Roubo build with salvaged materials

[Phillip Mitchell]

I've been planning on building my first bench for a while now and was fortunate to be given access to a good bit of scrap wood from my employers to make a bench with. I'm using Chris Schwarz's plans from his first book and will have similar dimensions, but my process will be a bit different due to the nature of my material. I'm posting now instead of when finished in hopes for constructive feedback, before I make any big mistakes ;). I'm still new at this and can always use helpful wisdom from those that have been there and done that.

I'm just getting started at this point and this bench will be more of a hybrid approach to tools used in its construction. I love using hand tools and am really looking forward to having a bench to do a lot more handwork on, but in the interest of time and size of some of this material, I am using the power tools that are at my disposal and will use my hand tools for all the finesse and finishing touches. I respect you guys that are a little more neanderthal than me, but I just need to get up and running with something for the first time and don't have 6 months to spend hand cutting everything. I love reading and learning on this sub-forum, so I figured I'd contribute my 2 cents with my little project. I also thought this may be a useful primer for some folks in the future that may want to use materials that aren't exactly, err pre-dimensioned for their specific use. Takes a little bit of sweat and time, but it's not too bad to rip and resaw stuff to fit your project.

My initial plan was the build the bench using Douglas Fir, which is quite plentiful in the shop where I work. After looking around a bit though, I was fortunate enough to be given a nearly 14' long 6x9 beam of laminated of white oak used in a previous job about 6-7 years ago. Most of the laminated material is 6/4 or 8/4 and when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for a bench top after a couple of cuts. Here's what it looked like after I crosscut it in half. I'm shooting for a bench roughly 24" wide by 80" long.

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After crosscutting, I took each half to the table saw and ripped the 9" wide timber in half, giving me roughly (2) 4 3/8 pieces. This will the be the thickness of the bench (it will end up being pretty close to 4" after milling and squaring all the stock.) So there are (4) 6" wide timbers that I will glue up to make the 24" wide top. I'm lucky to have had someone else do all that laminating previously. Saves me tons of time and work by just having to glue up with only 3 big glue lines. Haven't determined the order they will be glued in, but this is generally what the top will look like.

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Next, I found some nice Doug Fir timber frame drops to pick my leg and stretcher material from. It was a bit of a process milling these pieces from such large stock, but no biggie really. One good thing about having such large stock to work with is that you can select for optimum grain direction pretty easily. This is what the stock looked like after I pulled it out of storage and a pic of some table saw ripping and milling. I cleaned up each ripped face with my no 5 1/2 to square things up enough to ride on the table saw top and fence squarely. Only needed to take one cut to the bandsaw to saw out what was left. The rest of it worked with the table saw, flipping the stock over and cutting from each side.
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Then, I brought my stock home to mill square on my own jointer and planer. I've got a bit more planing to do on the top and frame, but everything is jointed square on at least 1 face and adjacent edge. I plan to have the milling finished today or tomorrow and get ready for glueing up the top. I may have access to a Domino for that. I have never used one, but was offered access to use it for glue-up, which may save me a bit of time later in flattening the top after glue-up. I know how stuff can slide around with glue on it at the last minute and make a lot more work for you that you anticipated. It was a bit of a trick jointing a 7' long, full dimension oak 4x6s but I got them square and didn't need to remove too much material in the process. This oak seems pretty stable.

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I will update as I make progress. Next up is glueing up the top and starting to cut tenons for stretchers (and legs) and begin to assemble the frame. Thanks for looking!

[Phil Mueller]

Looking good Phillip! Do keep us posted...love workbench builds.

[Steve Voigt]

I love the creative and thrifty use of materials…that's the way to do it. That top is going to way a ton!
Looking forward to seeing the rest. Where do you find big pieces of Doug fir like that in NC? I'm one state north, but I haven't seen DF like that since I left California.

[Allen Hunt]

I'm going to go stock up on the popcorn for this one!

