My Roubo...finally...

[Harold Burrell]

Beautiful bench, Harold. Nice to see the construction grade wood being used so successfully. I've recently found a source of 4-by and 6-by doug fir and have been pondering a similar build, I think you may have inspired me to go for it!



daniel

It is my understanding...that construction grade pine will harden significantly over time. I am sure that it will "ding up" much more than, say, maple though.

However...it is, after all, a workbench.

[Tony Parent]

Question: How do you keep your end vise from racking when it's doing tail-vise style work as in the pic?

I have a similar setup for my end vice. I use one of these and love it.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...05&cat=1,41659

[daniel lane]

It is my understanding...that construction grade pine will harden significantly over time. I am sure that it will "ding up" much more than, say, maple though.

However...it is, after all, a workbench.

Harold, my understanding is the same, especially for yellow pine. I'm not so certain about doug fir, but the numbers show it to be slightly stiffer, slightly lighter, and about the same hardness - before the aging, I would guess. Still, even if it's a bit soft, that is actually appealing to me. I like the idea of my "work dings the workbench" instead of the other way around. That's one reason I've been looking at using (untreated) doug fir, instead of maple or ash. Plus, by my calculations, I should be able to get all of the lumber for about $300. And that's for a 5" thick top! If I drop to the 4-by material, it'll be about $250.

Hard part will be handling the lumber. I'll have to show up at the lumber yard with my sawbenches and a hand saw in order to get it to fit into the truck! (My plan is to buy 12 or 16 footers and cut them down to transport, I've heard many times that the longer stuff is usually clearer than the shorter stuff.)


daniel

[Graham Haydon]

Nice work Harold. You have a good foundation for many a project there.

[Harold Burrell]

Harold, my understanding is the same, especially for yellow pine. I'm not so certain about doug fir, but the numbers show it to be slightly stiffer, slightly lighter, and about the same hardness - before the aging, I would guess. Still, even if it's a bit soft, that is actually appealing to me. I like the idea of my "work dings the workbench" instead of the other way around. That's one reason I've been looking at using (untreated) doug fir, instead of maple or ash. Plus, by my calculations, I should be able to get all of the lumber for about $300. And that's for a 5" thick top! If I drop to the 4-by material, it'll be about $250.

Hard part will be handling the lumber. I'll have to show up at the lumber yard with my sawbenches and a hand saw in order to get it to fit into the truck! (My plan is to buy 12 or 16 footers and cut them down to transport, I've heard many times that the longer stuff is usually clearer than the shorter stuff.)


daniel

For my top, I wanted as much thickness as possible. I knew I was going to have to a bunch of flattening after the glue up, so I was going to go with 2x6's and face glue them. However, I ended going with 2x12's and ripping them in half. It was cheaper and I even got a little more width out of them.