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#1 ·
My first workbench build: Background

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, and have been finding it a great resource in general. I figured I should contribute a little bit to it. So here it goes, my first workbench - a MINI ROUBO!
(You can find it on my Instagram under Siggykc)

I know "Why not go the full hog and build a full sized Roubo??"
This is just to put it into context, as I simply lack the space to house a full sized Roubo workbench.
I am an average bloke (I work in the city) living in a small flat sized house, with a tiny garage that would normally just fit a car like the cooper mini with nearly no room to spare.
Thus the majority of the work is carried out one day a week when I have set time aside to drive 20kms to my parents house, where my dad has a woodworking setup.

One fortunate resource I have access to is my father. I could write a whole book on the guy (actually a few people have already stated that).
My father has some serious street cred. Being trained the old fashioned Tage Frid/Klausz way. He grew up in Southern Germany, the son of a cabinet maker and started his lengthy apprenticeship at 16, doing the journeyman years then completing his master cabinetmaker qualification. The whole time he lived in a men's hostel with tradesmen and he learnt from some seriously good guys that taught him how to do everything by hand and by machine. The fella came to Australia in the early 70s and became the head restorer and frame maker at the National Gallery. The stuff he can do…is gobsmacking. If anyone is interested in photos of his work, let me know.

Enough being side tracked.

My dad was aware not to build the bench for me, but rather act as a consultant, to bounce ideas off and learn techniques from on scrap material. I am an engineer by trade so understand the concepts of manufacturing and have some metal working skills, but this was the first real woodworking project for me.

Mission profile:
Provide woodworking capabilities for small projects such as chairs, side tables and furniture restoration for a period of 4-5 years. Then being used in a larger workshop for very fine jobs/assembly, as by this time I shall have enough space to build a full sized workbench.
Bench must be portable enough that 2 small people can manage to safely transport the bench. Thus a knockdown design is desirable.
Most importantly, must look good enough to be stored/used as a table in the house during times where it may not fit in the garage due to other workshop jobs.

Timeline:
Started in June 2019, aiming for completion late August 2019.
Work-time is on Saturdays, as I work a full time job during the week and Sundays is for house chores.

Materials:
Bench Hardware
I had been looking and looking, and in Australia we are limited in our access to the stuff people in Europe or the US have. BUT, we can get Benchcrafted gear. And after visiting the Benchcrafted distributor in Australia, I was sold on the quality of machining and build, at least from an engineering perspective.

Timber
My father's workbench is a full sized Scandinavian workbench. Solid Beech top. Beech being light in color allows for much easier working and adjusting of tools than with a dark workbench. Using this logic, I decided to use Hard Maple. Boy is it exxy here in Australia! Not to mention only a handful of places have it. For contrast, I managed to find people offloading some darker colored hardwoods that I want to incorporate into my tail vise somehow.

Dimensions:
I didnt follow the Benchcrafted plans, because i needed different dimensions.
This led to some hurdles along the way, which I will describe as I post updates.
Generally the size was set to 1550mm Long, 650mm Wide, 850mm Tall. As an indicator I am 165cm tall.

The boards of maple I obtained were a mix of 1 and 2 inches thick, and 5 inches wide.
I ripped them down on the saw, and then jointed and thicknessed them accordingly. Saving all the offcuts to use wherever I could.

Wood Table Picture frame Floor Shelving


Wood Rectangle Flooring Wood stain Plank


Please feel free to hit me up with suggestions or questions, I love feedback!
 

Attachments

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#2 ·
My first workbench build: Background

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, and have been finding it a great resource in general. I figured I should contribute a little bit to it. So here it goes, my first workbench - a MINI ROUBO!
(You can find it on my Instagram under Siggykc)

I know "Why not go the full hog and build a full sized Roubo??"
This is just to put it into context, as I simply lack the space to house a full sized Roubo workbench.
I am an average bloke (I work in the city) living in a small flat sized house, with a tiny garage that would normally just fit a car like the cooper mini with nearly no room to spare.
Thus the majority of the work is carried out one day a week when I have set time aside to drive 20kms to my parents house, where my dad has a woodworking setup.

One fortunate resource I have access to is my father. I could write a whole book on the guy (actually a few people have already stated that).
My father has some serious street cred. Being trained the old fashioned Tage Frid/Klausz way. He grew up in Southern Germany, the son of a cabinet maker and started his lengthy apprenticeship at 16, doing the journeyman years then completing his master cabinetmaker qualification. The whole time he lived in a men's hostel with tradesmen and he learnt from some seriously good guys that taught him how to do everything by hand and by machine. The fella came to Australia in the early 70s and became the head restorer and frame maker at the National Gallery. The stuff he can do…is gobsmacking. If anyone is interested in photos of his work, let me know.

Enough being side tracked.

My dad was aware not to build the bench for me, but rather act as a consultant, to bounce ideas off and learn techniques from on scrap material. I am an engineer by trade so understand the concepts of manufacturing and have some metal working skills, but this was the first real woodworking project for me.

Mission profile:
Provide woodworking capabilities for small projects such as chairs, side tables and furniture restoration for a period of 4-5 years. Then being used in a larger workshop for very fine jobs/assembly, as by this time I shall have enough space to build a full sized workbench.
Bench must be portable enough that 2 small people can manage to safely transport the bench. Thus a knockdown design is desirable.
Most importantly, must look good enough to be stored/used as a table in the house during times where it may not fit in the garage due to other workshop jobs.

Timeline:
Started in June 2019, aiming for completion late August 2019.
Work-time is on Saturdays, as I work a full time job during the week and Sundays is for house chores.

Materials:
Bench Hardware
I had been looking and looking, and in Australia we are limited in our access to the stuff people in Europe or the US have. BUT, we can get Benchcrafted gear. And after visiting the Benchcrafted distributor in Australia, I was sold on the quality of machining and build, at least from an engineering perspective.

Timber
My father's workbench is a full sized Scandinavian workbench. Solid Beech top. Beech being light in color allows for much easier working and adjusting of tools than with a dark workbench. Using this logic, I decided to use Hard Maple. Boy is it exxy here in Australia! Not to mention only a handful of places have it. For contrast, I managed to find people offloading some darker colored hardwoods that I want to incorporate into my tail vise somehow.

Dimensions:
I didnt follow the Benchcrafted plans, because i needed different dimensions.
This led to some hurdles along the way, which I will describe as I post updates.
Generally the size was set to 1550mm Long, 650mm Wide, 850mm Tall. As an indicator I am 165cm tall.

The boards of maple I obtained were a mix of 1 and 2 inches thick, and 5 inches wide.
I ripped them down on the saw, and then jointed and thicknessed them accordingly. Saving all the offcuts to use wherever I could.

Wood Table Picture frame Floor Shelving


Wood Rectangle Flooring Wood stain Plank


Please feel free to hit me up with suggestions or questions, I love feedback!
The leg construction is all mortise and tenon.

The Benchcrafted Tail Vise requires a certain amount of space between leg and the edge of the bench top to accommodate the mechanism.
I had seen other people with shorter benches bore a hole for the vise screw, which results in a severely shortened range of motion…...and at the price of a BC Tail Vise, I was really keen to get the full use out of it.
My solution, which I havnt yet seen anyone do, was to design an offset tenon.
On the small bench, the front RHS leg in the conventional setup would simply be in the way of the screw, thus this was remedied by the offset tenon to get the full range of motion from the tail vise.
This is why the front RHS leg has a wedge stuck to it, and the top rail is significantly shorter than that on the left hand side.

