It's Done! Roubo-Holz bench with Benchcrafted vice

[John Stan]

All,
With lots of help from lots of folks here I completed my Roubo-Holz bench with the benchcrafted vice. For the past year I have benefited from the questions and answers on workbenches posted by many folks here. So far, the bench has been a real joy to use. Lots of lessons learned in this project. For me is was quite a journey. The bench ended up at 7 ft 6 inches in length. The top is 4 inches thick. Thanks for looking.
Regards and thanks,
John

[Jacob Mac]

Wow, nice work. That is an impressive bench.

[Ben Martin]

Great looking bench!

How difficult was it to install the Benchcrafted vice? Do you think that somebody could duplicate that vice themselves? I have a spare bench screw that I was thinking of using to make one.

[John Stan]

The benchcrafted was not that hard to install. You need to excavate a large cavity on the underside. They key is that all the mounting holes need to be in the exact proper location. The rails under the bench that the vice travels in must be exactly co-planer. Re: Making your own -- that is always an option. You would need a screw, rails for the dog holder to slide on, and a dog holder that travels down the screw. I personally do not have the resources and abilities to make one from scratch. I am sure a machinist would be able to.
-John

[Will Hon]

thats a really beautiful bench, what wood did you use?

[John Lytle]

Very nicely done.

John

[Dan Sink]

I'm having trouble deciding which makes me more jealous - 1) the bench, 2) your obvious skills, or 3) the sweet tools on display in that photo. Maybe its a combination of all three that's doing it.

[mike holden]

That is one slick looking bench!

Looking forward to the great projects that will come off it.

Mike

[Dan Karachio]

John, as they said in the Sopranos, "I am in awe of you"

Seriously, as a newbie with a few skills under my belt, this is a great thing to see. I'm also curious about the dark wood - well, all the wood. Do you mind sharing some details of your experience? What did you learn the most? What mistakes did you make, or lessons learned about how you might do things differently? Then again, I don't want to keep you from spending time with that bench of yours!

[Jameel Abraham]

Great bench John. I like that you added some decorative elements to the often plain style that these types of benches tend towards. I wish you many years of satisfying and productive woodworking on your new bench.

[Danny Thompson]

Beautiful bench, John. A great balance of strength, stability, and capability.

I have to criticize your Photoshop skills, though. Looks like you flipped the photo end-for-end.

[Rob Luter]

Are you a lefty?

[John Stan]

Yes, I am a lefty. So the hardware is on the opposite side from most folks. The dark wood is walnut, the light wood is hard maple. The bench chop is Curly Maple. I did not intend to use curly maple for the chop, I just stumbled across some 10/4 at a good price.

The holdfasts are from Jake the Russian. They rock.

I used three different types of glues TB Extend, Elmers Glue All, and Old Brown Glue. By far, I liked the Elmers Glue All best for the laminations, to me it gave the longest open time and easiest clean up. I used the old Brown Hide glue for the legs and aprons. I think I went through close to a gallon and a half of glue.

Is used plain old wax on the draw bore pegs and pounded them in. Easy as pie.

If you notice, you can see any exposed bolts on the end caps. I used threaded rods and morticed the underside of the end cap and bench. Drilled a joining hole and fed the threaded rod.

Some of the dovetails were cut by hand, the others by bandsaw.

Lessons Learned/pearls:
1) Use good knot free wood and you will have less waste. I had to chuck several boards due to knots.
2) I laminated the boards 2 at a time and used lots of wax paper to ease cleanup.
3) Between all the large holes required for the vices several large and Forstner bits are required. One way to cut down on the number of bits is to use an 1 1/4 bit and enlarge as needed with a rabbet bit and a router.
4) IT used Tried and True Danish oil to finish it. I am pleased with the finish it provided.
5) I used practically every tool I own - Table Saw, hand saws, drill press, jointer, router, half a dozen planes, chisels, lots of different bits, etc.
6) Jameel's website has a fantastic pictorial on building a bench -- it came in handy. I even emailed him for advice and questions. Got good answers each time. Obviously Shwarz's book and magazine were heavily consulted.
7) It gets very heavy - so need to have someone that can on occasion help you move things around .. that reminds me, I owe my wife some flowers.
8) A little wax on the 3/4 drill bit made drilling the dog holes much easier.
9) Installing the twin screw took some work. I found that, ff you thread the front and rear chop, then bolt the rear chop to the bench, it makes sure the holes line up better. If someone is installing one of these, PM me and I will explain better.
10) Don't let any finish get in the holes used for the holdfasts. They work better on holes that do not have finish inside them.

Cheers,
John

[Danny Thompson]

That is a tall chop on the twin screw vise. What--maybe 8 inches? Is that height typical?

[John Stan]

Yes it is tall. But per the Veritas directions the the chop needs to be
the top height + 3 + 5/8. For my bench that is 4 inches + 3 inches + 5/8 or the better part of 8 inches.