[Mateo Panzica]

Are you working at Highcountry Timberframe by chance? I think that I recognize the shop.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Steve,
Most of this timber has come from suppliers in Oregon and Washington (maybe California) from what I've seen. Looking at the grown rings on some of this stuff is pretty fun. To see a 12"x12" with end grain that is near perfectly quarter sawn makes you realize how big some of these trees were when they were cut.

Yes, the top is quite heavy...I've been getting a workout moving the individual 4x6s around to plane them. I'm kind of glad that the frame is going to be DF that is pretty dry. The leg dimensions are a full 5"x5" and they'd be a lot heavier if it were all oak.

Mateo,
Yes, I'm working at HCTF. Been there nearly a year and really learning a lot and having a good time. I've heard about your tool making from a couple of folks here. Just looked at some photos of your work. Wow! Inspiring and beautiful work. When were you working here?

[Brian Holcombe]

That DF is really gorgeous.

Nice work!

[Christopher Charles]

Looks great, and no need for apologies for expending electrons. I finished a Roubo a couple years ago and it has been a game-changer in terms of enjoyment. What are you planning for vises?

Best,
Chris

[Phillip Mitchell]

I'm not totally decided on the vises yet. I will make a hook / crochet on the front left and build a sliding deadman underneath.

I would love to have a leg vise on the face. I've been looking at the Benchcrafted scissor type leg vises, which look perfect for what I want. I suppose it will come down to what I can afford (whether I buy new or build something custom.) I saw a leg vise setup online someone made that used a bearing and steel rod through the leg at the bottom to keep it the jaw from racking. Not sure how involved that would be to build but it looked great and seemed to be stout. Any suggestions for other new leg vises without having to set a pin everytime I want to move it?

[Phil Stone]

I'm not totally decided on the vises yet. I will make a hook / crochet on the front left and build a sliding deadman underneath.

I would love to have a leg vise on the face. I've been looking at the Benchcrafted scissor type leg vises, which look perfect for what I want. I suppose it will come down to what I can afford (whether I buy new or build something custom.) I saw a leg vise setup online someone made that used a bearing and steel rod through the leg at the bottom to keep it the jaw from racking. Not sure how involved that would be to build but it looked great and seemed to be stout. Any suggestions for other new leg vises without having to set a pin everytime I want to move it?


I have the Benchcrafted Criss-Cross on the face vise of my Roubo build: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?241141-Hybrid-top-Roubo. I've been using it for over a year and have no complaints. It's smooth and easy to use. If you go this route, just follow the installation instructions exactly and get the hardware well before you start to work on your front (vise) leg.

[Mateo Panzica]

Hey, Phillip.

I left Highcountry in 2012.. er, maybe 2011. I recognized the rack of orphan timbers. Funny, how a place can get etched in your brain. I remember that laminated oak when I was there. It looks like you're well on your way to putting it to good use. Enjoy your time there, and say "howdy" to Tom and Pete for me.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Got the top glued up this afternoon. I was going to use a Domino for alignment, etc but decided it wasn't necessary after doing a dry run in the clamps. Always feels like a bit of a mad dash of 10-15 minutes when glueing up stuff this big, but it looks like it will come out pretty flat with minimal flattening work after the clamps come off. I will put my no. 7 to good use tomorrow.

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[Tom M King]

Looking great. I think lineal bearing rods work fine if the chop is thick enough for a very secure socket for the end of the rod. That's what I've been planning to use whenever I get enough time to build a big bench. Some people use 30mm. I already have the 40mm rod and bearings. I'm planning to put two bearings hidden in/under the lower end leg stretcher.

I probably won't get enough time to build this bench until I retire though. I have some 12/4 figured Black Walnut for the chop that I intend to thin down some at the top, one side, and part of the left side, but leave full thickness at the bottom where the rod is inserted, and part way up the left sided. The plan is to shape that leg of the bench to fit the strangely shaped chop. You can find some much simpler designs that seem to work fine though.