Aside from that, all the mortises and tenons were cut and chiseled out as per the usual way.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned.

Table Hand tool Wood Tool Desk


Cabinetry Wood Picture frame Stool Clock
 

Attachments

#3 ·
My first workbench build: Background

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, and have been finding it a great resource in general. I figured I should contribute a little bit to it. So here it goes, my first workbench - a MINI ROUBO!
(You can find it on my Instagram under Siggykc)

I know "Why not go the full hog and build a full sized Roubo??"
This is just to put it into context, as I simply lack the space to house a full sized Roubo workbench.
I am an average bloke (I work in the city) living in a small flat sized house, with a tiny garage that would normally just fit a car like the cooper mini with nearly no room to spare.
Thus the majority of the work is carried out one day a week when I have set time aside to drive 20kms to my parents house, where my dad has a woodworking setup.

One fortunate resource I have access to is my father. I could write a whole book on the guy (actually a few people have already stated that).
My father has some serious street cred. Being trained the old fashioned Tage Frid/Klausz way. He grew up in Southern Germany, the son of a cabinet maker and started his lengthy apprenticeship at 16, doing the journeyman years then completing his master cabinetmaker qualification. The whole time he lived in a men's hostel with tradesmen and he learnt from some seriously good guys that taught him how to do everything by hand and by machine. The fella came to Australia in the early 70s and became the head restorer and frame maker at the National Gallery. The stuff he can do…is gobsmacking. If anyone is interested in photos of his work, let me know.

Enough being side tracked.

My dad was aware not to build the bench for me, but rather act as a consultant, to bounce ideas off and learn techniques from on scrap material. I am an engineer by trade so understand the concepts of manufacturing and have some metal working skills, but this was the first real woodworking project for me.

Mission profile:
Provide woodworking capabilities for small projects such as chairs, side tables and furniture restoration for a period of 4-5 years. Then being used in a larger workshop for very fine jobs/assembly, as by this time I shall have enough space to build a full sized workbench.
Bench must be portable enough that 2 small people can manage to safely transport the bench. Thus a knockdown design is desirable.
Most importantly, must look good enough to be stored/used as a table in the house during times where it may not fit in the garage due to other workshop jobs.

Timeline:
Started in June 2019, aiming for completion late August 2019.
Work-time is on Saturdays, as I work a full time job during the week and Sundays is for house chores.

Materials:
Bench Hardware
I had been looking and looking, and in Australia we are limited in our access to the stuff people in Europe or the US have. BUT, we can get Benchcrafted gear. And after visiting the Benchcrafted distributor in Australia, I was sold on the quality of machining and build, at least from an engineering perspective.

Timber
My father's workbench is a full sized Scandinavian workbench. Solid Beech top. Beech being light in color allows for much easier working and adjusting of tools than with a dark workbench. Using this logic, I decided to use Hard Maple. Boy is it exxy here in Australia! Not to mention only a handful of places have it. For contrast, I managed to find people offloading some darker colored hardwoods that I want to incorporate into my tail vise somehow.

Dimensions:
I didnt follow the Benchcrafted plans, because i needed different dimensions.
This led to some hurdles along the way, which I will describe as I post updates.
Generally the size was set to 1550mm Long, 650mm Wide, 850mm Tall. As an indicator I am 165cm tall.

The boards of maple I obtained were a mix of 1 and 2 inches thick, and 5 inches wide.
I ripped them down on the saw, and then jointed and thicknessed them accordingly. Saving all the offcuts to use wherever I could.

Wood Table Picture frame Floor Shelving


Wood Rectangle Flooring Wood stain Plank


Please feel free to hit me up with suggestions or questions, I love feedback!
Sounds like you've got a solid starting position, Sig!! Good luck and fun journey!!
 

Attachments

#4 ·
My first workbench build: Background

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, and have been finding it a great resource in general. I figured I should contribute a little bit to it. So here it goes, my first workbench - a MINI ROUBO!
(You can find it on my Instagram under Siggykc)

I know "Why not go the full hog and build a full sized Roubo??"
This is just to put it into context, as I simply lack the space to house a full sized Roubo workbench.
I am an average bloke (I work in the city) living in a small flat sized house, with a tiny garage that would normally just fit a car like the cooper mini with nearly no room to spare.
Thus the majority of the work is carried out one day a week when I have set time aside to drive 20kms to my parents house, where my dad has a woodworking setup.

One fortunate resource I have access to is my father. I could write a whole book on the guy (actually a few people have already stated that).
My father has some serious street cred. Being trained the old fashioned Tage Frid/Klausz way. He grew up in Southern Germany, the son of a cabinet maker and started his lengthy apprenticeship at 16, doing the journeyman years then completing his master cabinetmaker qualification. The whole time he lived in a men's hostel with tradesmen and he learnt from some seriously good guys that taught him how to do everything by hand and by machine. The fella came to Australia in the early 70s and became the head restorer and frame maker at the National Gallery. The stuff he can do…is gobsmacking. If anyone is interested in photos of his work, let me know.

Enough being side tracked.

My dad was aware not to build the bench for me, but rather act as a consultant, to bounce ideas off and learn techniques from on scrap material. I am an engineer by trade so understand the concepts of manufacturing and have some metal working skills, but this was the first real woodworking project for me.

Mission profile:
Provide woodworking capabilities for small projects such as chairs, side tables and furniture restoration for a period of 4-5 years. Then being used in a larger workshop for very fine jobs/assembly, as by this time I shall have enough space to build a full sized workbench.
Bench must be portable enough that 2 small people can manage to safely transport the bench. Thus a knockdown design is desirable.
Most importantly, must look good enough to be stored/used as a table in the house during times where it may not fit in the garage due to other workshop jobs.

Timeline:
Started in June 2019, aiming for completion late August 2019.
Work-time is on Saturdays, as I work a full time job during the week and Sundays is for house chores.

Materials:
Bench Hardware
I had been looking and looking, and in Australia we are limited in our access to the stuff people in Europe or the US have. BUT, we can get Benchcrafted gear. And after visiting the Benchcrafted distributor in Australia, I was sold on the quality of machining and build, at least from an engineering perspective.

Timber
My father's workbench is a full sized Scandinavian workbench. Solid Beech top. Beech being light in color allows for much easier working and adjusting of tools than with a dark workbench. Using this logic, I decided to use Hard Maple. Boy is it exxy here in Australia! Not to mention only a handful of places have it. For contrast, I managed to find people offloading some darker colored hardwoods that I want to incorporate into my tail vise somehow.

Dimensions:
I didnt follow the Benchcrafted plans, because i needed different dimensions.
This led to some hurdles along the way, which I will describe as I post updates.
Generally the size was set to 1550mm Long, 650mm Wide, 850mm Tall. As an indicator I am 165cm tall.

The boards of maple I obtained were a mix of 1 and 2 inches thick, and 5 inches wide.
I ripped them down on the saw, and then jointed and thicknessed them accordingly. Saving all the offcuts to use wherever I could.

Wood Table Picture frame Floor Shelving


Wood Rectangle Flooring Wood stain Plank


Please feel free to hit me up with suggestions or questions, I love feedback!
Sounds like you ve got a solid starting position, Sig!! Good luck and fun journey!!

- rhybeka
Thanks for that Becky, i really appreciate it!

I hope you enjoy the next few blog entries!
 

