Roubo build with salvaged materials

[Phillip Mitchell]

I've been planning on building my first bench for a while now and was fortunate to be given access to a good bit of scrap wood from my employers to make a bench with. I'm using Chris Schwarz's plans from his first book and will have similar dimensions, but my process will be a bit different due to the nature of my material. I'm posting now instead of when finished in hopes for constructive feedback, before I make any big mistakes . I'm still new at this and can always use helpful wisdom from those that have been there and done that.

I'm just getting started at this point and this bench will be more of a hybrid approach to tools used in its construction. I love using hand tools and am really looking forward to having a bench to do a lot more handwork on, but in the interest of time and size of some of this material, I am using the power tools that are at my disposal and will use my hand tools for all the finesse and finishing touches. I respect you guys that are a little more neanderthal than me, but I just need to get up and running with something for the first time and don't have 6 months to spend hand cutting everything. I love reading and learning on this sub-forum, so I figured I'd contribute my 2 cents with my little project. I also thought this may be a useful primer for some folks in the future that may want to use materials that aren't exactly, err pre-dimensioned for their specific use. Takes a little bit of sweat and time, but it's not too bad to rip and resaw stuff to fit your project.

My initial plan was the build the bench using Douglas Fir, which is quite plentiful in the shop where I work. After looking around a bit though, I was fortunate enough to be given a nearly 14' long 6x9 beam of laminated of white oak used in a previous job about 6-7 years ago. Most of the laminated material is 6/4 or 8/4 and when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for a bench top after a couple of cuts. Here's what it looked like after I crosscut it in half. I'm shooting for a bench roughly 24" wide by 80" long.

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After crosscutting, I took each half to the table saw and ripped the 9" wide timber in half, giving me roughly (2) 4 3/8 pieces. This will the be the thickness of the bench (it will end up being pretty close to 4" after milling and squaring all the stock.) So there are (4) 6" wide timbers that I will glue up to make the 24" wide top. I'm lucky to have had someone else do all that laminating previously. Saves me tons of time and work by just having to glue up with only 3 big glue lines. Haven't determined the order they will be glued in, but this is generally what the top will look like.

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Next, I found some nice Doug Fir timber frame drops to pick my leg and stretcher material from. It was a bit of a process milling these pieces from such large stock, but no biggie really. One good thing about having such large stock to work with is that you can select for optimum grain direction pretty easily. This is what the stock looked like after I pulled it out of storage and a pic of some table saw ripping and milling. I cleaned up each ripped face with my no 5 1/2 to square things up enough to ride on the table saw top and fence squarely. Only needed to take one cut to the bandsaw to saw out what was left. The rest of it worked with the table saw, flipping the stock over and cutting from each side.
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Then, I brought my stock home to mill square on my own jointer and planer. I've got a bit more planing to do on the top and frame, but everything is jointed square on at least 1 face and adjacent edge. I plan to have the milling finished today or tomorrow and get ready for glueing up the top. I may have access to a Domino for that. I have never used one, but was offered access to use it for glue-up, which may save me a bit of time later in flattening the top after glue-up. I know how stuff can slide around with glue on it at the last minute and make a lot more work for you that you anticipated. It was a bit of a trick jointing a 7' long, full dimension oak 4x6s but I got them square and didn't need to remove too much material in the process. This oak seems pretty stable.

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I will update as I make progress. Next up is glueing up the top and starting to cut tenons for stretchers (and legs) and begin to assemble the frame. Thanks for looking!

[Phil Mueller]

Looking good Phillip! Do keep us posted...love workbench builds.

[Steve Voigt]

I love the creative and thrifty use of materials…that's the way to do it. That top is going to way a ton!
Looking forward to seeing the rest. Where do you find big pieces of Doug fir like that in NC? I'm one state north, but I haven't seen DF like that since I left California.

[Allen Hunt]

I'm going to go stock up on the popcorn for this one!

[Mateo Panzica]

Are you working at Highcountry Timberframe by chance? I think that I recognize the shop.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Steve,
Most of this timber has come from suppliers in Oregon and Washington (maybe California) from what I've seen. Looking at the grown rings on some of this stuff is pretty fun. To see a 12"x12" with end grain that is near perfectly quarter sawn makes you realize how big some of these trees were when they were cut.

Yes, the top is quite heavy...I've been getting a workout moving the individual 4x6s around to plane them. I'm kind of glad that the frame is going to be DF that is pretty dry. The leg dimensions are a full 5"x5" and they'd be a lot heavier if it were all oak.

