Seriously, what's with all the benches lately? I blame The Schwartz. I debated whether or not to post these pics, since the bench isn't quite done yet, but what the hey.
Drawbored baby! I made all the pegs with a dowel sizing plate I had waterjet cut. FYI white oak is really tough just in case you didn't know. I bashed those things with a huge hammer and couln't believe how much abuse they took.
Canyon for wagon vice. I'll post more pictures/info once I have it installed.
Dovetails size XXXL
End cap has a giant mortice and tenon and is bolted through to the top. Also pinned through slotted holes in the tenon just for kicks.
Based on the bench in Schwartz's workbench book, but mostly a copy of Jameel Abraham's Deluxe Roubo that can be seen here:
http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com...uxe+Roubo.aspx
It will incorporate a copy of Jameel's wagon vice with some changes I had to make (because I'm a little OCD and want things the way I want them)
I have two wedged through tenons left to cut, then I'll finally have some vice action (the legal kind).
It's SYP from Lowe's with an Ash endcap and vice chops. This has been a really fun project. I've never worked on anything quite this scale, and it's been a real learning experience. Cleaning up a 3/8" wide mortice is pretty easy, cleaning up a 2 1/2" wide mortice...not so much. Making a bench like this is a lot of work. Not work in the "normal" sence of woodworking, lot's of joints to cut, planning, finishing, etc, but rather lots of manual labor. I lost count of how many times I flipped that top over and dragged the thing around. I'm actually tired after working on this thing!
I flattened the top (and bottom) with a #5 and #7. I got to know my planes during that process. Intimately. Plus I gave my neighbor something like 5 trash bags of shavings for his garden. Also, plane shavings make great BBQ firestarters. Note to self: pay more attention on lamination glue ups. The top had something like a 1/4" cup on one end and was all wonkey on the other. I started crying when I realized how much work it was going to be to flatten it.
The worst part of building this bench has been that it's so good even half completed, it puts my other "workbenches" to shame and quickly accretes most of the tools in my shop. Every time I need to work on it I have to clear a bunch of junk off it. Not really such a bad problem I guess.