I'm also planning to use two linear bearing rods for a full width end vise.

Screws will be wooden.

[Chris Hachet]

I built a Roubo a smaller one, with salvaged Beech and maple. It came out decently enough, makes a nice bench...not into it much deeper financially than the Bench Crafted classic leg vise on the front.

Good luck, enjoying your pics.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks Chris, I will continue to post pics as I move along. Made a bit of progress today...nothing really very exciting, but I got the top flattened and trimmed to length (80")

I did some design work on paper to determine my leg placement, grain orientation, stretcher lengths, etc. Touched up the stretchers and legs with the jointer plane and cut my them to final length. I considered using a handsaw to crosscut the legs to length, but ended up using the beam saw (16 5/16" circ saw) in the interest of time. Came out pretty clean, with minimal clean up on the end grain with a block plane. Then I laid out my tenons on the legs and the stretchers. Pretty much ready to start cutting tenons, which I plan to do with Japanese pull saws (I've got better quality saws in the pull than the push style.) I could do it quicker on table saw, but I actually want to have some fun and advance my sawing skills a bit in this project.

Didn't take many pics today, but I'll include a pic of the big beam saw used to cut the 5x5 legs to length. I actually tried using a clamped guide at first, but didn't like my results. Ended up just marking my cut lines with a knife and free handing the cut, which is more what I'm used to.

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[Eric Schubert]

I'm curious to see how your bench turns out. I'm currently working on my own build for a split-top roubo-ish bench. I'm also using Douglas Fir for my entire bench, salvaged from large pallets used to haul wind turbine components around.

Your build looks great, so far. Keep it up!

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks Eric. Keep after it with your own bench. It seems like it will take forever when you're at the beginning (to me), but I think if you peck away at it whenever you have extra time then you'll be finished sooner than you think and will have learned some good stuff in the process.

I cut the tenons for my stretchers and legs in a couple of small sawing sessions after work this week. I posted this in another thread about Japanese saws, but I found the Ryoba to be better suited to this size wood and joinery than the small, fine toothed Dozuki. There was a bit of cleaning and squaring up the tenons with a shoulder plane and/or chisel on a couple of these tenons, but overall I was happy with how the sawing went. I found it helps to take your time and let the saw do the work. No reason to be in a hurry sawing, especially if it throws you out of square/plumb and you have to spend more time after the cut cleaning it all up. I didn't get a picture with all the tenons cut, but just a couple of the bench I'm working on while I build this one ;)

Next, will be laying out and cutting mortises in the legs and assembling the base frame. In the interest of time, I will try and use the hollow chisel mortiser that's sitting around the shop for the legs, although I may have to find an alternate mortise plan for the underside of the top due to its weight and size.

I also need to finalize my leg vise choice and drill a hole accordingly. I think, in the interest of keeping the cost low (read: I'm broke right now...) I will choose this simple vise from Lee Valley ( http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=41664&cat=1,41659 ) and build a simple tenoned wooden parallel guide at the bottom, until I get tired of it and can afford a Benchcrafted Criss Cross setup. Don't have the funds for that right now, unfortunately.

Thanks for looking.

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[James Pallas]

That is going to be a very nice bench. Nice use of available materials.
Jim

[Phil Mueller]

Phillip, I used that same vise screw for my leg vise...works just fine. Most likely not as smooth or convenient as a benchcrafted, but a whole lot less $.

[Christopher Charles]

Hello Phiilip,

i used a german screw that also works great and cant imagine it to be different than the LV vise. Glad to see your progress, thanks for posting.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Got a link to the german screw you used?

[Thomas Schneider]

Thanks for posting your bench build, I never get tired of them! You have a great luxury in that you have what looks like a very capable bench to use for your build, an obstacle I'm trying to figure out how to work around! Keep the updates coming!