Attachments

#5 ·
My first workbench build: The Legs and Rails

Okey-dokey,

Please, do bear with me folks. I posted my next entry accidentally as a comment….whoops! I'll see if i can delete it and re-post it here as I'm meant to.

Legs:

Wooh! Who doesn't like a good set of pins!

The leg construction is all mortise and tenon.
Table Hand tool Wood Tool Wood stain


The Benchcrafted Tail Vise requires a certain amount of space between leg and the edge of the bench top to accommodate the mechanism.
I had seen other people with shorter benches bore a hole for the vise screw, which results in a severely shortened range of motion……and at the price of a BC Tail Vise, I was really keen to get the full use out of it.
My solution, which I havent yet seen anyone do, was to design an offset tenon.
On the small bench, the front RHS leg in the conventional setup would simply be in the way of the screw, thus this was remedied by the offset tenon to get the full range of motion from the tail vise.
This is why the front RHS leg has a wedge stuck to it, and the top rail is significantly shorter than that on the left hand side.
Aside from that, all the mortises and tenons were cut and chiseled out as per the usual way.
The tenons were cut on a circular saw, and cleaned up after.
Half the mortises were drilled out with a forstner bit then cleaned up with a chisel, the other half were cut out by hand.
Wood Office ruler Floor Wood stain Flooring


It all fit together quite nicely with a few solid belts of the mallet.
Sharpening the chisels beforehand really makes a huge difference in chopping mortises and makes it an enjoyable thing to do!!
Wood Hardwood Wood stain Engineering Lumber


The front and rear rails came next, the former being double the thickness. These tenons were slightly shallower but a fair bit thicker, to accommodate the BC Bolt that is used to hold the base of the bench together.
One benefit of a full sized bench with a good tail vise like my dad's is that I could press all the joints together in a very controlled manner.
Wood Cabinetry Table Workbench Hardwood


Then came the test fit before glue up.
The idea is that the legs are glued to the side rails, resulting in two "bench base ends". These ends are then connected using the long rails and locked together using the BC Bolt kit. Thus this allows for ease of transportation.
The bench base ends were glued up separately using a structural marine grade epoxy

Furniture Wood Wood stain Hardwood Outdoor furniture


And naturally- a photo of the master and student.
Table Wood Picture frame Public space Market


Thanks for reading! Stay tuned. Next should be the Leg Vise, and what a story that is!
 

Attachments

#6 ·
My first workbench build: The Legs and Rails

Okey-dokey,

Please, do bear with me folks. I posted my next entry accidentally as a comment….whoops! I'll see if i can delete it and re-post it here as I'm meant to.

Legs:

Wooh! Who doesn't like a good set of pins!

The leg construction is all mortise and tenon.
Table Hand tool Wood Tool Wood stain


The Benchcrafted Tail Vise requires a certain amount of space between leg and the edge of the bench top to accommodate the mechanism.
I had seen other people with shorter benches bore a hole for the vise screw, which results in a severely shortened range of motion……and at the price of a BC Tail Vise, I was really keen to get the full use out of it.
My solution, which I havent yet seen anyone do, was to design an offset tenon.
On the small bench, the front RHS leg in the conventional setup would simply be in the way of the screw, thus this was remedied by the offset tenon to get the full range of motion from the tail vise.
This is why the front RHS leg has a wedge stuck to it, and the top rail is significantly shorter than that on the left hand side.
Aside from that, all the mortises and tenons were cut and chiseled out as per the usual way.
The tenons were cut on a circular saw, and cleaned up after.
Half the mortises were drilled out with a forstner bit then cleaned up with a chisel, the other half were cut out by hand.
Wood Office ruler Floor Wood stain Flooring


It all fit together quite nicely with a few solid belts of the mallet.
Sharpening the chisels beforehand really makes a huge difference in chopping mortises and makes it an enjoyable thing to do!!
Wood Hardwood Wood stain Engineering Lumber


The front and rear rails came next, the former being double the thickness. These tenons were slightly shallower but a fair bit thicker, to accommodate the BC Bolt that is used to hold the base of the bench together.
One benefit of a full sized bench with a good tail vise like my dad's is that I could press all the joints together in a very controlled manner.
Wood Cabinetry Table Workbench Hardwood


Then came the test fit before glue up.
The idea is that the legs are glued to the side rails, resulting in two "bench base ends". These ends are then connected using the long rails and locked together using the BC Bolt kit. Thus this allows for ease of transportation.
The bench base ends were glued up separately using a structural marine grade epoxy

Furniture Wood Wood stain Hardwood Outdoor furniture


And naturally- a photo of the master and student.
Table Wood Picture frame Public space Market


Thanks for reading! Stay tuned. Next should be the Leg Vise, and what a story that is!
Hi
Really nice build, and I love that you have your father as a mentor on the build. What a resource to have available. A bit envy as I had to do all my learning from the internet (my father neither do much woodworking or live close to me)

Maybe you maynfind this alternative solution to make room for the wagon-vise interesting:
http://www.acbon.org/captivating-downdraft-bench/bench/large/short-roubo-workbench-woodworkng-pnterest.html

I did not see that you had evaluated such design.
You have of course already selected your design - but maybe it still is interesting to see other solutions.
 

Attachments

#9 ·
My first workbench build: Leg Vise - The beginnings

Gday all!

So, whilst I was constructing the base of the bench, in parallel i had been keeping an eye out for folks selling interesting timber that I could incorporate into the bench.
As i live in essentially a flat sized house, I dont have a huge stockpile of timber and just acquire it as I go.
I came across a bloke who had an old hard maple bowling alley that he had ripped up. After close inspection, i figured it wasn't the ideal thing to incorporate into the bench, but he had a shipping container in which a few boards were being used as shelves. I think he mentioned at one stage he had some maple brought over from the US.

(the board as I got it in all its rough sawn beauty)
Rectangle Wood Flooring Floor Wood stain


So, I bought a shelf off of him and another small piece, and when I got home, i took my old hand plane to it to knock off the crust, and low and behold i got a glimpse of some figuring.
It may sound strange to those folks from North America, but getting maple that isn't just straight up Hard Maple (I live in Melbourne - a city of 3 million, and there are perhaps 2 places i know of to get hard maple), is not really possible here in Australia. You just have to get lucky and find someone who may have cut one down, or randomly imported some into the country. We have a plaethora of local timber - mostly eucalypts which have incredible strength, heft and weight similar to timbers like Lignum Vitae….but I was pretty keen to use Maple to have a slightly different bench to all those found in this part of the world.
The ultimate strength workbench would be Grey Ironbark throughout…..but it would weigh an extra 60-70% more than hard maple as its Density is around 1300kg/m^3. When the time comes for a new full sized bench that i wont have to move, I will be using Aussie timbers for this reason.

The following Saturday at my dad's shop, I put it over the buzzer and through the thicknesser and it turned out to be a pretty wild mix of figuring. Perhaps a little too crazy to use as a guitar top, due to the color variation and inconsistencies in the quilting, but I absolutely loved it!
Wood Flooring Floor Wood stain Hardwood

Wood Sculpture Wood stain Flooring Hardwood


I know it looks like a sizeable piece….but it had its flaws, and unfortunately some of these ran straight down the middle of the piece.
The challenge was, as the piece had cracks, pock marks and some borer holes, that I had to get clever in making use of it to maximize yield.
Table Wood Wood stain Desk Floor

So out came the pen, paper and ruler, and I figured a way to cut 4 pieces from the board. The parts to be joined had 45 degree beveled edges to increase joint strength as much as possible. As you may know, the BC leg vise criss-cross mechanism sits within a routered out trench running up the center of the leg vise.
I worked out that this, and the other high wear portions of the vise should be made from the structurally stronger Hard Maple offcuts that I had from when ripping the initial boards for the base of the workbench.
I also wanted a 240mm wide clamping area on the vise, and if i didnt do this, i was only able to get 200-210mm of clamping width.
In total by the time i finished widening the vise and a added hard maple onto the clamping area and top edge, there were 8 pieces of timber that made up the vise.

