So it's finally happened! Of course, the day before i read that the Schwarz is coming out with another workbench book, this one more hand-tool-apartment-dweller-friendly, but no matter :-/.The lumber has been ordered and picked up. I know it's premature to thank ppl for helping me build a workbench when all i have is a pile of lumber, so for now, i suppose i would like to mention that there are two people without whom i could not have a pile of lumber that is hopefully soon to be a workbench. The first is my LJ buddy Dave R. He gave me advice when it came to dimensioning in mm, Sketchup, general advice, etc. He helped me A LOT and he didn't even block my thousands of unnecessary questions on email. For that i am thankful.
Now to make it physically happen, my friend Talia Hofbauer, or Hoffy. I don't have a car, so i basically had to rely on her. OK-to be honest, i tricked her. She's 9 months pregnant and i tricked her into going to a lumber yard with a tiny Toyota Yaris. Before you judge, i told her i was tricking her. I am making a mini-rietveld red and blue chair for her kid and she agreed to take me to pick up the wood (which is so tiny and cute it fits into a shopping bag, but never mind). I then mentioned that i had a fairly large order for a bench as well, and that picking up the chair wood was a ploy to get my Roubo lumber home.
I hope you will be taking a lot of photos and blogging the build Naomi so we can follow with. I also think it is interesting that you will be doing your woodworking in an apartment. Using hand tools, I expect that could work out just fine. Most people living in apartments wouldn't even consider woodworking as a hobby, but you are demonstrating that it is possible. Good luck with your bench!
How exciting. The birth of a roubo. It's interesting that you mention pregnant people. I would have thought that i could build a roubo in less time than my wife could have a baby… but I guess not. I'm up to 14 months now… and still not finished…
Looking forward to watching your progress, Naomi! Love the tricking of the pregnant woman bit! The temporary loss of mental reasoning due to pregnancy is fun to take advantage of, but… it's almost too easy at this point (20 weeks for my wife). It isn't as much fun when it is too easy, you know?
Kari, I didn't know you were a lumberjock! Welcome!
(says the mostly inactive lumberjock… still, my post count is currently at 1183 days)
Thanks, everybody! I will definitely be taking loads of photos…but mostly so i can ask you guys how to fix mistakes! ;-)
Chuck-i will do dovetails on the next bench-when i have one big solid slab of wood
Ethan and Daniel-congrats on being dads! New baby woodworkers!
Yeah, Kari-i didn't know you were a lumberjock…but it's not surprising. If Nancy was a LJ-that would be! ;-)
curious - where did you get your lumber from? I was just in Israel, and was wondering where the resources would be. was hoping to get some Olive wood, but didn't get a chance to get some.
Naomi, one thing I forgot to mention. The latest Shop Notes mag had a great article on preparing Douglas Fir for a bench top and a fairly stress-less glue-up process. If you don't have the mag., you might find it worthwhile to get it. They also mentioned they have some info on the subject on their website.
This is the current state of my Roubo. I'm pretty embarrassed about that, given that i have had the lumber for a few months now. I have encountered several glitches, besides my doctorate (when it gets in the way of woodworking, that's exactly how i think of the damn thing).
-First off, i miscalculated the stretchers. Since it's 2 laminated pieces, one should be shorter than the other, and i ordered 2 of the same size (and shorter at that! the width between each leg).
-This problem was compounded by sensible revelation (though it would have been more sensible before i ordered the bloody lumber) that i wish to make my bench a knockdown version. I'm a student, move relatively frequently, etc. So now if i do knock-down, i have to make the joinery half-lap, so my base just got smaller.
-This is the kicker: i am so annoyed at myself that i am a stickler for details and following directions-the thought went through my head before i ordered my lumber that the top of the Roubo could be made with thicker slabs of wood, thus less gluing (and it's probably easier to dimension wood when it's on the thicker side). Instead i went by the book and have loads of these pieces. So basically, i have loads of pieces for the top that i am not sure i can dimension. Why the anxiety about dimensioning?
a) i only have hand tools at my disposal
b) i am not sure i have an adequate workspace upon which to perform this task (nor, for that matter, an even floor)
Here's a photo of my current workspace:
-If you look closely, you can probably see why my confidence is shot. See that lumber on the work table? Those are my legs. Well, my bench's future legs. I completely and utterly banana-boated those things. sigh
Thanks for reading. I feel a bit better that i wrote that actually… :-/
First off, thanks to everyone for their encouragement. I really do appreciate it. Note to self: If you think something nice whilst reading someone else's stuff, tell them-you never know what your comments can generate.