[Christopher Charles]

Hello Phillip,

I bought it ~4 years ago from Woodcraft. Looks just like this:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/01h41/diameter-screw-114-32-mm.aspx#REVIEWS

but the one they sell now looks to be woodriver, which I suspect is Asian, if that matters to you. The price has also increased by 25%, so I doubt there'd be a reason to use this one over the LV.

Good luck,
C

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thread update. Life happened, work got busier, family needed more attention, kitchen needed remodeling, etc and the bench parts sat on sawhorses in the shop for 3-4 months while I built it in my head over and over again. I've started dedicating a little bit of time after work on days that I work in the shop to getting back on the bench build. Looking forward to getting this thread rolling again!

I have rough-drilled all 8 mortises in the legs for the stretcher tenons that I already cut. I used a Forstner bit 1/8" undersized in the drill press to remove most of the mortise waste and am now in the process of cleaning out, paring and fine tuning the mortises and tenons for the frame assembly. Got 2 nicely cleaned up and fitted so far, and hope to get a good chunk of uninterrupted time in the AM to knock out some more of this task. The hardest part of this for me is that most days I may only have 30-45 minutes at a time to work on this and find it hard to come to a good stopping point in such a short amount of time with a task of this size.

Each of the stretcher tenons / mortises are 1 1/4" wide x 3 1/2" tall and about 2 1/2" deep so they are large mortises by furniture standards and take more time to clean up. I'm approaching it by getting it as close as I can with chisels, test fitting the tenon, back to chiseling mortise wall, and trimming tenon cheeks with a block plane as needed for proper fit and to stay on layout. The stretchers are flush with the outside plane of the legs once they are in the mortise, so I'm trying to nail that detail as close as I reasonably can both for aesthetics and for a nice flat/square potential clamping surface at least along the front sides of the bench.

I will try and post some pics tomorrow of the progress. Once I get mortises done and frame dry fit, I have a bit more work to do on the front left leg (concerning leg vise parallel guide at the bottom of the leg) before I can begin the frame assembly and draw boring. Does anybody have any first hand experiences with draw boring joints on material this size and species? Specifically, I'm wondering whether I should use 3/8" or 1/2" pegs for the draw boring and what a proper offset would be. I can get oak dowel stock for either size and have quality drill bits in either size. 3/32" offset seems like a good place to start, but I'm just shooting from the hip based on articles I've read. I have built timber frames with (larger) oak pegs in tenons, but I have never done draw boring before on any scale. I have read enough about draw boring (here and otherwise) to understand why you'd want proper, dedicated draw boring pins, but I don't know that I'll be test fitting it over and over again at that stage. I think once I get the joints properly fit, then I will do my drilling for peg holes, mark tenons for offset and drive it home once and done. I don't know that I need any specialized draw boring equipment and certainly don't have the funds for it at the moment, but please chime in if I'm off base and missing something here!

[Rob Luter]

Nice work so far. I built my bench out of salvaged and reclaimed wood too. There's something satisfying about taking what amounted to offal and scrap and making something useful. It looks like your bench will be more substantial and have more real estate on top. I'm jealous! I had some space constraints I had to deal with though. C'est la Vie.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2583/4103275307_f30a5080da_z.jpg

[Phil Mueller]

Phillip, I don't have alot of drawbore experience, but the plans I used called for 3/8". My tenons were 1 1/4" thick by 2 1/2" long going into ~5 1/2" square legs. My offset was somewhere between 3/32" and 1/8".

I did read something from Chris Schwarz later that indicated he tried and liked larger pins...maybe 1/2", can't remember.
Either way, I don't think the thing is coming apart.

I did use a pair of drawbore pins to help align initially, but I think if you clamp the pieces tight, you should be good to go. This bench build was my first drawbore attempt, and frankly wasn't worth the anxiety...it went together quite easily.

[Andy Nichols]

Did a split top design with reclaimed old growth long leaf pine heartwood, 10 ft long, 32inch wide 5 inch thick. Used the Crisscross leg vise, but opted for the LN tail vise, and can highly recommend that tail vise over the wagon vise.....

