Introducing Le Roubo

[Josh Bowman]

So now I turned to planeing the top flat! A Stanley #5 then 7 then a #4. Within an hour I had the top very flat.
So then it's off to making legs and tenons with my Grizzly tenon jig.

[Josh Bowman]

Next, I chopped mortises and built strechers. Dry fitted, pared and dry fitted again. I found rubbing a pencil on the tenon would rub off on the tight spots in the mortise and show me where to pare.
I then built a wood screw vise that got replaced with a Veritas twin screw of Tri's. Anybody need some 1 1/2" screws?

[Josh Bowman]

Thanks to Ken Shepard's encouragement, I started drawboring the final assembly. Unfortunately they were not all successful. The stretchers to legs did fine, but the legs to top drawbores were only 50 % good. I think I did not prep the hole well enough and taper the pins enough for the 6" long 3/8" dowels to pass to the other cheek of the mortise. Good enough though, since I used glue and had lots of clamps on hand.

[Josh Bowman]

The final chapter.
Still not complete, I lack finishing the leg vise and shelf. I have some dog holes to be placed. And I really want to learn how to carve 2010 in the chop of the leg vise. But I have to give many thanks to SMC for the tips and photo's shared by the members. Many of my friends came together to help with advise and ideas. This really is a compilation of many people. Chris Schwarz was very much an inspiration and answered many of my emails with opinions and ideas.

[Bob Jones]

Very nice. Thanks for the info on the wagon vise. Interesting idea with the drawer slides. I am considering using a screw like on your leg vise for my wagon vise. Not sure yet. I just don't want the screw to stick out from the end very much. Thanks for writing it up!

[Josh Bowman]

Very nice. Thanks for the info on the wagon vise. Interesting idea with the drawer slides. I am considering using a screw like on your leg vise for my wagon vise. Not sure yet. I just don't want the screw to stick out from the end very much. Thanks for writing it up!

Mine is about 11 1/2" and I can't really garter it, because it would reduce the movement to about 3 inches, as it is it will move 6 inches.. I'd say 16" would allow a garter.
Here's Jr's
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ght=wagon+vise

[Michael Peet]

Thanks for posting the pics, Josh. I love seeing these come together.

Nice job.

Mike

[Josh Bowman]

I looked at the fine Bench Crafter video, and decided I could make my leg vise work better. I went to the local roller rink and they gave me a couple of old wheels, a quick stop at Tractor Supply for bolts and then some scraps to hold the wheels. Just like the Bench Crafter, I tapped the wood instead of using lags or nuts. It worked very well. Now I can spin the screw handle and my vise will glide away.

[Steve Branam]

Very nice! $70 for a truckload of maple, I'm jealous!

I documented my Roubo build here (in 16 parts, plus 2-part video at the end).

You can also see where I dropped it on my foot laying it back down. Lucky I didn't lose a couple toes. Get help lifting it!

[Josh Bowman]

Very nice! $70 for a truckload of maple, I'm jealous!
I documented my Roubo build here (in 16 parts, plus 2-part video at the end).

You can also see where I dropped it on my foot laying it back down. Lucky I didn't lose a couple toes. Get help lifting it!

Wow Steve! I'm inpressed you used all hand tools to build it. I had enough trouble just using power tools and hand tools. It seemed it was so massive that it took each tool to it's full capacity. Thanks for the post, wish I had seen it before. How long did it take you?

[Steve Branam]

Thanks! Of course, I used SYP, which is a lot softer than maple, so that helped.

Here are the stats from the last page on it:

"I kept a log of all the time I spent on the bench. Spread over 20 calendar weeks, it totaled 88 hours and 26 minutes. There was probably a good hour or so spent fiddling with the camera, so call it 87 hours."

[Josh Bowman]

This is the last of the gloating
Except for some accessories, I'm done! Now I have to figure out how to use it. That's the fun part. The thing is like concrete, very solid.

[Josh Bowman]

Well I was almost done Gloating. Here's the last of the pictures