(the glueup)
Wood Hardwood Machine Engineering Art


(with clamps removed)
Wood Tool Hardwood Machine Engineering


So the observant of you will notice that the vise in the pic above has not yet been widened. I'll write about this in more detail and show the finished vise in my next post, as the photos reveal my bench…..I didnt want to spoil it for you all! :)

All the small voids were filled in with West-Systems Epoxy, whilst the pieces were all glued together with more marine grade structural epoxy.
It's a rock solid combination that wont ever be falling apart.
I did start experimenting with the West Systems epoxy to investigate potentially using it in a barrier coat way on the leg vise, as it really does penetrate and let the grain pop, however its as glossy as a piece of glass after…...and i was hoping more for a satin finish.
Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

Cheers for reading, and I hope you all had great weekends!
Stay tuned for more!

Siggy
 

Attachments

#10 ·
My first workbench build- recycling offcuts for inlay

Gday-gday,

I hope its warm and sunny for you all - a start contrast to the cold wet mornings in Melbourne as of recent!

Due to the weather one evening after work, I was stuck at home with my small garage that is setup for some small metalworking jobs. Bored, I racked my brain for things to do.

As you readers of this blog will know, the last thing I posted on was the leg vise, which is made predominantly out of quilted (big leaf?) maple.
The bloke that sold me that quilted maple shelf/board, gave me a shoe-box worth of small uneven offcuts he had left over.
Wood Rectangle Hardwood Flooring Brick


In the box were small cracked pieces and wedges of Macassar ebony and fiddleback Aussie Blackwood.
Well, since my mother's family is from the area where they harvest Macassar Ebony (Toraja) and since my dad built the pantry that was the center of the family home out of Aussie Blackwood, I had to incorporate these into the workbench!
But how?
Answer: As an inlay, into the front of the benchtop.

But what of?
Answer: after some pondering over a nice warm cup of tea, I landed on the Schreinerwappen - the symbol for joiners in Germany, as a nod to my father's roots. And after 20 minutes of rough sketching I came up with this.
Rectangle Automotive design Wood Architecture Font


I'll do my best to walk you through how i did it.

Firstly the pieces were really random, being wedge shaped. I needed to get them into workable flat pieces 4mm thick. Resawing was the only way, but as I don't have a bandsaw, or scrollsaw…..i had to use my dovetail saw.
This was painstakingly slow work, but on the positive side, i got used to cutting accurately! I just kept rotating my work pieces in the vise carefully sawing.
Watch Beard Sitting Carmine Facial hair

...veeery carefully resawing…
Wood Gas Tints and shades Hardwood Wood stain

The dovetail saw leaves an awesomely narrow kerf!

To get them as smooth as possible, I had a scrap of maple that I use as a sanding block. I used double sided tape to affix the resawn timber to the bottom of this maple and then ran it over some 180 grit paper that I had clamped to the metal workbench.
Brown Wood Rectangle Flooring Hardwood

The finished resawn piece of ebony after being run over some sand paper

I had to re-hydrate with a nice cuppa, and then I returned to cut the pieces out using my fretsaw. And after some final touch ups with some small engineer's files. All the flat sized were very carefully planed using a block-plane,
Wood Stonemason's hammer Hand tool Tool Office ruler

(Getting there!)

I used some tiny pieces of tape to assemble it all on a piece of Huon Pine for contrast. I didn't cut the Huon pine with the dovetail saw, it was a re-sawn piece my dad gave me earlier in the week!
Wood Art Font Rectangle Illustration


Wood Art Rectangle Hardwood Font


I was mighty pleased with the result, especially considering the lack of setup that I have, using the basic tools.
But it goes to show what can be done with a little patience. So if you don't have the powertool setup, don't be alarmed!
The total height is 85mm and width is 85mm.

I know, I know….this is absolutely not necessary for a workbench - especially as my first workbench.
But, this workbench is more so a skill building exercise.

Do stay tuned for further updates (that is, if i havn't bored you!).
And I very very very much welcome your feedback or ideas!!!

Cheers!
Siggy
 

Attachments

#11 ·
My first workbench build- recycling offcuts for inlay

Gday-gday,

I hope its warm and sunny for you all - a start contrast to the cold wet mornings in Melbourne as of recent!

Due to the weather one evening after work, I was stuck at home with my small garage that is setup for some small metalworking jobs. Bored, I racked my brain for things to do.

As you readers of this blog will know, the last thing I posted on was the leg vise, which is made predominantly out of quilted (big leaf?) maple.
The bloke that sold me that quilted maple shelf/board, gave me a shoe-box worth of small uneven offcuts he had left over.
Wood Rectangle Hardwood Flooring Brick


In the box were small cracked pieces and wedges of Macassar ebony and fiddleback Aussie Blackwood.
Well, since my mother's family is from the area where they harvest Macassar Ebony (Toraja) and since my dad built the pantry that was the center of the family home out of Aussie Blackwood, I had to incorporate these into the workbench!
But how?
Answer: As an inlay, into the front of the benchtop.

But what of?
Answer: after some pondering over a nice warm cup of tea, I landed on the Schreinerwappen - the symbol for joiners in Germany, as a nod to my father's roots. And after 20 minutes of rough sketching I came up with this.
Rectangle Automotive design Wood Architecture Font


I'll do my best to walk you through how i did it.

Firstly the pieces were really random, being wedge shaped. I needed to get them into workable flat pieces 4mm thick. Resawing was the only way, but as I don't have a bandsaw, or scrollsaw…..i had to use my dovetail saw.
This was painstakingly slow work, but on the positive side, i got used to cutting accurately! I just kept rotating my work pieces in the vise carefully sawing.
Watch Beard Sitting Carmine Facial hair

...veeery carefully resawing…
Wood Gas Tints and shades Hardwood Wood stain

The dovetail saw leaves an awesomely narrow kerf!

To get them as smooth as possible, I had a scrap of maple that I use as a sanding block. I used double sided tape to affix the resawn timber to the bottom of this maple and then ran it over some 180 grit paper that I had clamped to the metal workbench.

The finished resawn piece of ebony after being run over some sand paper

I had to re-hydrate with a nice cuppa, and then I returned to cut the pieces out using my fretsaw. And after some final touch ups with some small engineer's files. All the flat sized were very carefully planed using a block-plane,

(Getting there!)

I used some tiny pieces of tape to assemble it all on a piece of Huon Pine for contrast. I didn't cut the Huon pine with the dovetail saw, it was a re-sawn piece my dad gave me earlier in the week!




I was mighty pleased with the result, especially considering the lack of setup that I have, using the basic tools.
But it goes to show what can be done with a little patience. So if you don't have the powertool setup, don't be alarmed!
The total height is 85mm and width is 85mm.

I know, I know….this is absolutely not necessary for a workbench - especially as my first workbench.
But, this workbench is more so a skill building exercise.

