Roubo'ish bench

[DynaGlide]

Cruising along. I'm making some mistakes but thankfully none of them are going to be seen or affect anything.

Local dealer had an 8' x 14" 12/4 Walnut slab that he cut off an end for me. I went ahead and oversize milled down an end cap off of it. There should be enough left to make another if this one gets messed up somehow.

TS55 to trim the end off the front slab:

Kerfing the end for the tenon:

In order to clamp the guide rail on the narrow side of the slab to complete the kerf cuts I used my guide rail vacuum clamping pod:

Lots of fiddling later:

Excavating the cavity for the tail vise using two parallel guides and some bar stock:

I'm hoping to mortise the end cap today or tomorrow and see what needs adjusting on the tenon shoulders/end cap to get a good fit.

Matt

 

[DynaGlide]

 

[rmwarren]

Nice work. How's your anxiety level now?

RMW

 

[4nthony]

In order to clamp the guide rail on the narrow side of the slab to complete the kerf cuts I used my guide rail vacuum clamping pod:

My first thought seeing these pictures was how you clamped the rail. Very smart idea! I had no idea guide rail vacuum clamping pods were a thing. [cool]

 

[DynaGlide]

Nice work. How's your anxiety level now?

RMW

I'll rest easier when this is done that's for sure

 

[DynaGlide]

I finally figured out why they call them benchtop drill presses. You're supposed to use it to build a benchtop!!

Real reason for this: I originally hand drilled the barrel nut holes and didn't get it quite right on the location for one of the end cap bolts that wandered off centerline. The rasp I have wasn't doing diddly. I decided the best cure was the drill press to slightly move the hole over.

I know it looks perfect in the picture but there's a slight gap at the top shoulder line that's bothering me. I'll see what can be done about that.

Matt

 

[rmwarren]

This is the type of work I lose sleep fretting over until the time arrives to do it.

Matt, I don't recall but I assume you don't have Shaper Origin? If not, perfect excuse rationale reason to add one to the fleet. [poke]

I've got the newly released plate on order, which is perfect for this type of work. Not that an unreleased product helps you at this point.

RMW

 

[DynaGlide]

[member=8712]Richard/RMW[/member] I hear you. I've considered one off and on but the desire to learn a new tool just isn't there right now. I'm trying to go the other way on the technology front and use more tools that don't require electricity.

 

[rmwarren]

Yea my hand tools are woefully underutilized, and my skills are on par. I'm still in a shop and jig phase, it's been a while since I actually built anything else. The boss just shakes her head every time I spend an entire weekend rearranging tools and there's  nothing to really show for it on Monday.

That workbench will give you a great foundation for hand work.

RMW

 

[DynaGlide]

Yea my hand tools are woefully underutilized, and my skills are on par. I'm still in a shop and jig phase, it's been a while since I actually built anything else. The boss just shakes her head every time I spend an entire weekend rearranging tools and there's  nothing to really show for it on Monday.

That workbench will give you a great foundation for hand work.

RMW

I can't say I'm ahead of you. I used a jigsaw to help cut waste on the big tenon because I don't own a hand saw unless you count my very dull hack saw. I'm trying though. I'll probably make one of those wall mounted hand tool storage things after this.

I made this jig yesterday to do the square bench dog strip that gets laminated to the bench top section I've been working on.

Matt

 

[DynaGlide]

I mentioned earlier the fit of the end cap was bugging me. I had this idea in my head and executed it yesterday/this morning and I must say it worked beautifully. I made a jig that could wrap around the bench that I made sure was square on both sides in relation to each other. Then I could run a pattern bit referencing the jig to square up the shoulders perfectly.

Matt

 

[Crazyraceguy]

In order to clamp the guide rail on the narrow side of the slab to complete the kerf cuts I used my guide rail vacuum clamping pod:

My first thought seeing these pictures was how you clamped the rail. Very smart idea! I had no idea guide rail vacuum clamping pods were a thing. [cool]

Wait, what? Who makes this thing? Looks like a must-have.

 

[4nthony]

My first thought seeing these pictures was how you clamped the rail. Very smart idea! I had no idea guide rail vacuum clamping pods were a thing. [cool]

Wait, what? Who makes this thing? Looks like a must-have.

[member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member] I found more info here...
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...acuum-clamping-system-for-festool-guide-rail/

 

[DynaGlide]

Gearing up for the dog hole strip next. I resawed an 8/4 board into 1 5/8 and 7/16 pieces. I'm hoping to get these down to 1 3/8 and 3/8 for the necessary dog hole strip pieces.

I made mirrored templates for routing of the dog holes:

The reason for the mirrored templates is the moving dog block is opposing the dog hole strip. If you just use the same template on it then the 3/8 cover cap won't line up with the rest of the dog hole strip. That will make more sense when it's done.

I ordered a Katz Moses dovetail jig and japanese pull saw to do the condor tails on the final front laminate piece. Bandsaw would be preferable but I don't have one. With any luck the front slab and tail vise will be done next week.

Matt

 

[DynaGlide]

I intentionally left the 3/8" cover strip oversized to plane it down after it was glued to the main dog hole strip:

Glad that's done. Next up are the condor tails I've been not looking forward to doing.

Matt

 

[Joelm]

Wow this is turning out great. Thanks for posting your progress.

 

[DynaGlide]

Wow this is turning out great. Thanks for posting your progress.

Thank you. There's little imperfections here and there but I'm being realistic about them as I go. At this stage the top hasn't been through a final flattening which would take care of most if not all of them.

 

[hdv]

It looks like your bench is coming along just nicely.  [thumbs up]  You are wise not to get too worked up about imperfections. No one will probably even notice, but you (that's the bane of all woodworkers/perfectionists  [wink] ). Besides, after a few months of use, the wear will camouflage much of those anyway. In the end it is a bench for woodworking, not for show.

P.S. Great to see that new plane being put through its paces. Nice feeling isn't it? Making wood curls.  [smile]

 

[DynaGlide]

P.S. Great to see that new plane being put through its paces. Nice feeling isn't it? Making wood curls.  [smile]

Yeah it's really satisfying. I already dinged the wooden handle on the front by dropping something on it too. I'm looking forward to doing more hand planing tasks when the bench is done.

 

[smorgasbord]

Where are you sourcing your square dogs from? I built a bench 30+ years ago with square dog holes and didn't get enough dogs. I've been thinking I'll need to make them from some hard wood, maybe on my CNC.

BTW, 30 years ago the round dog hole thing was just getting underway. Conventional wisdom at the time was that the round holes would wear (elongate) more quickly. As it was, some couple hundred year old benches with square holes had a lot of wear. But I guess the fashion today is MDF tops that get replaced relatively frequently since people even cut into them!