I looked at the wood and thought-what the hell? How badly can i f this up (probably more than i can guess, so i am thankful for that blind-spot)? Let's look at the wood, and forget about getting the bloody things objectively flat; how about seeing how they fit each other. This may be embarking down the wrong path, but there seems to be some logic to it. I have 20 boards for the top (blerg), so i will do 4 sections of 5 boards. I know the Schwarz did 3, and i did agonise a bit over this, but it's time to stop being a pedant and a literalist! 4 sections, it is!
I numbered them and even swiped them with a block plane just to make sure the grains are lined up. One bad thing about softwood is that it moves A LOT. The weather here in the Middle East has been like what i imagine menopause to be like; hot flashes on and off, unseasonal rain (well, i guess the metaphor falls apart there, but whatever), etc. So i imagine (haven't checked thoroughly) that there is a lot of movement in my super-soft white pine. I am hoping to use this weakness to my advantage:
To be fair, i only did some planing to fit with the first 2 boards; i have to do this, but i didn't want to get carried away-this was my mistake with my legs, which i think i mangled.
Relocating the work to where it ought to be-the shop! Not sure why the weight of all the clamps hasn't toppled it. And i even had to position a bar clamp outside the window!
a bar clamp outside the window?? nothing, nothing! what may happen on the other hand? you may kill a couple of postmen at most…and you will always be in position to accuse the masons of the next building yard…keep on without any doubts!
--
Now, the hammer: where were you thinking to store the hammer?
Cutting 4" off half of my bottom stretchers to make two 2" tenons when laminated; note the Wood Whisperer pencil. And as i type this i am actually wearing a WW t-shirt!
All i have to say is thanks to Marc Spagnolo's review of clamps! I absolutely fancy my Jets. And when i was finished, i followed Marc's advice and protected my investment: i waxed up all the clamps again. I definitely need to get some more (smaller) Jets…
Some Considerations Along the Way, or a Cry for Help
As i have been building this thing, i have had my nose in the Schwarz's book. However, i cringed when during my review i read this:
Once you look at the characteristics that make a species good for a workbench, you see that white oak, Southern yellow pine, fir, poplar or just about any species (excepting bass wood and the soft white pines) will perform brilliantly. (p.14)
And for some salt in the wound:
Anyone who has purchased a white pine 2×4 bench from a home center can attest to this fact: These benches are easy to beat. They dent when you look at them wrong. (p. 16)
Now, why do i mention this? I am building my Roubo out of white pine. I live in Israel-trees are not plentiful. I paid about 1000 NIS for my lumber (i think around $270)-but this includes all the lumber for the bottom shelf, to be fair. Ouch. That's also about 1/3 of my student stipend. When i was at the lumber place, the guy offered me this other lumber, but it was about double the price, and it looked funny, and i don't trust that guy-i feel like he was trying to pass off warped lumber to some stupid woman. Perhaps i should have considered it for just the top…either way, i am beginning to get a bit nervous about how soft the top will be. I am wondering if a thin layer of laminate will help. Or if there's something i can do to toughen it up? This would be ideal-they i wouldn't have to mess with workbench covers. How about a layer of epoxy over the whole top?
Also, does anyone have any ideas about the hangover (of the ends) of the bench? Since i am doing a knock-down version, i am losing some inches. I wonder if that makes a difference with regards to the overall length of the bench. Thanks in advance, LJs! I know there will be opinions shared!
My opinion is that a workbench is meant to be used and abused. There is no sucha thing as a dead flat workbench that's been used. There's no need for it to be dead flat either. Just needs to hold wood and support things without a lot of moving.
Somewhere along the way, probably when home style planers were introduced, woodworkers started to think about dead flat workbenches. In the past, the workbenches were made with flat sawn "whatever they could get" wood. Do you think those benches were immune to wood movement? Naw, me neither.
Sorry i have not updated this series in a bit. I have to put the Roubo on hold for a bit. I have a chapter of my dissertation due, and i am also busy with sorting out my drivers licence here so i can get a little 125cc scooter. I hope to be posting and doing more Roubo soon!
OK, who am i kidding? I couldn't just stay away! I am trying to limit myself, though. So as a reward for studying, i allowed myself to cut a few tenons.
