Split top Roubo bench on a budget

[Farmer Giles]

Hi Chris, sorry for the late reply.

its Geenix sawmills, north cave, about a mile off of the M62, 15 miles from Hull.
The Old Saw Mill/Crosslands La, Brough HU15 2PG
01430 425550

Karl is a very helpful chap. I haven't spoke to him for a while and owe him a reply on some yew I enquired about, a mate of mine makes long-bows and I fancy a bit to play with.

I haven't started the bench yet, too cold in the workshop and I'm busy on writing software for my home heating controls and preparing to install a wood pellet boiler for the house, I can do both of these in the warm

Regards
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

Well its been 2 years so the douglas fir should be about ready for the bench now, I can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel in terms of DIY jobs, I have a small window of opportunity before I start the extension on the youngest daughter's bedroom when the weather improves. I still have the workshop to tidy up including making a stock stand for long metal and wood stock and swap out the motor on my bandsaw, so while I'm doing that I have started to look at what other tools I need.

I have a few sash clamps and heads, but I think I am a bit short for the bench lamination, so I thought I would try out the 3/4" BSP Bessey pipe clamps on Amazon, delivery is a bit dear but 4 clamps for £88 is not too bad, just need to nip down and get a bit of threaded conduit.

The plan is to get the bench top laminated in the next few weeks then slowly tickle the rest of the project along during the year between other house/farm jobs. I want to get it ready before I start on the oak dining table that I have had the wood drying out for a similar period, I'm sick of working on a collection of workmates and bit of ply.

 

[custard]

I'm interested how you can tell the oak will be pippy before you've planked it?

I've met foresters and estate managers who have Oak nominated and cultivated as pippy while it's still growing. In today's short term, instant gratification world the time horizons of forestry can take your breath away, I believe the view within the Forestry Commission is that Pippy Oak has a fashion cycle that peaks every thirty or forty years and is currently quite high, so they try and encourage Pippy stocks within parcels that are scheduled for felling during those cycles.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I'm still finishing off the router table, building a bedroom extension, putting up some stock fencing in the field, putting a roof on the field shelter and re-assembling the tractor engine and have a day job but hope to get the timber for the top sorted soon. It's a split top Roubo so I was hoping to get the top through the PT in two halves but it has a max width of 250mm so may not be practical I'll check the plans.

So I can take the top down to the door and window place nearby and buy them a drink if they put it through their big PT and their belt sander or get some winding sticks and get the hand plane out. I have a 4-1/2, a 6 and a 7. I haven't planed anything this big in area before and I'm sort of wanting to do it but the alternative also seems attractive with my current workload. Decisions decisions.....

 

[Farmer Giles]

Game on.

I've cleared enough space in the workshop to start and thought I would start getting the legs and top glued up while I continued the tidy up of the workshop.

However, for the legs I forgot that I had the douglas fir cut so the legs are in one piece. The legs will come from big lumps of 6" x 4", I shall stick them through the PT to get them down to 5-3/8" x 3-1/2" as per the benchcrafted plans. The plans are in imperial so rather then convert I shall just use it.

The rails will come from some 4" x 2" and the top from some almost 5" x 2" that I had cut. I forgot I had given the sawmill detailed cutting instructions, it was over 3 years ago when I started this

Here's a sample of timber, it isn't a shake on the side of the big timber, just cobwebs. It has dried nice and straight as I had it stickered up quickly.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I've chopped the legs down to length and now taking them down on the PT to 3-1/2" x 5-3/8", or just over to allow for any additional shrinkage and finishing. Probably all I have time for today unless I can sneak out later

 

[Farmer Giles]

A bit more done today, I got all the legs down to width and depth on the PT, only one small error that I recovered from.

I noticed that one leg was planing up out of square, like a trapezoid, and I only noticed it when I was very close the finish depth. It was only a gnats out but I do like a square leg, it would show up on the mortices and make subsequent machining tricky.

Usually I would use a steel rule or similar under the work on the side needing to be skimmed to true it up as it went through the thicknesser, however I didn't have a rule long enough or thin enough for the legs so glued a couple of bits of heavy paper onto the edge needing lifting with a glue stick, worked a treat. I could have used the planer but it needs setting up properly, one table is not square with the fence and one is and I didn't want to spend the day on the PT today.

Then I cleaned up the morticer. It has been out for a loan to a neighbour and just needed a bit of TLC, nothing much. I tested it on a bit of scrap and will practice the mortices on the scrap first.

Time to take the dog and the kids for a walk, next task is to take the legs down to length and cut the tenons on the RAS.

Cheers
Andy

 

[ColeyS1]

Coming along nicely ! I like your method of squaring up the leg, job well done !!!

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks Coley

Did I mention that the mortice chisel attacked the back of my finger twice while cleaning it up, only a scratch but I should have taken it out however even when your working not cleaning it is easy to catch yourself on the chisel.

What do people use to protect themselves from mortice chisel rash? I'm thinking of a muzzle made from an old plastic bottle top and some knicker elastic

 

[sundaytrucker]

How do you find that Dewalt P/T? I have considered picking one up a few times in the past but just not found a huge amount of user feedback on it.

 

[Farmer Giles]

How do you find that Dewalt P/T? I have considered picking one up a few times in the past but just not found a huge amount of user feedback on it.

I think it is pretty good, however I got it for a song many years ago so my expectations weren't high. A friend sold it to me for 50 quid, he got divorced so it went into storage and when he did get a new missus, she wanted a town flat so no room for woodworking gear.