Do stay tuned for further updates (that is, if i havn't bored you!).
And I very very very much welcome your feedback or ideas!!!

Cheers!
Siggy
Well of course you need details like this on a hand built roubo style workbench. Nice subtle touch to demonstrate your skills and it looks great.
 

Attachments

#15 ·
My First Workbench Build - The Workbench Top

G'day folks. It has been a while since my last update. I shall do a couple of posts to catch up for the last couple of months.

The Workbench Top.

Like the legs, the top is constructed from good old fashioned Hard/Rock Maple. Due to the 115mm thick dimensions, and the fact that I am a mere 5'5"in size, constructing a single piece top was out of the question.
As I work on this on weekends and some week nights, it is imperative that I can put the bench aside so that others may use the workshop. Thus a 2 piece top was decided upon.
Total dimensions for the top are 1500mm in length and 650mm in width.
Each of the top pieces are therefore 1500mm in length and 325mm in width.

Some may recall that on the side I was collecting some random figured timber to use on the build to spice up the aesthetics a little. Here in Melbourne, Australia we simply do not have any timber/lumber yards that stock figured timber. Its generally all straight grained, whilst anything with figure is snapped up on the private market by luthiers.
From a previous post, you may recall that I met a friendly guy who had brought across a green soft maple tree from the US in a shipping container a few decades back, and I got some pieces of timber from him. These were nice and quilted, yet riddled with cracks so the yield was not as high as originally hoped for.
I met another gent whom sold me some figured Tasmanian Oak. Which, is not at all oak. In Australia we have 2-3 types of Eucalyptus trees that are generally found in the southmost states of Australia (Victoria and Tasmania) and used as a general hardwood in joinery. These are loosely called "Tasmanian Oak" and "Victorian Ash" depending on which state you are in, as the early settlers found they exhibited similar strength characteristics to those trees in Europe.
Brown Rectangle Wood Beige Flooring

In the above pic, you can see from top to bottom; Fiddleback Tasmanian Oak, Quilted Maple, Australian Blackwood and Quilted Maple.

After some pondering and sketching, I decided to use the figured soft maple for the rear, and the figured Tassie Oak for the front of the bench. To spruce it up a little, the bench has 4 end caps - one on each end of the 2 benchtop pieces. Those end caps on the leg vise end are quilted maple, whilst those on the Tail Vise end are Australian Blackwood, sourced from the Otway forests in Victoria. Again, to the good folks in North America and Europe, Aussie Blackwood is not related to African Blackwood in any way. It is rather an Acacia tree, being related to Hawaiian Koa. To Australians it is the premier furniture timber (held in the same regard as Walnut in the USA) as well as a revered guitar tonewood. I chose it as it is hardwearing and has great chatoyance and will contrast the maple of the bench.
Wherever the figured Maple and the Tassie Oak was used, a 15mm top cap and 10mm bottom cap of Hard Maple was used to protect the softer figured timber. Perhaps more work than I had bargained for.

So the glue up began, and the hand planing to level it all out.

Now a typical Split Top Roubo will have the Tail Vise corner dovetailed with the infamous "Condor Tails". A beautiful feature that really highlights the craftsmanship and skill of the workbench builder.

I opted for Needlepoint Houndstooth Dovetails, on all 4 corners. The name is indicative that the points are only as wide as the saw kerf.
I cut everything by hand- a good tenon saw and some sharp chisels and several cups of coffee for energy. No bandsaws or routers were harmed/used, but I got there in the end. If anyone wishes to do the same, please keep those chisels sharp especially when cleaning up curly/cranky grain on those dovetails :)
Table Wood Flooring Rectangle Wood stain

Above: cutting the dovetails into the lovely quilted maple for the Rear Half. Let the saw do the work, or you're in strife.
Below: The fitup between the blackwood and the Hard Maple, Front Half. Tight enough that I had to use a mallet to fit and dismantle it.
Table Wood Interior design Desk Flooring

Rectangle Wood Wood stain Natural material Hardwood

Above: Fit between the Maple and Quilted Maple Endblock. Note that approximately 1mm was planed off the front face after the glueup.

My small stature dictates the need for the stool! Note that I clamp the piece being sawed against the largest mass possible - my workbench top to reduce the amount of chatter that occurs when sawing. This is vital to get a good clean and accurate cut!
Jeans Tradesman Wood Carpenter Workbench

As you can see the construction of my top uses a lot of individual pieces of timber (I calculated about 3-4 times the number of pieces found in a typical roubo build with dovetails). This posed the challenge of ensuring that every single piece was exactly the right length and exactly square, thus resulting in no gaps. A marking knife/boxcutter is a must for this! Pencils simply dont give a sharp enough line to work to.
Table Wood Picture frame Creative arts Tool

Above: The Front Half of the bench top with the Tassie Oak centrepiece and top and bottom caps visible. No gaps.
Below: The dry run before gluing up the Rear Half of the benchtop. Because I cut the tenons directly into the timber, it is impossible to remove the pieces once they are knocked together completely. I had to simply trust in my measuring and cutting. Lady luck was on my side.
Naval architecture Wood Hardwood Wood stain Machine


Each of the End Blocks are bolted on using a set of Bench Crafted captive nuts and bolts (8 in total).
I rigged up a basic jig to ensure I bored them all straight and level.
The End Blocks each also sit on beefy 50mm thick tenons, thus the joint should survive the zombie apocalypse.

The Dog Holes are square and were cut at 2 degrees off vertical, leaning toward the workpiece. I have always preferred square, spring-loaded dogs and will make these from Red Ironbark with springs made from hacksaw blades.
The dog holes were cut using the tenon saw, and chiseled out before being cleaned up with a router. The dog holes themselves having the typical shoulder. Hopefully I will have a few more pics to post as I install the tail vise.
Below: Gluing up the benchdog strip in my dark dingy shed.
Wood Bottle Gas Engineering Machine


My father randomly strolls in and out of the workshop as I build the bench and always inquires as to why the complexities. He realized early on the complexity of the build and has opted to be an observer to it all. He will generally remind me that its morning and afternoon tea time, and to take a break from the bench and snap back to reality!

I hope you enjoy the read and the pics. Again I am always welcome to feedback and would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. This build evolves as it goes on, so my ears are always open to ideas!
 

Attachments

#16 ·
My First Workbench Build - The Workbench Top

G'day folks. It has been a while since my last update. I shall do a couple of posts to catch up for the last couple of months.

The Workbench Top.

Like the legs, the top is constructed from good old fashioned Hard/Rock Maple. Due to the 115mm thick dimensions, and the fact that I am a mere 5'5"in size, constructing a single piece top was out of the question.
As I work on this on weekends and some week nights, it is imperative that I can put the bench aside so that others may use the workshop. Thus a 2 piece top was decided upon.
Total dimensions for the top are 1500mm in length and 650mm in width.
Each of the top pieces are therefore 1500mm in length and 325mm in width.

Some may recall that on the side I was collecting some random figured timber to use on the build to spice up the aesthetics a little. Here in Melbourne, Australia we simply do not have any timber/lumber yards that stock figured timber. Its generally all straight grained, whilst anything with figure is snapped up on the private market by luthiers.
From a previous post, you may recall that I met a friendly guy who had brought across a green soft maple tree from the US in a shipping container a few decades back, and I got some pieces of timber from him. These were nice and quilted, yet riddled with cracks so the yield was not as high as originally hoped for.
I met another gent whom sold me some figured Tasmanian Oak. Which, is not at all oak. In Australia we have 2-3 types of Eucalyptus trees that are generally found in the southmost states of Australia (Victoria and Tasmania) and used as a general hardwood in joinery. These are loosely called "Tasmanian Oak" and "Victorian Ash" depending on which state you are in, as the early settlers found they exhibited similar strength characteristics to those trees in Europe.
Brown Rectangle Wood Beige Flooring

In the above pic, you can see from top to bottom; Fiddleback Tasmanian Oak, Quilted Maple, Australian Blackwood and Quilted Maple.

