Roubo

[paulm2930]

I'm currently building a rouble bench and have a friend that is willing to
Machine me the tail vice parts copied from the benchcrafted stuff. OP
Would you help me out and measure the components of the benchcrafted
Rail and sliding dog block so I can get some made please? Paul

 

[cambournepete]

You want someone who has paid for the parts to measure them for you so he can get them made cheap or even for free...?
Is it only me who finds this cheeky at best and possibly illegal at worst?

 

[paulm2930]

It would only be illegal if I was to mass produce and sell them for commercial gain, that's not what I'm doing, I merely
Wanted to be granted a favour so I as an aspiring woodworker can progress, something that good forums like this one were designed for.
If the OP thinks its cheeky that is for him to decide and if he chooses to tell me so I will accept it. I'd like to think that many on here would have the same view as me, maybe not.
Paul

 

[Journeyman_uk]

Rather excited, it was a right job getting it off the truck but the delivery chap was fabulous.

 

[Journeyman_uk]

After a few months sorting out some family issues I got round to getting a van and picking up some ash from Somerscales in Lincolnshire, which has to be the hardest wood yard in the world to find. No signs, just locals telling me I was in the wrong yard.

Its all stacked in the workshop but it needs to be machined up a bit and put into stick before I pop off on my hols for a week.

The new combination machine is up and running but Felder did a poor job on cleaning it as I have had to take the combination fence apart and clean out all the crud in it, lubricate it and re-assemble. It is bang square and true now.

 

[Grahamshed]

Looking forward to the build, and a report on the combination machine.

 

[Journeyman_uk]

With regard to the combination machine its actually awesome. I was using scheppach before (HMS3200 two blade) and a TS2000 table saw which was a complete joke. I actually pushed it over once by accident while cutting some oak. The felder has the 2600 sliding table and sliding crosscut arm so its so easy to use. I have been in contact with Felder for a few years regarding machines and I never had the justification for buying one but im about to refurb kitchen bathroom and bedrooms so it makes sense to build it myself and save about 40k (I had to sit down when the kitchen planner gave me his price, I came over all light headed (not a lie!)).

I went to see Russel Jones at Felder and he told me about a second hand machine that had arrived and was as yet unadvertised. I went to MK and inspected the machine and we agreed a price, the items that needed refurbishing and put a deposit on it. He did say in January they could have it to me in two weeks but this turned into about seven as Austria seems unable to ship spares in a timely fashion. I paid for a new saw blade and scoring blade but they sent a 315 mm blade (it was specified) that wouldn't allow the scoring blade to be fitted. I ended up buying a 300mm blade for panel products to be used with the scorer so I wasn't too bothered. What did bother me was the spindle guard fences were damaged where a blade had dug in and they hadn't been replaced. I complained to Russell and he told me it didn't affect the safety of the machine and so as a gesture of goodwill a 10% discount was offered on a new set of fences. I will have to live with the old ones.

Moral of this story, get a schedule of repairs agreed in writing before you put a deposit on it but I am still a happy bunny. The combination fence was full of crud as mentioned and I will go over the machine and recheck all of the dimensions as per the commissioning manual just to make sure everything is spot on. The engineer that came up was excellent, a real credit to the company and got it dialed in and working.

Its the 240v machine and it seems to have plenty of power, the saw is frighteningly big, the planer leaves an amazing finish (quick change blades are a doddle and you don't lose a day of your life with a micrometer sorting out the cut). I haven't tried the spindle yet as I don't have any tooling but thats next on the list as I need to make some kitchen doors. I am off to Armstrong Jordans open day on the 17th May so I will be quizzing him about what to buy to make shaker doors.

I just need to get into workshop and make some holders of all the tooling on the wall next to the machine so I have somewhere safe to store all the bits.

 

[Benchwayze]

Marcros;

SYP is fairly plentiful in the Midlands, but I wouldn't say it's cheap. 8)

Enough for the top and the legs cost me around £300.00 from George Sykes, and after two/three years it's just about acclimatised! I will have to use some Douglas Fir too for the fol-de-rols (spelling!) like vice cheeks and sliding dead-man.

 

[Journeyman_uk]

Marcros;

SYP is fairly plentiful in the Midlands, but I wouldn't say it's cheap. 8)

Enough for the top and the legs cost me around £300.00 from George Sykes, and after two/three years it's just about acclimatised! I will have to use some Douglas Fir too for the fol-de-rols (spelling!) like vice cheeks and sliding dead-man.

Thing is, I just spend the best part of 700 quid on the hardware and plans and I want a reasonably strong wood to make the bench from, I think that SYP would be a compromise. Saying that if I wanted to show off I would have built it out of cherry

 

[Benchwayze]

I wasn't suggesting that you used SYP JM.

I was just commenting that SYP isn't so 'cheap' over here. I was going to use Ash initially, but as I wasn't going to spend a fortune on lovely gear like yours, I decided SYP would be okay, and also strong enough, according to Chris Shwarz's book anyhow!

But I am hoping you aren't making just one bench from all that timber. If you are then I should go out and order a lot more SYP!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Best of luck with the project.

 

[Journeyman_uk]

I wasn't suggesting that you used SYP JM.

I was just commenting that SYP isn't so 'cheap' over here. I was going to use Ash initially, but as I wasn't going to spend a fortune on lovely gear like yours, I decided SYP would be okay, and also strong enough, according to Chris Shwarz's book anyhow!

But I am hoping you aren't making just one bench from all that timber. If you are then I should go out and order a lot more SYP!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Best of luck with the project.

Your right you weren't talking to me , sorry about that. That's about what I'm going to need with about 4 boards left over for mistakes, unless I massively over ordered (which could be).

