Still puttering away on my bench - sort of stalled after I got a top with dogholes and a vise made, because, well, I actually had a decent work surface. It's sitting on saw benches right now, so it's a bit frustrating to do a lot of work on, but compared to what I've had since I've moved, it's a miracle.
The bench is only 5 feet long (yes, I'd *love* longer, but I have to deal with the space I have available in my tiny house) by 20 inches wide and 3 and 5/8 inches thick. It's all maple though, so it's heavy as all get out. I don't know how folks make 8 foot maple "Roubo" style benches on their own - I can barely move this.
I need to go start picking stock for the legs and stretchers, and I start to wonder how big I realistically need to go. I mean, it's probably going to come down to what stock I get, more than anything else. At the lumberyard the other day, it looks like I could make a laminated leg 4"x3" (probably a bit thicker on the 3" side, depends on the final thickness after I surface the lumber) out of some poplar they just put out for pretty cheap. I've also seen a fair amount of reclaimed 4"x4" locally, mostly old-growth doug fir. I'd probably have to let this acclimate for a while - the stuff I've looked at is pulled from old barns and house, but it's been stored outside since being reclaimed. The nice side of this is I don't have to deal with yet another glue up. (There's another place not far from me that specializes in reclaimed vintage lumber, but it seems like last time I looked, everything was either a plank, or an 8"x8" - which seems a bit more massive than I need. )
I figure either of those measures would probably be fine, but the part I start to wonder about is using a leg vise. I'd like to use a wooden screw, like the ones from Lake Erie Toolworks - putting a hole at least 2 1/2" in diameter through a 4 inch wide leg would just leave 3/4" on either side - (less actually, because the hole needs to be bigger than the outer diameter of the screw . . . ) but that 3/4" would be as long as however deep the leg is . . .
So I guess that's the question, and why I'm wondering about the size of the legs - if I'm putting a big hole like that through my leg, how much do I want to size it up?