My new Roubo #8: Starting on the joinery

Because I train and teach Gracie Jiu-Jitsu between 4 – 6 nights a week, I don’t get as much time in the shop as I’d like some times. We had a 3-day weekend this past weekend, but I wasn’t able to get any time in the shop on Saturday. Our head instructor came down from Hattiesburg for a seminar and that is an all-day affair with us all going out to eat afterwards and spending the evening hanging out around a fire in the back yard.

I did get to put a good bit of time in on Sunday and this evening after I got back from the gym. I got all four legs 4-squared, trimmed the bottoms, cleaned them up with my LA jack, and finished the evening by marking / cutting the first leg tenon.

This is the first time that I’ve ever cut a tenon this big with saws this big. Not what I was used to with my only past experience being cutting small tenons for cabinet face frames with small dovetail and carcass backsaws. I’m hoping to get one leg done per day over the next few days between work and training this week.

If I can manage to do that, I’ll be able to cut their matching mortises out this weekend. After that, I just have to get the stretchers done and I’ll be able to start using the bench to finish itself (leg vise, shelf, planing stop, dog holes, hold fast holes, etc). If everything goes according to plan, I’m hoping to get the bench completely done by the middle to end of February.