After some pondering and sketching, I decided to use the figured soft maple for the rear, and the figured Tassie Oak for the front of the bench. To spruce it up a little, the bench has 4 end caps - one on each end of the 2 benchtop pieces. Those end caps on the leg vise end are quilted maple, whilst those on the Tail Vise end are Australian Blackwood, sourced from the Otway forests in Victoria. Again, to the good folks in North America and Europe, Aussie Blackwood is not related to African Blackwood in any way. It is rather an Acacia tree, being related to Hawaiian Koa. To Australians it is the premier furniture timber (held in the same regard as Walnut in the USA) as well as a revered guitar tonewood. I chose it as it is hardwearing and has great chatoyance and will contrast the maple of the bench.
Wherever the figured Maple and the Tassie Oak was used, a 15mm top cap and 10mm bottom cap of Hard Maple was used to protect the softer figured timber. Perhaps more work than I had bargained for.

So the glue up began, and the hand planing to level it all out.

Now a typical Split Top Roubo will have the Tail Vise corner dovetailed with the infamous "Condor Tails". A beautiful feature that really highlights the craftsmanship and skill of the workbench builder.

I opted for Needlepoint Houndstooth Dovetails, on all 4 corners. The name is indicative that the points are only as wide as the saw kerf.
I cut everything by hand- a good tenon saw and some sharp chisels and several cups of coffee for energy. No bandsaws or routers were harmed/used, but I got there in the end. If anyone wishes to do the same, please keep those chisels sharp especially when cleaning up curly/cranky grain on those dovetails :)
Table Wood Flooring Rectangle Wood stain

Above: cutting the dovetails into the lovely quilted maple for the Rear Half. Let the saw do the work, or you're in strife.
Below: The fitup between the blackwood and the Hard Maple, Front Half. Tight enough that I had to use a mallet to fit and dismantle it.
Table Wood Interior design Desk Flooring

Rectangle Wood Wood stain Natural material Hardwood

Above: Fit between the Maple and Quilted Maple Endblock. Note that approximately 1mm was planed off the front face after the glueup.

My small stature dictates the need for the stool! Note that I clamp the piece being sawed against the largest mass possible - my workbench top to reduce the amount of chatter that occurs when sawing. This is vital to get a good clean and accurate cut!
Jeans Tradesman Wood Carpenter Workbench

As you can see the construction of my top uses a lot of individual pieces of timber (I calculated about 3-4 times the number of pieces found in a typical roubo build with dovetails). This posed the challenge of ensuring that every single piece was exactly the right length and exactly square, thus resulting in no gaps. A marking knife/boxcutter is a must for this! Pencils simply dont give a sharp enough line to work to.
Table Wood Picture frame Creative arts Tool

Above: The Front Half of the bench top with the Tassie Oak centrepiece and top and bottom caps visible. No gaps.
Below: The dry run before gluing up the Rear Half of the benchtop. Because I cut the tenons directly into the timber, it is impossible to remove the pieces once they are knocked together completely. I had to simply trust in my measuring and cutting. Lady luck was on my side.
Naval architecture Wood Hardwood Wood stain Machine


Each of the End Blocks are bolted on using a set of Bench Crafted captive nuts and bolts (8 in total).
I rigged up a basic jig to ensure I bored them all straight and level.
The End Blocks each also sit on beefy 50mm thick tenons, thus the joint should survive the zombie apocalypse.

The Dog Holes are square and were cut at 2 degrees off vertical, leaning toward the workpiece. I have always preferred square, spring-loaded dogs and will make these from Red Ironbark with springs made from hacksaw blades.
The dog holes were cut using the tenon saw, and chiseled out before being cleaned up with a router. The dog holes themselves having the typical shoulder. Hopefully I will have a few more pics to post as I install the tail vise.
Below: Gluing up the benchdog strip in my dark dingy shed.
Wood Bottle Gas Engineering Machine


My father randomly strolls in and out of the workshop as I build the bench and always inquires as to why the complexities. He realized early on the complexity of the build and has opted to be an observer to it all. He will generally remind me that its morning and afternoon tea time, and to take a break from the bench and snap back to reality!

I hope you enjoy the read and the pics. Again I am always welcome to feedback and would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. This build evolves as it goes on, so my ears are always open to ideas!
That's going to be a pretty bench! Keep at it
 

Attachments

#20 ·
Mounting the tail vise and cutting the mortises for the workbench top

G'day friends,

Last post you may have recalled I outlined how I cut, fitted and glued the 2 workbench top halves. I shall carry on from there.

After unclamping, I took to both halves with a glue scraper to clean them all up before using a No7 plane to ensure the sides were all square to the bottom side of the top. The bottom is my reference point as it mates to the base of the workbench. The top can always be planed accordingly at the very end to bring it all into alignment.

The next step was to install the tail vise hardware. Unless you are building to the standard Bench Crafted plans, I strongly suggest laying the vise hardware out, understanding how it actually works (I spent an hour or so doing this on the kitchen table) then taking measurements off the hardware instead of using the template in the Benchcrafted instructions when determining where to mount it on the workbench.
The install went very smoothly. I left my moving dog block 1-2mm thicker than the workbench top, and planed it flush to the workbench top after mounting it to the vise mechanism.

Next, I jointed the two halves using the No7 plane, to ensure that the mating surfaces did not have any gaps. This is done with a square and a long straight edge, and some patience.
Below: How I clamped the halves to joint them. You will notice on my offset tenon leg, I chiselled out some material to accommodate the tail vise rails and mechanism. A tenon saw and sharp chisels were used to do this.
Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Lumber

Wood Floor Flooring Tool Hardwood

When I was pleased in how the halves mated, I mocked up how they would sit on the base of the workbench and marked out where I would cut my mortises.
On my bench these mortises are arguable the most critical in the whole build. Because my 2 halves are to mate giving the impression of a single piece top (non-split top). If they are out by a fraction of an inch, either a gap would result between the two halves, or the halves would be out of alignment which would visibly look bad.
TIP: Make a split top design with a gap or a tool well/holder in the centre. This will allow for slight misalignments: If the two halves are not perfectly parallel or aligned with each other, you would never notice it. If a tool well is used, then one can simply plane the tool well accordingly so that it ends up with a nice even and snug fit.
I highly recommend this approach to anyone building a Roubo workbench that does not want a single solid top.
I used a marking/boxcutter knife to get good accurate lines.
Wood Gas Flooring Engineering Machine

Above and Below:For the mortises I first drilled these out using my ever so reliable portable drill press and cleaned them up using a sharp chisel.
Wood Carpenter Artisan Tradesman Engineering

I cannot recommend a good portable drill press enough. I have clamped it horizontally to drill holes through steel plate, and done delicate work on both wood and metal…and it has remained perfectly true and when clamped does not vibrate one bit. It takes some practice, but I have had far better results than with a standard pedestal drill. On a job like this, it allows you to bring the drill to the job, rather than the job to the drill (which would be impossible for a small fella like me!)
Wood Creative arts Wood stain Hardwood Flooring

Above: I started with the front half as this has to be flush with the base, then I follows up with the rear half.
The rest is straight forward. I got lucky and my mortises all lined up bang on the money and with a few strikes of the deadblow mallet, the top snapped into place.
Table Wood Stool Flooring Workbench

Above: A pic of the rear of my bench (prior to the mortises being cut). No one will see this side as it sits facing the wall of my workshop, but I was very happy (as you can see) with how it turned out!
Below: After mounting the workbench top, I swept up, packed my toolbox up and knocked off for the day but couldn't resist mocking up where the leg vise would go….
Furniture Table Wood Interior design Flooring


Next step: mounting the leg vise.

