Split top Roubo bench on a budget

[Farmer Giles]

This has been an expensive conversation! Two rasps on their way......

A 250mm 9 cut cabinet rasp and a 200mm long, 8mm diameter round rasp, cut 12

 

[AndyT]

Well, you've had nearly five years to save up!
I'm sure you won't regret getting the rasps.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I have a flat Narex rasp, far better than others in my tool box, I'm hoping these are better still

I bought some leather off-cuts for the vice jaws, I think I may get the missus to make a roll for the rasps, too good to throw in the drawer!

 

[shed9]

This has been an expensive conversation! Two rasps on their way......

A 250mm 9 cut cabinet rasp and a 200mm long, 8mm diameter round rasp, cut 12

Which one did you go for, Liogier or Auriou? Would be interested in your feedback if you went the Liogier route.

 

[Farmer Giles]

They are Liogier, I can provide feedback but can't compare them with any other hand cut rasps as these will be the first I've tried

 

[shed9]

They are Liogier, I can provide feedback but can't compare them with any other hand cut rasps as these will be the first I've tried

Looking forward, you won't be disappointed . I've heard nothing but positive views of them. Just interested from your perspective of moving more to hand tools. In a similar position myself, invested heavily (for me) in stationary machinery and power tools but find myself moving to the bench and hand tools. I made a decision early on to get the best I can afford where it makes sense. Auriou and / or Liogier was an obvious choice when it came to rasps. They are a pleasure to use and the lack of fine dust is bonus.

 

[Bm101]

I'm now thinking about how to shape the vice chop. It's a lamination of walnut and douglas fir over 75mm thick. I'm not going to do anything wacky with the shape, a pretty standard flat topped "keyhole" shape like the benchcrafted bench below.



My thoughts are to make a template out of MDF, screw it to the inside face of the chop after cutting most of the waste away on the bandsaw. Then use a bearing guided template trimmer in the router table. The first cut will use the template, subsequent cuts will use the work piece that has already been trimmed.

I don't have a 3"+ router bit so it will be at least 2 passes, probably more. I believe I have a bearing guided 1/2" shank cutter. Not sure it will stick out of the table enough so may need another cutter with a bearing on t'other end and flip the work over. Pity I'm not near the workshop until Friday. Wealden do sell a 75mm 1/2" shank bearing guided trimmer but it's out of stock and a bit steep for one job.

Cheers
Andy

Andy. I think my bench and yours are at about the same stage although probably vastly different standards of work I would think. Both are long term builds that have to get fitted in between other things it would seem. When I get a bit of time off at the moment I'm having a bit of time away from the house and consciously made an effort to try to finally finish the bench. Doesn't always work but the Monkey is a little closer to being caught.

I cut the leg vice for mine really early in the build for some reason. Confused and out my depth. (not much changes ) . I was just getting into hobby not diy woodwork. Lot going on. Much concern about stuff I have hopefully moved on from So laminated some cheap hardwood together and I cut mine with an electric jigsaw. Worked okay. I got away with it but its worth a mention. Especially with those new files you have. I'd rather like to try one of those files out.

Been (back) down the shed to take a pic of the vice leg.
Include a couple more recent ones because why not. About as close to a WIP I will get at my standard of work.

 

[Farmer Giles]

That's brilliant! =D> I wish I had used hardwood now, the Douglas fir is a bit soft, especially for the top, I guess I have plenty to plane if it needs it so probably moaning unnecessarily. Your joinery looks great to me, nothing wrong with it and I like the shape of the chop too.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I bought some leather off-cuts for the vice jaws, I think I may get the missus to make a roll for the rasps, too good to throw in the drawer!

Leather rolls are not very good when it comes to rust as they hold any humidity touching the tool. Depending where you store them it's worth a thought for something you might not take out regularly.

 

[custard]

Been (back) down the shed to take a pic of the vice leg.
Include a couple more recent ones because why not. About as close to a WIP I will get at my standard of work.

All looks really rather good to me!

=D>

 

[Farmer Giles]

I bought some leather off-cuts for the vice jaws, I think I may get the missus to make a roll for the rasps, too good to throw in the drawer!

Leather rolls are not very good when it comes to rust as they hold any humidity touching the tool. Depending where you store them it's worth a thought for something you might not take out regularly.

Good point They arrived this afternoon, they are packaged in plastic tubes so may keep them in there. I haven't had time to try them out yet, hopefully at some point over the weekend I'll get some time. I messing about with table saws and reorganising/tidying the workshop tomorrow so probably Sunday.

 

[Ttrees]

Leather rolls are not very good when it comes to rust as they hold any humidity touching the tool. Depending where you store them it's worth a thought for something you might not take out regularly.

+1
No matter how many bottles of various oils you pour into leather tool rolls, the tools still rust and will be dry because the leather drinks and evaporates the stuff.
I've found blonde coloured suede from me mam's auld coat to be less destructive, but its not that great and expensive to be going through that much oil.
Probably to do with the way their manufactured/tanned I suppose.
Wooden boxes with plastic shopping bags anymore for me, if I'm making any more tool protection solutions.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I have a secret weapon to prevent most rust now, at least the kind caused by condensation due to a quick change of temperate leaving my lathes and other big cast machines covered in water. I have installed a pellet boiler, heat store (500 litre tank) and thermostat. At the moment I just fix the temp around about 7 celcius when I am out and turn it up to around 10c when I'm working in it. Here you can see the before and after, I turned it on around 18th Jan, after fixing a boiler power supply issue. I've included outside temp as a comparison.

