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Dan's Blackbutt Roubo Bench

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#1 ·
The Beginning

Have you ever started a project, given yourself a budget and a time frame… and then well… you go over budget… and you need that new tool… oh and you got busy, or had to redo something… and well…

If you haven't; welcome to woodworking. I'm sure you'll enjoy your first project and many more to come.

At the start of 2009 I decided I wanted to build a new workbench. I was taking on a new job so I decided 12 months would be a good time frame. Now we're up to month 14 and… should be done by July.

I did my research; book's by Schleining and Schwarz, blogs; Woodworking Magazine, The Renaissance Woodworker, and Khalaf's Oud and reviews Australian Wood Review and Fine Woodworking.

This should be a mighty workbench. The process started with a Roubo Design, a rough sketch, half a tonne of coastal blackbutt, 6 generations of design process, 3 generations of vice configurations, a new thicknesser, and a few innovations.

Blackbutt is a Australian Hardwood that grows locally. It's very hard, and weighs 900kg/m3. Making the 2.6m bench around 300kg or 660lbs.

I'll add more photos and specific about innovations to design and processes as we go.


Blogged at Lost Art Press.
 
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#5 ·
The Design Process

The decision to go Roubo
After my initial research, I like many woodworkers, fell in love with the roubo. My old benches were designed to be portable or were made from old desks. They never stood still. Planning, even chiselling would cause them to move about. There's something rather solid about having 5"x5" legs.

Size
Originally, I thought I could do most of my work on a 3'x3' bench. All my heavy chopping/sawing on a solid base and use work horses to support large pieces. Then I thought 2 benches 3×3 would be good… I still think this would be a useful and practical solution. After some discussion the final decision was more a more traditional 8 1/2' by 2'. This allows you to reach over the workbench, and also can support long pieces required for table construction.

Vice Configuration
I debated vice configuration for a while. Options included:
1. Leg + Shoulder
2. Leg + Wagon
3. Simple Quick release
4. Leg + Sliding Leg
5. Leg + Sliding Leg + Wagon
6. Leg + Pattern Makers
7. Quick release + Pattern Makers

After reading a number of reviews, and discussing the issues at the Australian Woodwork Forums it was obvious that people loved wagon vices, pattern makers were expensive, and a quick release or leg vice didn't make too much difference to function.

The final decision was; leg, sliding leg, and wagon. A tax break at the same time enable me to pick up the benchcrafted models.


The Sketchup Process
The sketchup model then underwent 6 major re-visions.





 
#10 ·
Timber & The Initial Cuts

The Source of Timber - Boutique Timbers
I purchase the vast majority of my timber from Mal Ward of Boutique Timbers. Mal is an interesting bloke, who lives on a small property near Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia. (He is also brother of Tony, a fellow LumberJock.) His property is just littered with stacks and stacks and stacks of timber. He deals in a variety of species and primarily sells in rough slab form.


Yes, they are joey's or baby kangaroos

Boutique Timbers at the Sydney Working with Wood Expo


A demostration of a Lucus Mill used by Botique Timbers

The Choice of Timber
Blackbutt is a Australian Hardwood that grows locally. It's very hard, and weighs 900kg/m3. Making the 2.6m bench around 300kg or 660lbs. It's Junka score is similar to Ash. I haven't worked out the weight comparison yet.


The Selection of Timber
I arranged a time the visit Boutique Timbers to select from Tas. Myrtle slabs for another project. While there I ordered 9 slabs of blackbutt. 10'x 1 3/4" x Tapered 15"-18". I had this shipped 300km to where I now live. Cost me $80 to move 1.1 tonne of wood. I wasn't too fussy with board selection. Cost is per usable area. Some where better than others.



Initial Cuts
After unloading it all into my workshop I got working on the initial cuts. I used a $3 chalk line to mark out and my trusty Makita 5007MGK -185MM circ saw to make the cuts. It is around this point that I realize a massive tract saw would be infinitely better. My cuts were relatively straight however over 10' I was upto 1/4-1/2" off. Now when jointing if you lose 1/4" on every board.. that's a lot. Oh well, you do the best you can, with what you have.

 
#11 ·
a) Very fun pics. Thanks for taking us along.

b) I've (we've?) faced the same problem, in ripping larger panels with the circ saw.

The best way I've found to get around it is to use my brad nailer, and nail a long strip of skinny ply-1" wide, or so-as my guide-anything that's been through the jointer.

