After much deliberation, and essentially procrastination, I have decided I need a hand tool bench. And now I'm on my way.
Originally I was going to build Bob Lang's 21st Century workbench, as I viewed myself as a hybrid woodworker. Over time, I have developed my hand tool skills, and find myself spending less and less time using power tools. When I saw the Split-top Roubo, I decided that was the bench for me. Add to it that the WoodWhisperer just finished building one, with detailed videos (and discounted vises), and the clock started.
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| Wood for bench in front of lumber cart. |
I ordered the vises from Benchcrafted in July, they got here a week or two ago, and I decided that they would look better on a bench than in boxes on the floor so I went and bought (not quite enough) a bunch of 8/4 soft maple. After wrangling that home in the Subaru, I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the size of the project (see word 6 of this post).
In addition I have a bunch of other (significantly smaller) projects that I have been putting off. After mulling around Sunday morning trying to figure out what I should work on (instead of plopping down in front of the TV) I finally balled up and started the bench.
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All my scraps shims were farther away than my screwdriver |
I figured I would start with the top, since its big, and can get in the way for the rest of the build. As I looked at the boards 9+" wide, they all had a slight cup. To save thickness, I wanted to rip them in half first. Due to recent experiences ripping long boards on the table saw (a potential future post about the past) I decided that was a bad idea, so I turned to my Disston (4.5 TPI, 0 rake, minimal set). I only which Lee Valley made one of these for saws (maybe next year):
Veritas® No-Fuss-Tool Shroud.
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| 4 boards ripped in half |
After 32 ft of ripping I had 10 4.25"+ boards in just over 2 hours, I was pleasantly surprised. I used my standard approach to jointing. Use a cambered jack to get the boards to lie flat on my bench, then send through the thickness planer. After getting the other face parallel the whole length I started flipping the boards. Since they don't all have to be the same thickness, I just took off enough to get all the rough cut marks off, and of course the 2 faces square and parallel. What I ended up with was 20" of flat boards, enough for the front and back top glue-ups.
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| Thicknessed, and ready for the next session |
Next chance I get I will joint one edge with my No. 7, then to the table saw to square the other edge. Then I need to decide whether to glue up 2-3 at a time or all at once. The trade-off being accuracy/waste vs time.
