Workbench 2.0 Build

[Chris Hachet]

Nice looking bench-My bench is out of reclaimed Beech and Maple, be glad to see yours done!

[Zuye Zheng]

Nice looking bench-My bench is out of reclaimed Beech and Maple, be glad to see yours done!

Thanks! Finally made some more progress, hope to get most of the bench glued up this weekend. Was able to get the frame dry fit and draw bores drilled.
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All the joinery cut.
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Leg dry fitted.
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Took a different approach to the top. Tops were flattened, but didn't want to spend the time to thickness both slabs, also purposefully laminated some thicker pieces near the front. Used a Veritas jack rabbet to align the thickness of the front and back slabs only where the legs are joined.
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[Chris Hachet]

just my opinion but if I built my roubo again, I'd go with a 3" chop (Still can replace it of course and probably will in due time). My 2" QSWO chop flexes on occasion. Not often, but enough to make me wish I had a 3" chop.

I have a 3 inch chop on mine of solid Beech that doesn't flex at all, 3 inches is very nice.

[Chris Hachet]

Looking good. The split top is a good choice given the mixed wood.

Also, FYI I measured the thickness on my chop at 2.5"

I find the split top to be very helpful in clamping things. Mine is mixed species also, one side is beech the other maple....reclaimed wood..

[Chris Hachet]

Thanks! I undercut one of the angles to get a tighter fit at top.

Made some more progress, have the top mostly laminated, came out to 23.5" with a 2" gap.
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Have the back section breadboarded.
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Also have most of the other pieces milled including a 6x4" mahogany piece for the leg vise and slightly smaller ones of douglas fir.
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Looking very very good....as a guy about to build a second bench, this is enormously inspirational.

[Brian Holcombe]

Beautiful work! You'll have yourself an awesome workbench very soon!

[David Eisenhauer]

Looking very good. Big progress with lots of moving parts starting to come together. What species of wood is the dark end cap on one of the top slabs?

[Allen Jordan]

That's a clever trick with the localized thicknessing. Is the breadboard end/cap just for show, or does it have a purpose?

[Zuye Zheng]

Thanks guys!

Looking very good. Big progress with lots of moving parts starting to come together. What species of wood is the dark end cap on one of the top slabs?

The end cap is from the same pile as the smaller back slab, reclaimed Philippine "mahogany" which was originally used to sticker train tracks for shipping. From my understanding this is a pretty generic term for a range of hardwoods from the area. They came in a wide range of colors.

That's a clever trick with the localized thicknessing. Is the breadboard end/cap just for show, or does it have a purpose?

I don't think the laminated slabs would cup so nothing super functional, but helps hide the fact that the entire slab was not uniformly thicknessed when seen from the side so mostly for show.

[Zuye Zheng]

Wouldn't call the glue up smooth, leg tenons were a little tight and really pushed the open time of the glue and over did it a little with the offset on the draw bores, but it's finally together.

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Have some flattening to do to get the 2 slabs aligned and vises up next. Planning to also add a deadman as well but forgot to thickness and plane the front of the slab, hopefully it won't add too much extra effort with the legs.

[David Eisenhauer]

The beast emerges. Looks like it just emerged from a shell or the cocoon and is looking very nice. Not long now.

[Chris Hachet]

The beast emerges. Looks like it just emerged from a shell or the cocoon and is looking very nice. Not long now.

Agreed...and this is again hugely inspirational.

[Zuye Zheng]

Now for the toys.
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Benchcrafted leg vise (still needs some sculpting) and a Veritas quick release tail vise. The quick release has Veritas prairie dogs since holes are stopped, dog holes are 2" from edge to center of the hole, which took quite a lot of over thinking to decide on.

In some of Brian's videos, saw him resaw with pieces held at an angle with his sliding tail vise which seemed pretty useful so I went with a thicker 3.5"ish chop vs the 2" recommended. Also, when first installed, the chop only contacted the bench top which caused the chop to shift up under pressure, added a block to the bottom of the bench to make them the same height which really helped prevent shifting.

Also recently received some Black Bear holdfasts that I'm looking forward to trying out now that I have a bench that can actually use them.

[David Eisenhauer]

Looks great. I like that tail vise chop. Please let us know how the B Bear holdfasts (3/4" diam?, 1" ?) work after you get a chance to try them. How thick are your tops?

[Patrick Walsh]

I also really like the tail vise. Nice to see something different...