I have clamp on straight edges and a circ saw guide (good for up to … IIRC …. 8'), but like the idea that … if I'm careful with my angles … I can extend the strip of wood by just adding another and another and another. You can always follow your chalk line, to ensure the guide strips are straight, too.

Cheers!
 
#14 ·
The Top: part 1

The next step in the project was to cut the laminates 4 1/2" x 100 x ~1 3/4". I chose the sections with the best (ie. straight) grain for this. In retrospectoscope I should have thought - I need straight pieces for the long stretches, and which pieces do I want to have showing. Tricky fiddleback grain although attractive was very hard to work.


(Note: my old workbench in front of it.)






Here you can see I carefully planned sections for bench dog holes, space for the sliding leg vice, and space for wagon vice. This is a little innovation which saved me time and energy later.


All glued up. Titebond 3 and every clamp in the shop. I glued it up in sections of 3-4 and then two halves, flattening each section as I went. With the retrospectoscope I might have left the two halves separate. I debated this for a week or so… and then decided to glue it up. Did I make the right decision.
 
#21 ·
Handles: Part 1


(Click for fullsize pic)

I need to make/have made some handles for the steel rod that functions as the parallel bar stopper. I've come up with a few possibilities trying to incorporate the concave, and convex curves of other details on the bench, as well as traditional chisel design. The bench is blackbutt, the vise handles rosewood. I have blackbutt (fiddleback, burl or straight), redgum or blackwood available to use. (Discussion at WoodWork Forums.)

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 
#26 ·
The Top: part 2



After the glue up of the bench top I moved onto some initial hand flattening. With the top in two halves and then again as a single piece; I took to the number 5 and number 7 stanleys (and a lot of sharpening). My new veritas straight end came into it's own at this point.



Recognizing that it might be some time until i'm up to 'finishing' the top, I gave it a quick sand and a thin layer of shellac.


(The father-in-law inspecting the progress.)
 
#31 ·
The Vices

The Hardware
Deciding on what type and which brand of vice to use was an ordeal in its self. I have to say I changed the design a number of times - eventually deciding on a leg, sliding leg, and tail vice. Then I had to decide on brand. Well… should I buy cheap carbatec $40 ones… or should I go traditional Big Wooden Vice style… but I couldn't go past BenchCrafted. Two factors stood out… the precision build and the use of a wheel rather than a T bar which provides nice control and also speed.




I was a little disappointed, that after 2-3 weeks admiring my vices in my lounge room I notice significant rust. (Some metho, steel wool, and light machine oil and it was easy to fix.) I should also note that the BenchCrafted vices (plus postage to Australia) were by far the biggest expensive (3/4 the cost of the entire bench.)



Now having the hardware, I needed some wood.

The Legs
This part was easy. Final dimensions 142mm (5 1/2") x 130mm (5 1/16").


The Chops
The chops are made of 44mm blackbutt. After several sketches I came up with this design. The majority of the curves were produced by extensive Forster drilling. 1/8" round over was added to all components.


Some work in progress photos.



The Parallel Guides
A simple twist on classic roubo.
 
#36 ·
Metal Work

Metal Work
I can list the number of metal work project I've completed on one hand. All of which I completed at school. However, the need arose when some research showed certain components of this build required re-enforcement.

Strong Underwear
Before I glued the top, I cut a section to receive the spike from the sliding leg vice. Despite the 140mm of wood between the slot and the front, several sliding leg vices I've seen (including Bill Liebold's ), use metal to prevent warping of the bench front. Using coach screws I installed 3×40x40mm galvanised steel angle.




A Stronger Stretcher
I also needed to re-enforce the bottom section. Not only does this re-enforce the vice, it also reduces twist and warp in the stretcher. I used 2 pieces of 3×30x30mm galvanised steel angle, attached with coach screws.




The Sliding Leg Vice Spike
The final piece is a little more delicate. This is the spike which bolts to the sliding leg and runs in the groove on the underneath of the table. This pieces uses 2×20x20mm aluminum angle. I used a drill to remove most of the material for the slots, and a router to clean up the edges, using structural epoxy to hold it in place. The slots allow the spike to be flush with the top for installing, and than raised vertically into the groove under the bench.




 
#40 ·
Handles: Part 2

Some of you may remember a previous post, where I was looking for someone to turn the handles required for the bench. Old Pete from the Australian Woodwork Forums answered the call.


The original handle brain storm.


The completed project, arrived in the mail today. The timber is Australian Blackwood. Pete, was more than generous, turned two alternate handles for the wheels, and two handles for the pins, and offered to re-make them if they don't feel right. I do like the online woodworking community.