Because my wood came from a house that was over 100 years old, nails, and nail holes were the biggest issue to overcome.

Did my rectangular dog holes with a Millers Falls miter box and chisel, not as hard to do as I had feared, and sure like the LN style of dogs, easy to make.

Very satisfyingto make ones own bench, but twice as nice to make it from salvaged and/or reclaimed material.....

mos maiorum,

Andy

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks Phil for the input on your own drawboring experience. I think I've read the same article by Schwarz that you're referencing. I will likely go with 3/8" pegs because that is what I have a stock of on hand and I know it's dry, where as anything I may buy from the store will likely not be very dry if it's oak.

I made some progress this morning and finished cleaning up the mortises in the legs for the stretchers. This gave me a chance to look at my tenon shoulders squareness a little better and check square on the whole frame initially. It's nearly 1/32" out of square, and a couple of my long stretcher shoulders are out of square a tiny amount (resulting in a tiny tapered gap between leg and tenon shoulder) but I think i can kill 2 birds with one stone. If I match my shoulder to shoulder length on both front and back (long) stretchers and use my shoulder plane to perfectly square the shoulder cuts then I think I will take care of both issues with one move...hopefully. 1/32" over 6-7' isn't much but I want to try and be as square as possible for assembly and when I layout my mortises for the underside of the top, which I plan to do with the actual frame.

I still need to cut the 1/2" wide x 4" tall slot in the very bottom of the vise leg for my parallel guide on the leg vise and then I will start to think about draw boring and assembly.

Thanks for looking!

[Phil Mueller]

Just one thought...at this stage, you may want to think about whether you will have a shelf or not. I'm now thinking about adding one, and it would have been a bit easier to build in supports prior to assembly.

Your build looks great. Brings back some good memories of my build about a year ago. Nice work!

[Phillip Mitchell]

I made some progress on the bench today. I had a nice dedicated chunk of time and was able to stop at a satisfying place.

I made the mortise/notch in the bottom of the front left leg for the parallel guide tenon to slide into for the leg vise. I drilled some 3/4" holes in the right front leg for some different work holding / holdfast positions. While I had everything disassembled, I planed the final smoothing passes on all the frame parts with my Veritas low angle smoother, which is fairly new to me. That went very well and felt good to be successfully using a smoothing plane without having to stop and constantly fiddle with the plane to get it to do what I want. Very happy with this plane

My big goal was to get those little things done so that I could then complete the frame assembly with pegs and glue, which I was able to complete. I did a dry fit on the frame with some clamps after I'd drilled holes through the mortises while marking the tenons with a drill bit to determine my draw bore offset. The frame was nice and square at top and bottom at this point and the joints looked good enough for me to continue on.

I used 3/8" white oak dowel stock that I sharpened to a blunt point on one end and cut each peg to 4" long. The pegs drove in as expected, tight but not too tight and I didn't split anything. As I started assembly, I noticed that the draw boring was throwing the tops of the legs out of square with each other and the stretchers, at least more than when I did the dry fit. Because I used PVA glue in all the mortise and tenon joints as I was assembling, I had to come up with some creative clamping for the frame to dry with the correct squareness. I was also concerning about this because I'm trying my best to assemble the frame so it will be dead flush with at least the front edge of the bench, hopefully both front and back if I can help it. I think this turned out well enough for my purposes. It feels good to have reached this point, although I know I still have a good deal of work ahead of me. I need to trim the pegs flush and clean up the glue residue and start thinking about my next steps.

I need to determine my process for making the 4 big mortises in the underside of the top to receive the leg tenons. I am contemplating using a router and making a mortising template that will get me 95% of the way there and finesse the last bit with chisels, but I just hate the fuss and unholy racket of the router. Any suggestions for the most accurate way to accomplish this would be appreciated. I don't intend to glue the mortise/tenons connecting the frame to the top for flexibility in moving the bench into and out of my basement (for the first time and if I sell my house in the next 5 years, which is a possibility.)

