So I am finally building a new workbench. My original bench has served well. Solid core door with two vises.
The new bench is “roubo” style bench. I was inspired by the Chris Schwarz’s first workbench book and all of the woodworking community activity following.
A few descriptive items:
- 250 board feet of “soft” 8/4 maple.
- Dimensions: 88″ long x 28″ wide x 36″ high
- Top: 3½” to 3¾”
- Plan: Benchcrafted Spit Top Roubo
- Vises: Horvarter 25″ twin front vise and Horvarter tail vise.
This has been on the list of things to build for several years. The vises were purchased October 2011. The wood October 2013.
Day 1:
Other projects completed I was ready to start the build. I gathered all of the pieces of the project including all of the plans, installation instructions and my own drawings.
Building the top. I am NOT doing a split top. I am building a 28″ wide top in 4 groups of 4 boards each. This way I will be able to run the glued up boards through my 8″ jointer and planer.
I then took a deep breath and pull 2 of the 8 ft x 8″ maple boards. These boards were ripped in half so the flattening ( jointer ) would take as little thickness as possible. Working 8 foot boards in my shop required some adjustments. I used all three of my tool stands to support the material coming off the table saw, jointer and planer.
I am very pleased with the 4 finished boards. Fours sides square and ready to glue up.
I spent about 5 hours on the first 4 boards. This included a lot of thinking and setup that will be much easier on the next group.
I have decided to follow the design from Wood Whisperer to use dominoes to align the boards for the glue up. More about that in Day 2.
There will be pictures from each day. The entry in Shop Projects will provide an index for the blog posts and the final repository of all the pictures.
Bench Build Blog Index
Enjoy the pictures below.