Stay tuned!

Cheers,
Siggy
 

Attachments

#21 ·
Fitting the Bench Crafted "Glide" Vise and "Criss Cross"

G'day folks,

It's been a quiet one on my behalf as hayfever has struck me down the past few days due to the impending Spring here in Melbourne, Australia.

I noted that the readership went down on my blog, perhaps because I am a little long winded? Please let me know and I'll try adjust my style of writing accordingly.

The Bench Crafted leg vise has now been fitted, and here's how it went.

When I was happy with how the workbench top fitted to the base, I removed it. Those keen eyed blog followers will notice that I did not cut out the provisions for the leg vise when I built the base during the first phase of the project.
I did this on purpose, as at that point in time I hadn't fully settled on the leg vise chop and location of the vise screw (the build is not based on the wonderful Bench Crafted Split Top Roubo dimensions).

So I cleared the floor and laid the bench on its side.
I have the Bench Crafted "Glide M" vise mechanism. This is basically the standard vise they are famous for, comprising of a "ship's wheel" style crank and their "Criss Cross" mechanism to keep the chop parallel. The build quality is impeccable and fully justifies the price tag. It's worth it just based on this.
Note that BC sells 2 Criss Cross designs; One is designed for new bench builds, whilst the Other is designed for retrofitting to a bench. I purchased the latter, as it can be removed at any stage and used on another bench that may already be built. When mounted, both designs perform exactly the same.

The Criss Cross mortise on both the chop and the leg were drilled out with a forstener bit (a good tungsten tipped bit is best, as hardwood does very quickly dull/blunt steel bits).
I then excavated the rest using a chisel, rounding the edges over with my trusty old router.
The 4 holes to mount the Criss-Cross mechanism were drilled under size and tapped with to 5/16ths. The machine screws that mount to this are absolutely bomb proof.

The 1" diameter vise screw dictates a hole is drilled through the vise chop. I used a the same 35mm forstener bit as what was used to excavate the mortises.
A bushing is then set into and flush with the front of the leg, for lateral location of the vise screw. I drilled this out using a holesaw and router. It's recommended to drill this hole slightly oversized to accomodate a little movement and tweaking when setting up the vise, but if you are good with measuring, there is no need IF you factor in that the vise screw must be slightly off perpendicular to the leg in order for the necessary TOE IN of the vise to occur.
Wood Easel Tool Gas Hardwood

Above: My trusty Fein drill press has proven invaluable in its ability to come to the job. When drilling the hole all the way through the leg, I did ensure a block of scrap wood was clamped at the exit point of the drill bit to prevent any chance of nasty tearout- A 1/2 inch thick piece is sufficient.
Below: The hole drilled for the bushing using a holesaw, prior to me routing out to the depth of the bushing. Note 2 horizontal lines; one is the height of the exit hole at the rear of the leg, the other marks the entry hole at the front of the leg.
Brown Wood Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood


A tip I received was to pare a wee bit off the back of the leg where the vise screw nut is mounted, such that it is at the optimal angle for toe in. A couple of test fits as you go ensures the optimal angle is met without taking too much meat off the back of the leg.
I then rubbed some pencil on the nut and screwed it in place, clamped the vise a few times, then took the nut off to identify and eliminate any raised spots to ensure the nut was fully seated against the leg.
Wood Gas Workbench Machine tool Machine

Above: Test fitting is free! and saves the headache later on of fixing an error in measurement.

When fitted correctly, the sheer mass of the vise wheel acts as a flywheel and will carry enough energy to allow the vise to close from fully open with a single firm throw/spin of the wheel. If it takes several spins, you have installed the vise in a way that too much friction is present in the mechanism, perhaps due to misalignment.

Again Lady Luck was on my side, and the result was that the vice chop was about 1/2 a mm proud of the bench top, thus leaving me with only a small amount to plane off for it to be level with the workbench top.

I'd say, the whole operation took me perhaps 2-3 hours, but I am pedantic and this was my first time. Skilled folks could easily do it in less time.
Below: The finished fitting of the leg vise, viewed from the front left and right sides.
Wood Table Floor Flooring Hardwood


Furniture Table Wood Floor Flooring


Next step: The final touches/cleanup before I transport it to my place where I will varnish the bottom and oil the top.

Thus far I'm fairly happy with the result. I still have to build a shelf between the lower rails/stretchers of the bench, on which a 3 drawer unit will be mounted to store some tools. This will be done in the 2nd phase of the build perhaps a month from now or so.

The priority at the moment is to get the bench out of my father's workshop so that he can use the space to build some kitchen cabinets.

Stay tuned!

Cheers,
Siggy
 

Attachments

#22 ·
Fitting the Bench Crafted "Glide" Vise and "Criss Cross"

G'day folks,

It's been a quiet one on my behalf as hayfever has struck me down the past few days due to the impending Spring here in Melbourne, Australia.

I noted that the readership went down on my blog, perhaps because I am a little long winded? Please let me know and I'll try adjust my style of writing accordingly.

The Bench Crafted leg vise has now been fitted, and here's how it went.

When I was happy with how the workbench top fitted to the base, I removed it. Those keen eyed blog followers will notice that I did not cut out the provisions for the leg vise when I built the base during the first phase of the project.
I did this on purpose, as at that point in time I hadn't fully settled on the leg vise chop and location of the vise screw (the build is not based on the wonderful Bench Crafted Split Top Roubo dimensions).

So I cleared the floor and laid the bench on its side.
I have the Bench Crafted "Glide M" vise mechanism. This is basically the standard vise they are famous for, comprising of a "ship's wheel" style crank and their "Criss Cross" mechanism to keep the chop parallel. The build quality is impeccable and fully justifies the price tag. It's worth it just based on this.
Note that BC sells 2 Criss Cross designs; One is designed for new bench builds, whilst the Other is designed for retrofitting to a bench. I purchased the latter, as it can be removed at any stage and used on another bench that may already be built. When mounted, both designs perform exactly the same.

The Criss Cross mortise on both the chop and the leg were drilled out with a forstener bit (a good tungsten tipped bit is best, as hardwood does very quickly dull/blunt steel bits).
I then excavated the rest using a chisel, rounding the edges over with my trusty old router.
The 4 holes to mount the Criss-Cross mechanism were drilled under size and tapped with to 5/16ths. The machine screws that mount to this are absolutely bomb proof.