Should have taken more pics, but was too busy working! Don't mind the engineered lumber 2x6, that's just a makeshift spreader that I had to throw in before the glue dried. The photo uploader on this site doesn't want to show my pics in the proper orientation for some reason. They look fine in Preview before uploading them?

Thanks for looking!

[David Eisenhauer]

Great progress and looking very good. Looks like you are approaching third base, about to round it for home plate soon. For the underside top mortises, how about turning the frame upside down and placing it in the desired position on the underside of the top, trace a pencil around the base leg tenons where they sit on the underside of the top and then drill out the bulk of the mortises like you did with the stretcher mortises? I have one of those inexpensive hand-drill (electric) drill press gizmos that lives on one of my old 3/8" drills that makes it drill flat (90 deg) to the surface and also has a sliding depth stop that adjusts to where you need it that would be my choice for this task. Sneak up to the line with your chisels (save the line) and then test fit as you go. Agreed, heavy base to slide over and back to/from the mortises for the test fits, but chamfer the ends of the leg tenons (after tracing the tenon on the underside of the top) for entry start when assembling.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks David. That's actually exactly what my plan has been in my head since I started thinking about it before I began the project. At work (where I'm currently building the bench) we have a nice Mafell portable "drill press guides" that is pretty good quality and has depth stops built in that you can trust. I will definitely chamfer the ends on the tenons.

I appreciate the advice!

[Joe A Faulkner]

Or you could do it the hard way. The key is laying out accurately and then as David said, sneaking up on the lines.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I've made some great progress over the last month and thought I'd update the thread with some photos and details. I moved the bench to my basement shop yesterday.

I've worked consistently on the bench over the last month or two in little chunks. I've also cleaned up and designated a corner in my basement for the bench to live. Due to an uneven, rough, and uncomfortable old concrete slab in my basement, I decided to lay down a 12'x12' section of wooden subfloor for my workbench area. I also continued some stud wall framing across behind the bench wall so that I can easily mount tool cabinets, shelves, etc for more tool, books, and shop storage. I finally got things in this phase to the point where I felt good about moving the bench home and not having it be an obstacle to my overall goal.

Due to weight and awkwardness, I had to keep the top separate from the base to move it, and thankfully I had a friend help me move it and lift the top onto the legs. The top is every bit of 4" and solid white oak; it's quite heavy! It was a very tight fit down on to the leg tenons, and I have not drilled and pegged these tenons yet. I am waiting until I order a longer, quality 3/8" auger bit to do that job. There is no racking in the bench at all, which I'm very happy about!

Just some details of my process. I drilled the leg to top mortises with a forstner bit to start the holes and finished with an auger bit in a Mafell drill guide with a depth stop. Then I squared everything off and snuck up to my layout lines with chisels. From layout to finished process (including all 4 mortises and the through mortise for the planing stop) it took me every bit of an 8 hr day. I used my 1", 1 3/4" and 2" timber framing chisels and they required re-honing at least a couple times with this white oak. At the same time, I wasn't always treating them as kindly as I could and didn't hold back from wailing on them as needed, which contributed to the reduced edge life.

I made a 2x2x14" planing stop from white oak to fit the through mortise. It's a snug friction fit, and I'm really happy with how it turned out and how it has performed so far.

I drilled my initial holdfast holes and based them roughly off of Chris Schwarz's recommendation from his Workbenches book. I wanted to order an 18" long 3/4" auger from Wood Owl to do job, but had tapped out my bench funds and didn't feel like waiting for shipping, so I ended up using a cheap Irwin bit from Lowe's which was adequate with the Mafell drill guide and electric 1/2" drill. I bought 4 Gramercy holdfasts, which arrived earlier this week (just in time.) They required an aggressive sanding with 80 grit paper to hold, but I think that treatment should hopefully do the trick for them. Tonight I glued some leather to the bottom of a 2 of the pads to try out and see if I like it better that way.