I have only really used the thicknesser in anger, I have never got around to setting the tables for the planer up properly, it doesn't look difficult, maybe I should pull my finger out and get it done.

Thicknessing is fine, no chip collection of any description though. Quite well built for the money.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Fitzroy]

I have the same P/T. Thicknesser is ok, planer is not built that well, aluminium tables and a bit short. It's ok for anything under 4' but over that I had to knock up some table extensions. The table mechanism for raising/lowering is not the best design resulting in lots of backlash. The outfeed table is adjustable but does not move so you have to get the knives set spot on height. It's got a good width on it though and the motor is well powered. Chip collection is possible but you need to build a connection device yourself. I paid £250 for mine and think it's ok for that money. Replacement knives are c £20 from a few different eBayers, which is pretty cheap.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I've been a very naughty boy and bought the benchcrafted criss-cross solo for the bottom of the front vice. I was going to make on as its not difficult but the amount of work the missus has lined up for me means I need to take a short cut as I actually want to use the bench for the work she has line up.

It will still be a cheap bench, this is the only luxury I'm going to spend on.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Slight change of plan. I decided to select all the timber I'm using in the bench and cut it to rough size so I can get the rest of the Douglas Fir out of the main workshop as I want to put set of steel shelves where the timber currently is so I can continue to tidy up. I've cut all the rails and I've started on the 2" x 5" that will be laminated to make to top. I need 12 of these and I had 16, I rejected 3 that had lots of knots, the others are fairly knot free and the ones that aren't will be hidden inside the top laminations.

I should finish sizing in the morning, including the massive bit of 9" x 3" for the vice chop. The I will resaw the top timbers down to just over 4" and put them through the thicknesser. A neighbour wanted " a few shavings" for his ducks. I think I'll have about 4 bin bags full before I have finished

The idea is to get all the timber to the right width and depth so most of the waste is out of the way, then have a good clean up including installing the new shelves and getting some boxes off the floor before starting mortising.

Here's the timber for the top, the 3 on the floor have been cut to length plus an inch, the rest is yet to do, got to go and help the kids with their homework and put them to bed now.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I've been a very naughty boy!

I was on t'internet late last night when I accidentally pressed the buy button and filled in all my shipping and purchading details, how careless of me!

I bought a HNT Gordon 150mm tail vice mechanism. It's small and perfectly formed. I looked at the screw I bought 3 years ago for this and realised it was far too big. As I'm timebound on this project and this tail vice is easy to install with just a rebate I parted with some more readies. I guess this project is becoming less budget conscious by the minute

 

[AndyT]

That's nearly as nice as the one n0legs made!

like-a-tail-inset-vice-thingamajig-yes-it-s-n0legs-again-t104576.html

 

[Farmer Giles]

n0legs' vice is a thing of beauty. I have all the gear to make this stuff, just not the time, very frustrating.

I currently have half the roof off the back of the house as we are building an extension, and the weather has been appalling so I spend more time dragging tarps over holes and emptying buckets than I do wood or metalworking plus I'm on light duties due to a recent op so only doing a couple of hours a day.

On the bright side, the workshop is slowly getting tidy and I'm making a bit of progress on the bench.

 

[sundaytrucker]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[Farmer Giles]

In the interest of saving time and effort, I have decided to make the top a tad thicker. The benchcrafted plans stipulate 4". The timber I have is 4-7/8" rough sawn so I will take it down to about 4-5/8" when it is planed up.

Here's a couple of pictures of the timber end, the sap wood on one of the timbers will be hidden in the middle of the laminates and will be breadboarded where the tail vice is and isn't visible at the far end. I did take one down to near 4", I will use this for something else and replace it with another I have.

For the vice chop, the plans show 2-1/2" thick and 9" wide at the top. My timber is just under 9" wide and is 3" rough sawn, so will end up 8-3/4" and 2-7/8" thick, here's the timber I selected, I had a bit with no sap wood but I like the symmetry of the grain more on this one and the sap wood will be removed as the chop is paddle shaped.

Cheers

 

[Farmer Giles]

A bit of a mixed day, I managed to get all the top boards through the PT in the 2" dimension so I can think about lamination glue-up, but made a school boy error in cutting them to rough length first. There was always going to be one or two slightly bent ones that didn't sit on the outfeed stand as the board exited the PT roller meaning a slight divit is taken out of the end of the board. I thought chopping a foot of the boards first was a good idea as it would reduce the amount to plane. However now I have a few boards with slight cutter marks in them in the part I want to use, if I had done this before cutting to rough length I would have been golden.

I can work around it, just annoying. #-o

Looking at the timber I have, I can't get a full bench without at least a couple of small knots in the top. I could hide them by drilling random hold down holes, but I won't Because of this, I'm not going to plane both sides of all the timber down to a thickness, in additon some boards are slighly bowed in the 5" not 2" dimension and if I stick it through the PT the bow will remain due to the length of board. So I am thinking of using a router sled and flattening the top and bottom this way instead. However, this is plan B, plan A is ask the woodworking shop below me to shove the two glued tops through their big Wadkin PT then their sander :wink:

Plan C was glue 3 laminations, about 6" of the top, stick that through the PT then marry it to another 3 of a similar thickness and glue up. Then do the same with the other half of the split top. I shall sleep on it then call the workshop tomorrow to see if they are willing to put the top through the PT.

The other issue was grain direction, ideally the direction should be the same on all laminations to make subsequent levelling once the top gets worn easier, However the grain changes along several of the boards, I think I will skip this and assume any future flattening will be by other means. :roll: