Roubo #6: Getting near the end of the glue-up phase of the top.

I finished prepping the boards for the last of the 6” chunks

You can see the glued up chunks on the floor here, one mid-glue on table.

I put the big chunks on the bench, and began fitting them together, The clamps are just enough pressure to keep the boards together so I can locate the high spots and the gaps for fine tuning.

And the first “chunk” glueup! Yes, thats a domino hole. I was toying with the idea of using them to line up the top, but bailed on it. It just doesn’t seem necessary, with so much surface area for the glue to reach.

While things were setting, I made the dog hole strip jig.

Once I had the top complete, sans the dog hole strip section, I decided to flip the bench to the bottom side up (not an easy task) and began to practice my jack and jointer plane skills for eventual use on the top.

Some nice curly shavings out of that jack. I did get some tearout, but I’m not surprised. There were a lot of cathedrals in this ash, leaving to gran direction changes mid-board on many, so no matter how much I wanted to make all the grain line up perfectly, it just was not going to happen. But this is a user bench, not a dining room table. The fact this is a low angle jack is probably not helping either, but I don’t have a #6, so I make do.

I switched to the jointer once I got the worst of the high spots somewhat levelled off. I was aiming for perfection, this is the bottom fo the bench. I was just trying to get a feel for the jacking (is that a word?) and jointing. The #7 was definitly easier going. Still, my arms are TIRED! And the bottom isn’t even done. The top is going to be far more work. I will make sure to tackle parts of the top each day, so I don’t end up killing myself or giving up and going to power tools to level the top.

Last thing I did for the night was cut my dog hole strip to length. Lets see you stop your tablesaw mid crosscut for a beverage break!

Tomorrow, I hope to cut the dog holes, and get the dog hole strip glued into place.