I have also nearly finished my leg vise. I used white oak for the chop (2" thick.) It's 8" wide at the top and gently tapers in from both sides to 6" at the bottom. I have the hardware installed, the chop cut to size except the length at the top, and the parallel guide fitted to both the mortise in the leg that it slides through and the mortise in the chop. I still need to cut the chop flush with the top of the bench and add a heavy chamfer of sorts along that edge. I also need to drill and peg the parallel guide into its mortise in the chop.

Where would be a good place to find a cheap 3/8" steel rod of an appropriate length for my parallel guide?

I am going to start soon on the sliding deadman. I have a couple of nice 1.5" thick x 8" wide pieces of VG Doug Fir roughed out to choose from for the deadman. I plowed out a groove 1" deep and 1/2" wide into the underside of the top between the legs on the front side of the bench for the top of the deadman rabbet/tenon to slide into. I need to determine my detail along the stretcher at the bottom of the deadman for smooth, sliding action that won't get clogged with chips and shavings. My original plan has been to glue/screw on a little triangle cut at 45* and make a corresponding 45* groove along bottom of deadman, which would allow it to sit in place and slide along. This is roughly what Schwarz describes in his book. Thoughts?

I also plan to make a simple shelf down low in between the stretchers, but I'm in no hurry for that.

I have a nice 2.5" thick chunk of white oak with proper grain orientation that I could saw a chunk out of for a crochet/hook along the front left of the bench, but I wonder if it will be in the way or if I'll really use it enough to want it there. Anybody use a crochet similar to the one that's on the cover of the Workbenches book?

Also, I'm open to recommendations of finishes. All I want is a natural look (no yellowing finish) and something that will be a barrier for glue that may find its way on to the bench.

Here are some photos. Not done yet, but I can actually work on the bench now and it's in my own shop, which is a tremendous feeling! The funny part is that in my original post I said something along the lines of "I can't take 6 months to build this thing, I need to knock it out fast" when, in fact, that's how long it actually took me to get to where I am now. Funny how life gets in the way of your best laid plans.

http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3294_zpsknm1bsiy.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3294_zpsknm1bsiy.jpg.html)http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3296_zpslylj1gyy.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3296_zpslylj1gyy.jpg.html)http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3295_zpscqlukp4u.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3295_zpscqlukp4u.jpg.html)http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3320_zpsw8o8flou.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3320_zpsw8o8flou.jpg.html)http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3316_zpssxmb4dlt.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3316_zpssxmb4dlt.jpg.html)http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3318_zpsblzbbenc.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3318_zpsblzbbenc.jpg.html)http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3323_zpsj7ayggpv.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3323_zpsj7ayggpv.jpg.html)

[Oskar Sedell]

very nice Phillip! bench looks great and I like that planing stop!

[Phil Mueller]

Phillip, congrats...very nice bench.
Regarding the crochet, I do use it quite a bit, but not as often as I think it is actually intended. I find when jointing small stock, it helps to use it as a bottom support. I find when planning, the leg vise does a great job holding it from sliding forward, but unless I crank it hard, the stock has a tendancy to slide down at the far end (even when the stock is centered in the vise). I do think my chop is slightly skewed to the edge of the top which is likely the cause, but using the crochet in this way eliminates all movement. Given my situation, I might have actually installed the crochet another 1/4-1/2" down from the top.

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If you do install one, pay some attention to the clearance of the leg vise handle when the chop is closed in. I didn't, but it turned out fine. I have about 1/2" clearance when the chop is tight to the bench.

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And, I think you asked about a steel rod for the leg vise guide...I just made one from scraps...works well.

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[Robert Hazelwood]

Nicely done Phillip! Love the white oak top.

