Roubo Workbench w/ Twin Screw

The Roubo out of Douglas Fir and Whitewood is finally complete…..almost! After about a month worth of actual work, couple hours at a time and a fair amount of mistakes, the roubo is done and finally usable. The top is laminated douglas fir 4×4 with the base just whitewood from HD. Size is 7’ Long x 20” Wide. This was a mostly hand tools project only using the jointer and planer for about half of the stock prep. A lot of the prep was done with hand planes and all the joinery was done by hand. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s heavy and stable. I decided on the twin screw after I drilled a hole in the leg for the leg vise too far near the top. It only would have given me about 4” deep jaws. Big mistake where I drilled first, then put the whole thing together and realize how close I put the hole. So, I scrapped that idea and went with a twin screw. The twin screw was originally going to be my end vise and the leg vise my main vise, but I had an older 7” columbian woodworking vise laying around that seemed perfect for the job and it works fine for now.

The chop of the twin screw is made from two leftover oak stairtreads that I’ve had laying my store. I ripped them down to size and glued them up. The vise mounting blocks are made from 3×3 pallet wood pieces. I’m not sure the species, but it was hard and really pretty and free, so they went into the workbench. The pictures show with and without finish. The finish right now is just one coat of BLO. Makes the Doug Fir really nice to look at anyway. The only thing I have left to do is put a shelf on the bottom with I have 1×2’s and leftover engineered hardwood that is 5” wide. Should work perfect for the shelf and they are all tongue and groove. Overall, there are things I would change about the workbench, for one the twin screw takes forever to unscrew with those metal screws, but it works for now. My next workbench will have a leg vise using the Lake Erie Vise Screw that I purchased for this workbench. Overall, I’m happy to finally have a solid workbench which will open my hand tool techniques up. Up until now I’ve been doing small boxes because it’s all the space I had to do hand tool work with.

-- Greg, Owner, Quality Carpet One, www.qualitycarpetonecrofton.com