Solid Ash Split top Roubo Build

great pictures. That is one nice bench Joe.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Solid = exceptional coolness! I love the look, great progress, nice tools!

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive

so heres what i got done today

the legs had some twist to them so i used my jack plane to hit the high spots on 2 sides and milled them square on my planer.

I cut the legs to length and chamfered the feet.

Then i laid out all the mortises for the base drilled them out then cleaned them up with my chisels.

thats all for today folks.

I will be watching this build. Nice score on the huge planks of ash.

-- Make furniture that lasts as long as the tree - Ryan

The lumber was easy I know a mill that cuts to order and ships you just have to be willing to wait for the kiln drying process

So i did not have much time this afternoon so i just cut the top leg tenons
Here are some photos
the layout

Cutting around

then i take a large chisel and make a kerf to separate the the grain

then i hit the edges with a hammer and boom no sawing

then just clean them up

all done

So it been a few days since ive been able to sit down and post but i have been whittling away at it.
I finished drilling out all of the draw bore holes, holdfasts holes & mortises in the legs and paired them out with my chisels


then i marked and cut all the tenons for the base


then i test fit the base

then i moved the base on top of the upside down slabs and marked and cut the mortises for the legs


and of course i had to flip it all over to the ground and mount the top on the base and make sure that everything fit
and man that way sooo satisfying

so saturday ill be making the leg vise assembly
later all

oh and here a little video of me cutting the tenons on my grizzly slider
http://youtu.be/UVCjhMI7B_Y

Holy crap you are cruisin on this thing. At the risk of sounding like a child of the 80’s “GO JOE!!”

-- Make furniture that lasts as long as the tree - Ryan

ok so its been a long day
i worked on the leg vise today and got that finished man am i pooped
so heres the progression
so this was a 3’x10”x “100” board i cut of a 32” piece
it had a little twist so i had to hand plane it then run it through my planer

then i jointed one edge on my tablesaw

after that i layed out the vise chop
i really liked what mark said about the chop kinda looking like a plane lever cap so i took it one step further and made it look as close to one as i could

i even got a chance to use my no 20 circular plane =) after i cut the angles out on my bandsaw



then it was on to drilling the screw holes and tapping them


i reversed the vise screw it gives me more clamping capacity and i like the flush look

im very happy with how it turned out

i ll finish it up tomorrow by installing the plastic screw guide plate in the legs and the guide rollers
thats all for today guys

so today i finished the leg vise i made the rollers and installed the black plastic plate the the vise screw rides on and adjusted it all and i also made 30 of the drawbore dowels with the lie nielson dowel plate and let me tell you my hand hurts from doing so much damn hammering i should have just bought some dowels lol.
anyways after that i disassembled the base and took my smoothing plane to it remove all the pencil & machining marks.

extraordinary bench joe. I love the shots of the leg vise.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

Ok today i had about 2 hours
so i finished planing all of the base parts down & cut the grooves in the rails for the shelf and drill the 4 holes to bolt the top down
then i test fit the base one last time before i assembled the base with the dowels

the wham wham wham driving the pins in
After i used a flush cut saw to cut the pins i went back with a chisel for some reason the endgrain looks better paired with a chisel than cut with a saw to me

and the base is done yay!

so now back to the top slabs i got mortise out the dog holes in the front slab.
then cut the grove for the sliding deadman.

so i got allot done.

i mounted the slabs and checked all leg tenon shoulders to make sure everything was sitting right.

the leg where the vise is needed a little trimming so i did that.

then i marked a spot on the underside of the slabs to pre drill for the spax screws and drilled them.

then i mounted the 2 slabs and made sure all my gaps were correct.

I closed my vise it was an 1/8th inch higher than the bench top so i wet the endgrain with a wet papertowel & used my LV low angle smoother and and trimmed of the excess

After that i layed out my doghole strip locations

Then I made a guide block out of some scrap so i could make sure my dogholes were straight down and went to boring with a 1” auger bit

then i got some hand screw clamps to use as fences a square and my router with an edge guide attachment
and made the doge hole square down to an 1 1/2’ deep


Then i flipped the front slab over and routed the deadman strip

here is everything back together with all the holes drilled in its new spot

thats all for today

So no pictures today but installed the leather on the bench and on the leg vise then I finished cutting the dog holes square and I had clamped a piece of scrap Ipe or “ironwood” under the bench so I was using my mortise chisel as it pushed thought the ash top it would not tear out. And I learned a good lesson. Don’t use Ipe as your backing board to prevent tear out its too dam hard and will ruin your chisel edges.
So anyways after that I focused on making my bench dogs. I cut all the blanks and I’ve made the first one so tommorow I’ll trace the rest out based on the first and I’ll post some pictures of that process. Then the tail vise insert. Then the dead man and finally the bottom shelf then I’ll make one last flattening pass and then some finish if everything goes well ill be finished this weekend.