Roubo: Part I

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.