| Project by EarlS | posted 04-02-2022 11:56 AM | 1946 views | 4 times favorited | 64 comments |  |
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After nearly a year since starting the project, my Roubo workbench is finally complete.
Lots of thanks to all of the folks on the Workbench Smackdown thread. Like so many of the forums on LJ, everyone gives plenty of helpful suggestions, ideas, and encouragement.
As with most of my larger builds, there is a multi-part blog that goes into excruciating detail for anyone with a lot of time on their hands or needs some help falling asleep.
The bench plans and vises were from Benchcrafted, a local IA business that makes some really nice workbench vises. In my case, I went with the cast iron version. Initially, I was going to build a split top but thought about how I would use the bench and changed to a solid top.
All of the boards for the workbench came from a stash of old wood in a farmer’s barn. After quite a bit of milling, I had a nice selection of white oak, cherry and walnut for the workbench. The top is 3-7/8” x 24-1/2” x 89” white oak that is stood on end and laminated together and capped with walnut end caps. The legs are cherry, and the rails are walnut.
I also used walnut for the cabinet of drawers (20” tall, 41” long, 19-1/2” deep). The dovetailed drawer boxes are made from some of the lower quality walnut. Of course, I had to include some Mission style inlay for the drawer and door fronts.
Since the bench weighs more than 400 lbs, heavy duty casters were added. I still need to install the foot bar on them.
The legs and drawer cabinet were finished with Arm-R-Seal and the top has a couple of coats of Walnut Watco danish oil on it. To finish off the work bench, I also found an American made bench brush.
It’s one sexy beast.
-- Earl "I'm a pessamist - generally that increases the chance that things will turn out better than expected"
64 comments so far
oldrivers
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3149 posts in 3060 days
#1 posted 04-02-2022 12:03 PM
A beautiful, Roubo workbench. Great workmanship something you can enjoy for years to come.
-- Soli Deo gloria!
JimYoung
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451 posts in 3081 days
#2 posted 04-02-2022 12:08 PM
Awesome job, Earl!
-- -Jim, "Nothing says poor craftsmanship more than wrinkles in your duck tape"
Eric
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5763 posts in 1367 days
#3 posted 04-02-2022 12:12 PM
That looks fantastic Earl. Sturdy and furniture grade. It will be a sad day when you put your first scratch in it.
Well done.
-- Eric, building the dream. the "Loft"
Keebler1
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2426 posts in 1201 days
#4 posted 04-02-2022 12:22 PM
That looks great Earl
recycle1943
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7078 posts in 3116 days
#5 posted 04-02-2022 12:37 PM
Absolutely over the top – not only a great work bench but a fantastic looking piece of furniture.
-- Dick, Malvern Ohio - my biggest fear is that when I die, my wife sells my toys for what I told her I paid for them
987Ron
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4148 posts in 810 days
#6 posted 04-02-2022 12:39 PM
+1 on all the above. Something to be proud of. The projects coming off the bench will be as good as the bench. Nicely done, a lot of work.
-- Ron
Knockonit
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1291 posts in 1696 days
#7 posted 04-02-2022 12:49 PM
my my and you are gonna work on this, a thing of beauty, hmm, take a picture every year and keep track of it, be interesting to see how folks treat their benches, mine is beat to snot, but its was somewhat before i picked it up,
nice build, tempted but know that i would not treat it well.
thanks for sharing
rj in az
-- Living the dream
torus
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563 posts in 1907 days
#8 posted 04-02-2022 01:00 PM
Very nice one, indeed! It could be placed easily in the dinning room as a side table. Vises can be used for slicing turkey or something ;))) (I am little jealous, as you can see)
Congrats on the completion. I was following the blog closely…
-- "It's getting better..." - put this on my RIP stone!
Dave Polaschek
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10498 posts in 2076 days
#9 posted 04-02-2022 01:11 PM
Very nice, Earl. I thought you were going to have an epoxy corncob inlay on it, though…. ;-)
-- Dave - Santa Fe
Timmy2Hands
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205 posts in 2458 days
#10 posted 04-02-2022 01:21 PM
A real piece of art for making more pieces of art.
Congratulations! It looks terrific.
-- Tim McCoy - @Timmy2Hands on Instagram
MrWolfe
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1974 posts in 1617 days
#11 posted 04-02-2022 01:34 PM
Masterfully made and artfully crafted!
Excellent… don’t be afraid to use the heck out of it.
Editor’s Choice for sure
GR8HUNTER
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9695 posts in 2206 days
#12 posted 04-02-2022 01:50 PM
i would be willing to wait 1 year for this beautiful bench its almost to nice to use welcome 2 workbench smackdown thread
GREAT JOB :<))))))
-- Tony---- Reinholds,Pa.------ REMEMBER TO ALWAYS HAVE FUN :<))
corelz125
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5540 posts in 2470 days
#13 posted 04-02-2022 01:53 PM
Are you gonna work on this or eat dinner off of it? This is more of a piece of fine furniture than a work bench. Excellent work
KelleyCrafts
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5359 posts in 2233 days
#14 posted 04-02-2022 02:32 PM
During this build I was honestly starting to think this was going to be a bit busy once I got sneak leaks of the mission style drawers and the inlayed circles in the chop but nope. It’s perfect buddy! Love the top of the leg chop, G&G looking. You know I’m all for bench bling and “furniture grade” blah blah blah….every project you make moving forward will be better than that last because of that bench. Your work was already top notch prior to this, it’ll be even better now.
Congrats on finally finishing Earl. It looks perfect for you.
-- Dave - http://kelleycrafts.com/ - pen blanks - knife scales - turning tools
BurlyBob
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10786 posts in 3759 days
#15 posted 04-02-2022 02:45 PM
Earl, that turned out fantastic. I can see lots of interesting features in you bench I may try to incorporate in mne.
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