The 1" diameter vise screw dictates a hole is drilled through the vise chop. I used a the same 35mm forstener bit as what was used to excavate the mortises.
A bushing is then set into and flush with the front of the leg, for lateral location of the vise screw. I drilled this out using a holesaw and router. It's recommended to drill this hole slightly oversized to accomodate a little movement and tweaking when setting up the vise, but if you are good with measuring, there is no need IF you factor in that the vise screw must be slightly off perpendicular to the leg in order for the necessary TOE IN of the vise to occur.
Wood Easel Tool Gas Hardwood

Above: My trusty Fein drill press has proven invaluable in its ability to come to the job. When drilling the hole all the way through the leg, I did ensure a block of scrap wood was clamped at the exit point of the drill bit to prevent any chance of nasty tearout- A 1/2 inch thick piece is sufficient.
Below: The hole drilled for the bushing using a holesaw, prior to me routing out to the depth of the bushing. Note 2 horizontal lines; one is the height of the exit hole at the rear of the leg, the other marks the entry hole at the front of the leg.
Brown Wood Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood


A tip I received was to pare a wee bit off the back of the leg where the vise screw nut is mounted, such that it is at the optimal angle for toe in. A couple of test fits as you go ensures the optimal angle is met without taking too much meat off the back of the leg.
I then rubbed some pencil on the nut and screwed it in place, clamped the vise a few times, then took the nut off to identify and eliminate any raised spots to ensure the nut was fully seated against the leg.
Wood Gas Workbench Machine tool Machine

Above: Test fitting is free! and saves the headache later on of fixing an error in measurement.

When fitted correctly, the sheer mass of the vise wheel acts as a flywheel and will carry enough energy to allow the vise to close from fully open with a single firm throw/spin of the wheel. If it takes several spins, you have installed the vise in a way that too much friction is present in the mechanism, perhaps due to misalignment.

Again Lady Luck was on my side, and the result was that the vice chop was about 1/2 a mm proud of the bench top, thus leaving me with only a small amount to plane off for it to be level with the workbench top.

I'd say, the whole operation took me perhaps 2-3 hours, but I am pedantic and this was my first time. Skilled folks could easily do it in less time.
Below: The finished fitting of the leg vise, viewed from the front left and right sides.
Wood Table Floor Flooring Hardwood


Furniture Table Wood Floor Flooring


Next step: The final touches/cleanup before I transport it to my place where I will varnish the bottom and oil the top.

Thus far I'm fairly happy with the result. I still have to build a shelf between the lower rails/stretchers of the bench, on which a 3 drawer unit will be mounted to store some tools. This will be done in the 2nd phase of the build perhaps a month from now or so.

The priority at the moment is to get the bench out of my father's workshop so that he can use the space to build some kitchen cabinets.

Stay tuned!

Cheers,
Siggy
Looks like a really nice workbench. Nice use of hand tools and machines. Great results. It will look great in an apartment.
 

Attachments

#26 ·
Applying finish to the bench

Well, what can I say folks. The last post basically covered the last of the chopping, drilling and gluing. Perhaps the next step is a little boring for some folks - applying the finish to the workbench.

I'll keep it short, as there is nothing about smacking a chisel with glee nor using an auger with the finesse of Haliburton's best directional drillers. My apologies in advance.

With the workbench structure complete, I sanded it all over by hand with 240 grit sand paper, removing the final pencil lines with a nice sharp card scraper.

For durability, nothing beats tung oil floor varnish. Heck, they use it for basketball courts and various other surfaces that are exposed to all manor of beatings. Here in Australia one of the best is made by Wattyl under their Estapol brand name. Brilliant stuff.
The idea is that everything, bar the actual top work surface would get several coats of this stuff. The more the merrier, as you really cant put "too much" on. So I acquired a good liter of it, as well as half a tin that I had left over from a previous project.
Fortunately my girlfriend's parents were away on holidays for a few months so I made use of an area of their house currently being renovated to do the varnishing in. This was great as there was no foot traffic and thus minimal dust as well as keeping the missus happy as our place didn't smell like mineral turpentine and varnish.
On it went, initially thinned at 10% mineral turps. Eventually building up to 8 coats over a 2 week period, and the grain just kept popping more and more with each coat.
Why did I do 8 coats? Simply to finish all the varnish I had, so it wasn't going to take up space on the shop shelf. That is the actual reason for so many coats.
Wood Rectangle Floor Wood stain Flooring


After the 8th coat, I let the whole thing stand for another week to really allow the varnish to harden.

Then I moved the heavy bugger back to my living room where it was assembled.
I then flattened the top with a joining plane, sanded it to 240 and then oiled the top with Livos universal oil.
The hardware is getting nickel plated to prevent corrosion. Only because I am an engineer by trade who loves nickel plated items such as pistons…vroom!

I still have to tweak the carrier/wagon portion of the tail/wagon vise (geez I don't know the correct terminology here). Essentially however the workbench is complete. The next phase will be to build a storage unit to sit within the rails, however I am in no rush to do so as I am yet to sort out a space in the shop to put the workbench.
I hope you enjoy the pics. Those taken with the hardware were just before i sent it off to the platers. So there will be nicer pics eventually to follow.
Brown Handle Door Dead bolt Wood


Bookcase Picture frame Wood Shelf Door


Wood Hardwood Tints and shades Varnish Wood stain


Wood Gas Tints and shades Symbol Circle
 

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#27 ·
Applying finish to the bench

Well, what can I say folks. The last post basically covered the last of the chopping, drilling and gluing. Perhaps the next step is a little boring for some folks - applying the finish to the workbench.

I'll keep it short, as there is nothing about smacking a chisel with glee nor using an auger with the finesse of Haliburton's best directional drillers. My apologies in advance.

With the workbench structure complete, I sanded it all over by hand with 240 grit sand paper, removing the final pencil lines with a nice sharp card scraper.

For durability, nothing beats tung oil floor varnish. Heck, they use it for basketball courts and various other surfaces that are exposed to all manor of beatings. Here in Australia one of the best is made by Wattyl under their Estapol brand name. Brilliant stuff.
The idea is that everything, bar the actual top work surface would get several coats of this stuff. The more the merrier, as you really cant put "too much" on. So I acquired a good liter of it, as well as half a tin that I had left over from a previous project.
Fortunately my girlfriend's parents were away on holidays for a few months so I made use of an area of their house currently being renovated to do the varnishing in. This was great as there was no foot traffic and thus minimal dust as well as keeping the missus happy as our place didn't smell like mineral turpentine and varnish.
On it went, initially thinned at 10% mineral turps. Eventually building up to 8 coats over a 2 week period, and the grain just kept popping more and more with each coat.
Why did I do 8 coats? Simply to finish all the varnish I had, so it wasn't going to take up space on the shop shelf. That is the actual reason for so many coats.
Wood Rectangle Floor Wood stain Flooring


After the 8th coat, I let the whole thing stand for another week to really allow the varnish to harden.

Then I moved the heavy bugger back to my living room where it was assembled.
I then flattened the top with a joining plane, sanded it to 240 and then oiled the top with Livos universal oil.
The hardware is getting nickel plated to prevent corrosion. Only because I am an engineer by trade who loves nickel plated items such as pistons…vroom!

I still have to tweak the carrier/wagon portion of the tail/wagon vise (geez I don't know the correct terminology here). Essentially however the workbench is complete. The next phase will be to build a storage unit to sit within the rails, however I am in no rush to do so as I am yet to sort out a space in the shop to put the workbench.
I hope you enjoy the pics. Those taken with the hardware were just before i sent it off to the platers. So there will be nicer pics eventually to follow.
Brown Handle Door Dead bolt Wood


Bookcase Picture frame Wood Shelf Door


Wood Hardwood Tints and shades Varnish Wood stain


Wood Gas Tints and shades Symbol Circle
Nice. Good pics too.
 

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