then put a hollow in these joining faces (edges) and did some back and forth until I had an acceptable fit. This was a lot of work lugging these hunks up and down to plane, adjust and compare over and over. Eventually I had an entire top glued up and this was exciting to say the least. I bought a couple more 24" clamps and still feel like a was a few short but it is what it is. I could not justify another $300 in clamps to go from really, really good to "perfect." I put the focused force on the top side because if one side was going to be close to perfect, that's the one, right? It turned out well.

[Bobby O'Neal]

From there I just took my time flattening the top out on both sides. I did this all by hand. I stopped at a "flat but not finished" stage on the top side. I'll get it where I want it at the last step I think. Or very close to the end. I clipped off the ends with a circular saw and followed with a little better cleanup from a router. After flipping and cutting and cleanup passes I had a little bit left to do with a LA block plane to get it square. The wagon vise end is actually square so it can mate well with an end cap later. The leg vise end is only aesthetically square.

[Bobby O'Neal]

Before going forward I mortised the leg for the leg vise hardware and also for the parallel guide. I don't have a bandsaw, which I thought would be perfect for this operation. With a tall auxiliary fence, I was able to use a table saw to hog out a little over half of the material for the parallel guide. I finished it by using a dowel jig and paring to the edges with a chisel. It worked decently. Then, I clamped up the bases to layout the leg mortises and cut them with a router, squaring corners by hand again. This worked really well. I scored my lines and then made them much deeper with a few chisel whacks. I drilled out with a 2" Forstner before moving to the router. I was able to just free hand the router to my lines. When I got close enough, the scored edge would feather away, much like planing to a scored line from a marking gauge. I made two passes at different depths. I used a half inch router bit in a half inch collet so at full depth, the shank of the bit just followed the first depth cut like a bearing. It was a really good fit right off the router. One leg needed a little paring but the other three were ready to go. I did some draw boring on the base and then assembled it upside down. Now to finish up vises, deadman and dog holes.

[Tony Shea]

Very nice Bobby. Is a lot of work doing all this with predominately hand tools. One think to think about is the the connection of the top to the base assembly is that draw bored m/t joints are a bit overkill. In fact I think it could potentially lead to issues down the road due to wood movement. If you have fairly tight mortises than the expansion of the top may fight with the base that will move a lot less in that direction. My bench is built with smaller tenons on the tops of the legs going into mortises that are an 1/8" too wide on the back side of the tenon. But my bench is knockdown and has two aprons on each end with one lag screw holding the bench in place. My goal, and it has proven itself so far, was to force all the movement of the bench top to the back side. I have a leg vise so did not want this shrinking/expanding top to cause problems with clamping. I sometimes get a very small amount of overhang in the front but 90% of the wood movement ends up on the backside of the bench. Just something to think about, although I may be a little late to the party.

[Bobby O'Neal]

You make a good point, Tony. But yes, a bit late. I've already drawbored the top. I didn't glue it, however. We'll see what kind of movement happens.

[Jim Matthews]

Y I've already drawbored the top. I didn't glue it, however. We'll see what kind of movement happens.

How much do you suppose the top weighs?
It might take significant persuasion to make it move - Newton had something to say on that topic.

Nicely done. Better looking than my furniture, even.

[Matthew Hills]

Looks like it is coming together nicely!

Have you found that the wood has shifted much since the original rough milling earlier in the year?


Matt

[Bobby O'Neal]

How much do you suppose the top weighs?
It might take significant persuasion to make it move - Newton had something to say on that topic.

Nicely done. Better looking than my furniture, even.


The top is extremely heavy. I really want to believe it's right at 300 pounds but it is certainly no less than 250 pounds. I was very pleased with its mass when all was said and done. It is just over 9 feet long, 24 inches wide, and 4 1/2 inches thick.

[Bobby O'Neal]

Looks like it is coming together nicely!

Have you found that the wood has shifted much since the original rough milling earlier in the year?


Matt

Well, my initial milling consisted of only centered rips and rough lengths with no dimensioning otherwise. Everything sat, stacked, like this until it was it's time to become part of a glue up. Then I would just pull things out of the stack, thickness and square them, and then it would get in clamps the same day. This pattern held true all the way through finishing the top. So, maybe I didn't give things much of a chance to move. I will say, however, everything at the bottom of the stack which wound up being the boards to laminate the top, was by far the flattest. I wish I had bought a few hundred pounds of sand to put the top of the stack so that everything else would have been as flat as what was on the bottom. Overall, I would give it a grade of "surprisingly stable."

[Harold Burrell]

The top is extremely heavy. I really want to believe it's right at 300 pounds but it is certainly no less than 250 pounds. I was very pleased with its mass when all was said and done. It is just over 9 feet long, 24 inches wide, and 4 1/2 inches thick.

Man, I appreciate this thread. I am in the middle of a roubo bench build of my own...and I am currently in the middle of bench top mortises. :eek:

Some days it makes me want to cry...



Hey...I also appreciate your sig line. :)

[Bobby O'Neal]

Man, I appreciate this thread. I am in the middle of a roubo bench build of my own...and I am currently in the middle of bench top mortises. :eek:

Some days it makes me want to cry...



Hey...I also appreciate your sig line. :)


Are you making the mortises by hand? That'd make me cry, for sure.

My sig line helps me remember my role. ;)

[Harold Burrell]

Are you making the mortises by hand? That'd make me cry, for sure.

My sig line helps me remember my role. ;)

I'm doing them by hand...but not all with chisels. I used a brace to drill holes first.

My real issue right now is trying to cut the cursed dovetail females on the outside. :eek::eek::eek:

[Bobby O'Neal]

Doing some work in the deadman and vises last night. Steady it goes it does....

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[Bobby O'Neal]

I've noticed from pictures of other people using the Lee Valley screw, it seems that almost nobody mortises to inset the screw into the leg device chop. My thought is, why not? It can only add stability, right? I know there won't be forces pulling the screws against their position but I figure this is the project to overbuild.