These benches are indeed big projects- I'm kind of proud of finishing mine in about a month, but I was up against a hard deadline (moving halfway across the country) so I had no choice really. It's a relief to get to the point you're at now for sure.

The usual finish is some combination of oil, varnish, and wax. I used linseed oil mixed with a bit of varnish. My bench is douglas fir with white oak vise chops and end caps...the mix I used darkens up the white oak nicely but it does yellow the doug fir a bit. Substituting tung oil for linseed oil would help a bit I think. Waterbased varnish, or super blonde shellac, darken the least.

I have no experience with a crochet, but my face vise with leather lined chops holds just fine. It seems like it would get in the way more than anything- for example, I have taken to clamping boards in the vise with the end hanging out past the end of the bench, for crosscutting, which a crochet would interfere with. But as long as you make it easily removable I see no reason not to give it a try if you're interested.

Congratulations on the new bench and thanks for sharing.

[David Eisenhauer]

Seems to me that having a crochet located next to a leg vise like Phil shows would cause the leg vise to be in the way of being able to use the crochet as one typically sees photos of it being used. I have always envisioned a crochet being located at the end of a long side of a clean-sided bench for use to grip the end of boards for edge work. It works for Phil, so I am missing something as usual.

[Phil Mueller]

Here is typically how I use it for jointing long boards. You could argue that the vise is strong enough to keep it from slipping forward...and I suspect it would be. But it does keep me from having to crank down on the vise. After having this for a year now, I think I could live without it. But it does come in handy from time to time, and is rarely in the way.

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[Megan Fitzpatrick]

That's going to be gorgeous (and useful, of course!). And FWIW, Chris uses electrons, too – no shame!

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate the discussion!

I think I will make the crochet, but instead of being 3" tall, I will make it between 2 1/4 -2 1/2" and not quite as long as the Schwarz dimensions (my bench is shorter.) That thought is based both on the stock that I have and the inkling that I can install a shorter one centered along the edge of the top and still provide 3/4" of clearance for planes with fences hanging down and if I want to clamp something narrow in the leg vise and shoot it out past the front of the bench. It could rest on top of the crochet and still be clamped in the vise. I do believe I will find use for the crochet for edge jointing longer stock as evidenced in Phil's pic above. Phil, you must be left-handed with your vise set up like that?

I finished my leg vise yesterday and made a pin for the parallel guide from dowel stock and part of a oak railing baluster that was leftover from a house project. I thought it was a pretty good way to get a solid grip on the pin.

Next up is the sliding deadman. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't use a Gramercy holdfast in the 3/4" deadman holes due to the thickness only being 1 1/4 - 1 1/2" total, correct? Seems like it wouldn't be thick enough for the holdfast to hold...I see that Phil has a Veritas version, but I won't be buying anything else at the moment. What do you guys use to support stock from the holes in your deadman? One thought I had would be to use some 3/4" dowel stock that is sanded to fit snugly but easy enough to pull out and slide in different holes.

http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3324_zpsqqpthzis.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3324_zpsqqpthzis.jpg.html)

http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o600/PhilboBaggins23/IMG_3325_zpsfbtqnwrx.jpg (http://s1149.photobucket.com/user/PhilboBaggins23/media/IMG_3325_zpsfbtqnwrx.jpg.html)

[Malcolm Schweizer]

The bench is looking amazing. I'm enjoying this thread. This weekend is the first weekend in ages that I am going to have time to work on my bench.

As as for the sliding deadman question- I am using the Veritas holdfast with the brass adjusting knob. They sell a short rod for it, making it perfect for just such an application. They also have free shipping going on right now- excuse found!

[Phil Stone]

I made a supporting board mounted to a dowel that fits into the deadman holes, like this:

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This gives a nice big area of support, plus it extends the reach of the deadman higher up the thick top to support very thin stock.

(And in case you think you're going mad, I'm another left-handed Phil :) )

[David Eisenhauer]

Good addition left-handed Phil. Madness (as in crazy, not angry) makes thing interesting.