Mateo,
Yes, I'm working at HCTF. Been there nearly a year and really learning a lot and having a good time. I've heard about your tool making from a couple of folks here. Just looked at some photos of your work. Wow! Inspiring and beautiful work. When were you working here?

[Brian Holcombe]

That DF is really gorgeous.

Nice work!

[Christopher Charles]

Looks great, and no need for apologies for expending electrons. I finished a Roubo a couple years ago and it has been a game-changer in terms of enjoyment. What are you planning for vises?

Best,
Chris

[Phillip Mitchell]

I'm not totally decided on the vises yet. I will make a hook / crochet on the front left and build a sliding deadman underneath.

I would love to have a leg vise on the face. I've been looking at the Benchcrafted scissor type leg vises, which look perfect for what I want. I suppose it will come down to what I can afford (whether I buy new or build something custom.) I saw a leg vise setup online someone made that used a bearing and steel rod through the leg at the bottom to keep it the jaw from racking. Not sure how involved that would be to build but it looked great and seemed to be stout. Any suggestions for other new leg vises without having to set a pin everytime I want to move it?

[Phil Stone]

I'm not totally decided on the vises yet. I will make a hook / crochet on the front left and build a sliding deadman underneath.

I would love to have a leg vise on the face. I've been looking at the Benchcrafted scissor type leg vises, which look perfect for what I want. I suppose it will come down to what I can afford (whether I buy new or build something custom.) I saw a leg vise setup online someone made that used a bearing and steel rod through the leg at the bottom to keep it the jaw from racking. Not sure how involved that would be to build but it looked great and seemed to be stout. Any suggestions for other new leg vises without having to set a pin everytime I want to move it?

I have the Benchcrafted Criss-Cross on the face vise of my Roubo build: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...brid-top-Roubo. I've been using it for over a year and have no complaints. It's smooth and easy to use. If you go this route, just follow the installation instructions exactly and get the hardware well before you start to work on your front (vise) leg.

[Mateo Panzica]

Hey, Phillip.

I left Highcountry in 2012.. er, maybe 2011. I recognized the rack of orphan timbers. Funny, how a place can get etched in your brain. I remember that laminated oak when I was there. It looks like you're well on your way to putting it to good use. Enjoy your time there, and say "howdy" to Tom and Pete for me.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Got the top glued up this afternoon. I was going to use a Domino for alignment, etc but decided it wasn't necessary after doing a dry run in the clamps. Always feels like a bit of a mad dash of 10-15 minutes when glueing up stuff this big, but it looks like it will come out pretty flat with minimal flattening work after the clamps come off. I will put my no. 7 to good use tomorrow.

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[Tom M King]

Looking great. I think lineal bearing rods work fine if the chop is thick enough for a very secure socket for the end of the rod. That's what I've been planning to use whenever I get enough time to build a big bench. Some people use 30mm. I already have the 40mm rod and bearings. I'm planning to put two bearings hidden in/under the lower end leg stretcher.

I probably won't get enough time to build this bench until I retire though. I have some 12/4 figured Black Walnut for the chop that I intend to thin down some at the top, one side, and part of the left side, but leave full thickness at the bottom where the rod is inserted, and part way up the left sided. The plan is to shape that leg of the bench to fit the strangely shaped chop. You can find some much simpler designs that seem to work fine though.

I'm also planning to use two linear bearing rods for a full width end vise.

Screws will be wooden.

[Chris Hachet]

I built a Roubo a smaller one, with salvaged Beech and maple. It came out decently enough, makes a nice bench...not into it much deeper financially than the Bench Crafted classic leg vise on the front.

Good luck, enjoying your pics.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks Chris, I will continue to post pics as I move along. Made a bit of progress today...nothing really very exciting, but I got the top flattened and trimmed to length (80")

I did some design work on paper to determine my leg placement, grain orientation, stretcher lengths, etc. Touched up the stretchers and legs with the jointer plane and cut my them to final length. I considered using a handsaw to crosscut the legs to length, but ended up using the beam saw (16 5/16" circ saw) in the interest of time. Came out pretty clean, with minimal clean up on the end grain with a block plane. Then I laid out my tenons on the legs and the stretchers. Pretty much ready to start cutting tenons, which I plan to do with Japanese pull saws (I've got better quality saws in the pull than the push style.) I could do it quicker on table saw, but I actually want to have some fun and advance my sawing skills a bit in this project.

Didn't take many pics today, but I'll include a pic of the big beam saw used to cut the 5x5 legs to length. I actually tried using a clamped guide at first, but didn't like my results. Ended up just marking my cut lines with a knife and free handing the cut, which is more what I'm used to.

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