More pics @ theloveofwood.
 
#44 ·
The Sliding Leg - Video

Introduction
The sliding leg vice offers a great deal of versatility, offering the function of a twin screw vice, but at a variable screw to screw distant of up to 1.6m.

Video - The Leg


Feature 1 - Parallel Below the Shelf
The first problem I noticed with sliding leg vices is the parallel bar sliding along the shelf colliding with anything you were planning to store on the shelf. To overcome this, I put the parallel guide underneath the bench. To achieve this I reduced the height of the wheel brackets and raised the shelf. The trade off is to remove the vice you need to undo 4 bolts.



Feature 2 - Wheels
Typically people use a 'V' groove where the sliding leg moves wood on wood. My vice weighs 20-30kg, so this produced unacceptable friction. To overcome this I used 4×2" wheels.

 
#49 ·
The Shelf

Design
The shelf was originally flush with the top of the stretchers. However, because the stretchers needed to be so high, and the screw so low, that limited my storage. To counter this, I've lowered the shelf within the stretchers. This also made away with support pieces.



Construction
Lacking the new lei-nielson tongue and groove plane (I have a birthday soon… anyone… anyone…) I used a circ saw and a small router to cut the tongue and groove joins. It was a little rough, a few pieces went for scrap, but I got some nice pieces.




Finish - just need a bench
A little sanding, oil, sanding and they came up quite nicely. When I install them on the bench, I'll drop a bit of silicon in the joints as a soft spacer.

 
#53 ·
Stretchers: Part 1

Design
The four legs are connected by 7 stretchers; 2 on the short sides, 2 at the front, 1 at the back.

Progress
I had been waiting for a new Chris Vesper Square before cutting the joinery. However, this week I received news that the square I expected for Christmas, will be arriving closer to July. So I decided to just use my old trusty $3 square. The results were actually quite good.




I made the tenons using a circ saw and guide. Not a romantic hand tool technique but it works.



Then cleaned up with a chisel and rasp.

 
#61 ·
The Undercarriage

The Undercarriage
I've already made progress on the Stretchers, Shelf and glue up for the legs.

The legs however are little complicated… I made a list…
- 7 Stretchers = 14 mortises (2 pairs interlocking) - done
- Drawer bore pins = many holes - leg holes done, tenon holes to go.
- 1 Parallel Guide = 1 through mortise - drilled, yet to clean up
- Screw Mechanism = 1×35mm hole and - done, need to sand
- Screw Mechanism = mortise for screw nut - not yet
- Screw Mechanism = mortise for acetyl brushing - not yet
- 2 wheel mounts = 6 holes, tapped - not yet
- Holdfast/bench dog holes/storage = several 3/4" holes - not






 
#63 ·
Undercarriage Glue Up

The bench undercarriage is now together. Glue-ups are by far the most stressful period of any project. I did this in stages.

First the legs to the front and back carriage. Then with the front on it's side, glued the mortises and tenons (titebond III), inserted the shelf pieces unglued, and then (with the wifes help) lifted the back on top to drop into place (with the mallet's help), then put it on it's legs, the ratcheted straps to square, then drawbores.


Aspect view of the bench.


Dry glue up.


View of the tongue and groove 3/8" blackbutt shelf rabbet into the stretchers. I inserted silicone (the bathroom variety) into the grooves. This allows some expansion, without rattle.



Glide leg vice mounts.


Ratchet straps used to tighten things and square them prior to drawbores.


Some draw bore pins needed more encouragement than they could handle.

Now… off to work…
 
#70 ·
Back on your feet and looking like a real workbench

I'm making progress on the workbench. Over the past few weeks I completed the glue up of the base. I assembled it upside down to allow work on the base without having to manipulate the heavy top. This morning with a little bit of planning, levering and muscle power, it's back on it's feet. It's actually starting to look like a workbench now




Now the fiddly pieces… end caps… vices… The individual components are largely complete but the assembly has only just begun.
 
#74 ·
End Caps

So there are two end caps. I made them a while ago. Laminated two pieces of wood. Drilled the bulk of it on the drill press. Tidied it with router and chisels. They will be attached with slotted bolts and captured nuts.





End Cap 1.




End Cap 2.






Unfortunately end cap 2 is not up to standard. It is is about 2-3 degrees out. Which means it is not accurate enough for the wagon vice. The solution, which will have to wait, is a straight edge and a router. However, as I'm seem waiting on my Vesper Tools square… I shall wait for that.
 
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