My circular saw was doing a crap job even though i set it for shallow cuts, and it actually started smoking! So i had to cut the tenons by hand. Way more enjoyable. Again, i love my shark saw! Below is a comparison between the cuts. Can you guess which is the hand-sawn tenon?
very cool progress. you can still dimension the lumber if you haven't cut the mortises yet. even if you have you could still beef up the tenon later. and since these are the legs/base of a workbench - I wouldn't over worry about it - just get it as best as you can.
OK, so i flipped the top and started milling the top of the bench. On Monday, i had my driving theory exam and passed! Yay! And i was near the hardware store so i popped in for some bigger bolts. Turns out they only come in 10cm (is this true?!) so i had to buy a long one-over a metre (bigger than a yard!) and cut it into pieces. Does this sound right to everyone? I kind of thought having a head on the bolt gave torque advantage…
After a good day in the library, i decided to reward myself by gluing up one leg (it's the only one with all 3 pieces dimensioned properly). I opted for the Schwarz's gluing up accoutrement (part of a multi-grain cheerio box in my case) rather than my roller, as i didn't want to wash it up after one use. Jury's still out on the method. I did dare to change one piece of his advice, though, and i am throwing it out there for other beginners who find making jigs more intimidating and overwhelming than the piece (that being said, in the slideshow you will see a little-does it count as a jig?-in order to plane the leg boards. Worth it!). Instead of making little tenon offcuts to nail to the leg in order to keep the boards from sliding about during glue-up, i opted for my wooden handscrew.
It involves no cutting straight pieces, going to buy more pieces, no nail-gunning the thing to the leg (i can't afford a nail gun! i'm a student!), and the clamp's edges are perfectly straight. I thought i would be posting on here that it was a big mistake…but it worked fine. It's a more intuitive solution, i think; much simpler. Maybe i'm missing something, but it worked fine, and i expended much less energy. In fact, this was a step i had been putting off because i was afraid of the whole offcut tenon process. Pretty absurd!
Holdfast Question
I decided to maybe use my holdfast in an experimental hole i drilled on what will be the offcut side of my bench:
looks good so far - the wooden clamp idea is great! you can either cover it with plastic wrap, or wax paper to keep glue off of it.
as for the holdfast - not all holdfast are the same. did you smack it hard enough? I notice on mine every once in a while it'll come loose if I didn't smack it hard enough to begin with.
Just a quick post to say that I am really building my Roubo! And I mean it this time! The baby is in daycare and the husband has gone to get some lumber for me. I had made a mistake in my ordering, and in the end, my bench will have some kind of an apron ( I know, not really a French bench), and won't be pretty, but hey, it'll get the job done, and I will get back to woodworking!!
I assembled this workbench from Costco when I was 8 months pregnant. I was pretty disappointed that it would just be used as a sideboard for our appliances. So happy I was wrong. I just pulled the water-damaged Roubo legs out and cleaned them up a bit.
Now to attach the short stretchers with a housing dado. Gulp! Wish me luck!
Just a quick post to say that I am really building my Roubo! And I mean it this time! The baby is in daycare and the husband has gone to get some lumber for me. I had made a mistake in my ordering, and in the end, my bench will have some kind of an apron ( I know, not really a French bench), and won't be pretty, but hey, it'll get the job done, and I will get back to woodworking!!
I assembled this workbench from Costco when I was 8 months pregnant. I was pretty disappointed that it would just be used as a sideboard for our appliances. So happy I was wrong. I just pulled the water-damaged Roubo legs out and cleaned them up a bit.
Now to attach the short stretchers with a housing dado. Gulp! Wish me luck!
Shalom Naomi,
I Never post anymore on this Forum but I ma very glad to hear from you and from Yerushalayim!
How are you doing?
I am reading the you are a mother, Mazel Tov!
I am doing OK in the cold and the snow of Utah.
Good to hear from you.
My wife and I still plan on returning to your country what we love.
Shalom.
Bertrand
PS; are you sure that you bought this bench in Costco as in the USA Harbor Freight sales it, I know, I bought one.
In fact this is a pretty good bench for the price.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
LumberJocks Woodworking Forum
2.5M posts
96K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to professional woodworkers and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about shop safety, wood, carpentry, lumber, finishing, tools, machinery, woodworking related topics, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!