Once I get some humidity detectors in there and experiment with dew point calculations I hope to be able to control the temp a bit closer so I just keep ahead of condensation to minimise running costs, currently in this cold snap its running at about 15kg of pellets a day. But I should only need it about 2 months a year, maybe 3 months max. When the background temp was hovering around 3 to 4c 15kg was lasting a couple of days.

I find about 10 to 12c is the perfect workshop temp depending if I'm sawing/planing or marking stuff out. The rest of the time it sits between 6 ad 7c. It may sound expensive but the way I look at is that I don't smoke tabs, I drink in moderation, I enjoy working in the workshop and your only here once so I spend a bit more on heating so I can enjoy the workshop in the winter.

Cheers
Andy

 

[MikeG.]

........Once I get some humidity detectors in there......

There's a simple hand-tool project for you on your new bench. A wooden hygrometer is the work of an afternoon.

 

[AndyT]

........Once I get some humidity detectors in there......

There's a simple hand-tool project for you on your new bench. A wooden hygrometer is the work of an afternoon.

But can you fit a USB port onto it?

 

[Farmer Giles]

Dad's taxi is having a break until this evening so, back on the Roubo bench

I have the two tops on now, so I shall be planing the saw marks out of the side an adjusting the gap between the tops as the tops have changed shape ever so slightly and I now have a 2mm difference in gap between the two ends.

I did a test with some scrap of the same thickness wood as the top, i.e. 110mm, and drilled a 19mm and 20mm holes.

The two bash down holdfasts that Ireceived from santa a couple of years ago work in both. The Sjoberg screw type holdfasts are both useless in both. So I am going with 20mm holes and getting rid of the Sjobergs, I can probably get them to work by rebating the holes from underneath so the top doesn't appear as deep but not too fussed, I have other options and I think my neighbour will probably take them off my hands.

Next is dog hole spacing. I thought it may be useful to make a partial "parf" table pattern of holes. My HNT Gordon tail vice has a travel of just over 150mm so dog holes need to be a maximum of 150mm apart. The parf guide system sets the holes at 96mm apart, so that would mean a series of holes on the front edge every 96mm. I could double the spacing elsewhere, every 192mm sounds OK. I shall go and have look and a think.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you have a small morticer, drill stand or anything like that position your holdfast holes so you can bolt it through them - kill two birds with one stone. I can bolt my drill stand down so I can swing it out over the vice.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I didn't get much done on the bench today, but I can see that it's coming together and it shouldn't be too long now.

I fitted the second top then fitted the vice chop and hand wheel so I could sketch out the shape the chop will look like. It's only now that I realise how big and heavy it will be

Tomorrow I aim to shape the chop, route the slot for the sliding deadman and plane the sides of the tops so they are flush with the legs and the gap between the two tops is even.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

The weekend didn't go according to plan, too many visitors to get much done. However I did make a bit of progress. First the saw marks in the front of the top, for some reason this got quite a few score marks. I had the top planed and cut to size at the nearby joiners shop as he has bigger saws and PTs, but the tops wouldn't go through their sander. You can see a few marks in this shot, some were about 2mm deep.

So out came the Clifton No6, I got this about 10 years ago, I really enjoy using it.

lovely shavings

Once I had that under control, while I had the top off the bench I routed a 36mm deep 16mm wide slot underneath for the sliding deadman.

I started marking up the tops for trimming to size and the vice chop for cutting and that was the end of the weekend.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

A bit more done over the last two evenings, firstly turn a recess for the handle thrust bearing with a boring bar. It's bronze so cut easily.

I'm pretty sure this is phosphor bronze, a bit brighter than the handle even when it's not just been machined, however I have some patination fluid for copper based alloys somewhere......

Try the bearing, I only want 1mm sticking out so dust ingress is kept to a minimum

Then back to woodwork, I wanted to get that out of the way in case I needed to buy any more bits of metal stock or bearings but I think it will be fine.

Next, trim the tops to size. A bit big for the mitre saw but it will cut most of it. I adjusted the level of the top with the rising table of the pedestal drill.

The saw has a big cut but not that big

So used a Japanese style pull saw to trim the rest, only took a minute, not much to do.

Then finished them off with the block plane and sander. While they were off I also drilled the pilot holes for the big lag screws that hold the tops down, I marked the holes with a transfer punch through the top stretchers before removing the tops for trimming.

After that I started on the shelf under the top. It would have been easier to do this while the tops are off but apparently I like to bang my head :roll:

And with most of the boards fitted, just one to fit around the far legs then a bit of width adjustment.

Next is the tail vice fitting. I'm thinking of using water based poly on all the undercarriage and Osmo Polyx hard wax oil on the top, vice chop and deadman. This means any bit that tends to get wear and tear as part of its duty can be refinished more easily.

Regards
Andy