Roubo Workbench - Part I

There is always a long, and ever-growing, list of projects to get on with in the shop, and sometimes the hardest thing to do is decide what is next.  I have wanted a new workbench for some time now.  While I have been in the process of honing my skills with hand tools, I have discovered that my work holding options are far too limited and quite unstable.  Back before the cabinets, and tool chests and other projects, I bought the Benchcrafted Split-Top Roubo workbench kit.

It comes with a tail vise, a leg vise (front vise) and the hardware needed to install them into a French style woodworking bench.  They also came with a set of large scale drawings.

Once the cabinets were out of the shop, it was time to start!

The first choice that I had to make was the type of wood to make the bench out of.  You want something strong, that will last for generations, but you also want it to be stable, easy to work with and not too expensive.  I narrowed my choices down to 3 materials

Soft Maple- Almost the default material for large benches.  It is very strong as well as being in the middle of the hardness range.  This is good because when making hardwood projects, any dings or dents will happen to the bench and not the workpiece.  It is also a very attractive wood with a closed grain.

Ash- Another good choice, and more cost effective than maple.  It has a strong grain, almost like that of oak, but it has similar properties in strength and hardness to maple.

Southern Yellow Pine- Very cost effective choice, but difficult to find in the grade of lumber that I was looking for.  Any Home Depot or Lowes in Houston have SYP 2 x 12” boards, but they tend to be full of knots or warped beyond recognition. While quite soft, it is very strong, which is why they build houses out of it.

If I had been able to find appropriate SYP, and I tried, I would have used that.  But eventually, I gave up looking for clear boards and went and loaded up on Ash.  About 150 board feet of it!

Workshop Tour

There is a long, and ever-growing, list of projects to start, complete and finish when you start woodworking.  I currently have written 2 blog posts about a dining room table that I haven’t touched in 2 months.  Currently I am working on my new workbench (more on that to come in a blog post later in the week) but I recently completed the 13 foot counter top and took the opportunity to clean the shop.

Very early on, I had a request to give you all a tour of my current set-up… so here we go!

I currently live in the middle of the suburban sprawl that is Northwest Houston.  We rent our house, so the modifications that I make to my set-up have to be superficial at best.  We have a 2 car garage, which has held not 1 vehicle since moving into the house, and it is my shop.

I also currently share the garage with 2 refrigerators (half of our current supply) and ongoing projects.

The main tool that takes up a lot of floor space is the table saw.  It is a 10” Delta contractors saw that I bought off craigslist about 2 years ago.  The guy was selling an entire shop worth of small delta tools, and I bought everything I could afford off of him.  It was a 6” Bench top jointer, a Planer (that I have replaced) and the saw.  I have added an outfeed table to the back with some adjustable feet, and I have an assembly table that can handle outfeed duties as well when working with long or unruly stock.

Underneath the table I hide my minimal dust collection.  I have a Ridgid shop vac connected to a cyclone dust separator.  Neither is really adequate for the amount of dust I produce, but my tools are currently not in a great state for dust collection anyway.  It serves its purpose for the time being, and that is to be adaptable.

On the East wall of the garage I have multiple items:

Stock storage, both solid lumber and sheet goods

Band Saw (due to it being the only 20A Circuit)

And my grandfather’s drill press

Also, a set of cabinets that were originally for my beer room… that have become storage for my air compressor and miter saw

Above the cabinets there is a pegboard to hold some odds and ends, mostly drills, sawblades and straightedges.

The drawers of the cabinets hold some drill bits and safety gear.  There is also extra hardware from projects I have built and torn down and extra when buying in bulk.

On the west wall I have 2 tool boxes that I built that hold the majority of my tools. 1 is for power tools, they used to be out on a shelf, but once I got pneumatic tools, I was worried about dust getting into them.

 My most used: Routers, Jig saw, Nail Guns, and Biscuit Jointer

SANDERS!

Saws, Circular and reciprocating

And the other is for everything else.  I had a small set of tools, and there were tools contributed by my better half, but most of these tools were my grandfathers.  

There is a drawer for everything, for example, 1 drawer solely for hammers. 14 hammers. (What am I going to do… throw them out?)

This wall also has a pegboard, but it only holds clamps.  I also built a rack for my pipe clamps of varying heights.  I was mocked at first for the sheer size of my clamp collection… until they were needed then I looked like a GENIUS.

The Oak hanging cabinet was my original home for hand tools, and it still has some of the stragglers.  I will keep it filled with something, but for now, I don't know what.

Below the pipe clamps is the flip top tool cart with my sander and planer, a router table and a storage bin with sand paper, tool manuals and some other things.

On the north wall I have the 2 fridges, one currently being hiding behind my Dutch tool Chest (LINK)

Also on this wall are my finishing supplies.  Paint, finishes, stains etc.

At this time, the heart and soul of the shop is my assembly table.  It is where I do most of my work.  I clamp pieces to it to work on them… and it mostly holds them.  This is the next area to upgrade.

All said and done, it is a nice shop.  I really enjoy building things, especially when I can do the work effectively with my own two hands and no power tools, and the shop allows me to have a place to do that.  There are some needed upgrades.  A new workbench is the highest and current priority, some organization for the power tool drawers, and better dust collection.  Some things will have to wait until I am no longer renting.

Art Room Cabinetry- Finale

Last weekend I was able to install the final piece of the Art room Cabinetry project!  It was a long time coming, but it looks fantastic.

After letting the finish cure for more than 2 weeks, it was time to install the counter-top.  The final tally for the finish was 12 coats of oil-based polyurethane on top of 3 coats of oil/poly mix.  I wanted to make sure that it was fully cured before installing as I knew it would get some good use right off the bat.

The first thing that was needed was a little trim.  I purposely left some extra overhand on the front for the off-chance that I might need to cut this thing right down the middle to remove a board or any other random occurrence that might happen.  So when everything went smooth to the end, I needed to take off about an 1 from the front.  This was going to be hairy.

I needed to run the top through this direction as I only have a fence that goes out to 29” and I needed the depth to be 30 ¼” so I had to run it through with the front on the fence.

I recruited a helper and put up a roller stand to try and keep any movement to a minimum.  We went through a test run with the blade retracted, and when I was as ready as I could be, we went for it.

It went with no hiccups at all!

On to the next challenge… transporting a 13 foot long solid walnut counter-top 30 miles in a  8 foot truckbed.

I used some ash boards to support it to keep it from moving as much as possible.

We ended up having about 4 feet of hangover, so I stapled some flags, and we were off!

As soon as we got on sight, we made the final length measurements and cut the rough end to size with a circular saw. Then we slung this thing up the stairs, and it ‘fit’ on the first try!

You can see a little area of the wall that needs retouching… luckily the owner of the house was on that end and the blame can fully rest on him!

Everyone knows that drywall is not very straight, well in this case, over 20” it dove away from the counter by nearly ½”. 

This meant that the counter-top was actually sitting too far to the right by ¼” and the 1/8” overhang that I left was now a 1/8” under-bite.

This will take a little manipulation of the trim pieces.

With all the drawers and most of the stuff in the cabinets pulled out, it was time to attach.  The rear of the cabinet got screwed in and then the front got slotted to allow for the expansion and contraction of the top.  Since the boards have been sitting in the driest part of the year in my shop, I assume they will continue to grow over the summer.

Then all that was left was the trim.  I set up a miter saw out on the truck and fit all the pieces, 1 by 1.  They are both glues and nailed.  It took a bit of manipulation to keep them aligned with the top across the entire length and I had to use more nails than I would like, but from the door, you will never be able to tell.

I also added a quarter-round to the back and sides to hide the uneven wall gaps from the drywall.

Nothing left to do but decorate!

The client was very happy with the results and the final trim piece has already been delivered with the removal of material to account for the lack of overhang.