 

[Benchwayze]

Okay JM:

I ordered three boards, (each 16 feet long) of 12 x 2 SYP. I got two 6 foot boards from each of those planks, and converted to 18 x 6 foot 4 inches x 2". I shall need 12 of those to make the top 6 feet x 2 feet (approx) by 4 inches thick. That leaves 6 lengths, from which to fabricate the legs, into 6" x 4", with left overs for the tray at the bottom. The
Douglas fir will be used to make the fittings such as the sliding dead-man and the boards to make the tray. So in effect I bought 48 board feet of 12 x 2 SYP. I already had the Douglas fir which is in four, four foot lengths of 4 x 4 inch. Ample for the under-tray and dead-man. There will be some rub-jointing to do with the Douglas Fir, but I don't mind that.

If it needs any more timber, well that's my luck as usual! Or rather my bad planning! :mrgreen:

Do we have to keep on calling you Journeyman BTW? :wink:

John (hammer)

 

[gasman]

John your roubo almost exactly mirrors mine - same quantities and size of bench in SYP. I have not regretted making mine from SYP - it is fantastic
Good thread and good luck
Mark

 

[Doug B]

got round to getting a van and picking up some ash from Somerscales in Lincolnshire, which has to be the hardest wood yard in the world to find. No signs, just locals telling me I was in the wrong yard.

The best treasure is always the hardest to find :wink: :lol:

The machine looks excellent, a real beaut, I look forward to seeing the bench build & meeting you down at Bob's

 

[Benchwayze]

John your roubo almost exactly mirrors mine - same quantities and size of bench in SYP. I have not regretted making mine from SYP - it is fantastic
Good thread and good luck
Mark

Thanks Mark. I have to get around to it this year. My other half is slowly getting better and I can get more time in the shop. First though I have to finish the clear-out of junk! I am beginning to wonder though if the MFT I bought means I won't be using the Work-bench as much as I envisaged. Although I have an idea the Roubo might end up in its own shed, as a hand-work area. I agree, this looks to be developing into an interesting thread. A WIP plus a new shiny machine for us all to drool over! :mrgreen:

Keep that bench flat 8)

John

 

[Journeyman_uk]

got round to getting a van and picking up some ash from Somerscales in Lincolnshire, which has to be the hardest wood yard in the world to find. No signs, just locals telling me I was in the wrong yard.

The best treasure is always the hardest to find :wink: :lol:

The machine looks excellent, a real beaut, I look forward to seeing the bench build & meeting you down at Bob's

They were massively helpful though Doug when I finally found them and thanks to your counsel I got a good deal on the felder. Be nice to meet you too.

Call me David john or shorten journeyman to j, other way I been called a lot worse lol.

 

[gasman]

John I have an MFT as well - but in my opinion it is just not robust enough compared to the roubo
Years ago I tool the legs off and built cabinets underneath which contain all my Festool boxes and the extractor - there are lots of plans on the FOG website. I tend to use that as a finishing or assembly table - but the roubo is out on its own in terms of clamping ability, length, flatness etc etc
Good luck
Mark

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks Mark.
Fact is, anything has to be an improvement over my old work-horse of a carpenter's bench. It's been a good servant, but like me it's getting rickety!

Cheers

John

 

[Journeyman_uk]

Its been about 6 weeks since I managed to do any work on the roubo. When I bought the Felder Combi I needed to build some wall hangers to place the sliding carriage etc on so that took me a week on and off. I also did a weekend with Chris Tribe in Ilkley on his modern cabinet making course which was excellent. I then went back and did a full week on Laminating and Veneering which was awesome. I managed to have a full day in the workshop and started machining up the legs and lower and upper rails for the Roubo. I was having problems actually getting the stock squared up so after a lot of checking and head scratching I took a straight edge to the planer and found the problem.

When I bought the machine from Felder I was assured an engineer was going to service the machine and set it up to factory settings. What they appear to have done is not checked the planer knife settings. I thought I had the tersa block that was self setting but when I started taking it apart I apparently have the four knife block with quick change knives. These are supposed to be factory set so the knives presumably are parallel to the outfeed table and its checked by how many mm it picks up the gauge and advances it. According to the commissioning manual 2-3mm. Two of the knives didn't touch the gauge so presumable were not even cutting and one was moving it on the left side by 12mm and 1mm on the right. I had to strip the lot apart, clean and lubricate the grub screws and start again. 6 hours later I had a machine that was as near perfect as I could get. The planer now works beautifully and the result from the machine doesn't leave any knife marks.

Back to the bench!


legs have been roughly dimensioned and left to settle and then glued up.

The problem I have now is that the long rails are 46 inches long and somehow the wood I have for one of the rails seems to taper away at the end. I was being a bit ambitious trying to get two long rails out of a single plank but I thought I could get away with it. What I am left with is about an inch of wood that is about 2 mm thinner at the very end that it needs to be. Most of if will be cut away with the tenon but clever arrangement of wood will make sure its never seen and its not on my reference face.

Offending plank in question, part thicknessed.

Mark is where the tenon will be, so not much to worry about.

Long rail is dimensioned and now being cut square, flipped and then cut to length.

Finally legs are out of clamps and ready to machine to final dimension. If you look at the third leg down the cup of the end grain goes the same way. I decided follow Jim Kirkpatrick's roubo grain orientation and make sure that closest rings were face to face. This obviously would give a more even grain pattern on the outside faces of the leg. However there was a rather hideous knot on the intended outside face so this has been oriented inwards and hopefully isn't near any mortices etc.

Next job is to get the legs marked out and work out the best way to cut the deep mortices. I think its definitely going to be some new drill bits on order.

 

[SteveF]

keep it going

I am sure there are lots of interested watchers

Steve