Workbench Wednesday – #15 (2015) Laminated Roubo, Part 2
NB: I think I am back on track to resume a “normal” blogging schedule. I spent much of the evening Monday and day Tuesday getting the new compewder up and running, loading it with my every day programs and importing a quarter-million files from my external hard drive archive.
PS Apparently while I was away WordPress “improved” their template, making it nearly unusable for me. I have come to think of web application designers as (functionally) sadistic swine, sitting in their cubicles of antisocial isolation and thinking to themselves, “I guess the users must have the hang of the current version by now, so it is time to change it and make it useless again,” while rolling ball bearings in their palms and muttering about strawberries.
With the core of the laminated slab assembled and glued I measured and cut the laminae that incorporated the mortises for the legs. I had already prepped nd assembled the legs so “making” the mortises to fit them snugly made the whole project easy, quick, and very high-performance.
The final three laminae on each face, the ones housing the leg tenons/top mortises, were glued in place and the legs driven into the mortises, which fit perfectly since all the amina for the top and the legs were prepared identically.
With the legs inserted and the whole assembly upside down I added the face-mounted stretchers (diagonal deck screws) for the bottom shelf.
Now it was ready for the legs to be trimmed to length, then turned upright to cut the slab to length and trim the protruding tops of the leg tenons.
I planed the top flat, installed the shelf, and before you knew it I had a finished bench core.
This unit now lives up on the fourth floor, in the video studio.
Back in the olden days the strawberry muttering was generally done by a BOFH. See this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_Operator_From_Hell
Remind me again what you used for this bench. Was it SYP construction lumber? That’s harder to source in Minnesota so if and when I build another bench it might have to be fir, spruce or whatever they put into those sticks of lumber that week instead of SYP.
Thanks Don!
Yes, I as using SYP for this bench and many others. I have a source for almost select grade construction lumber in Fishersville VA, about 80 minutes from here. They sell 24-foot 2x12s and will cut them to 8-foot lengths for me. And, since they are pricey (~$60) they help me pick through the pile to get the best ones.
In general a high quality workbench can be made from any good quality lumber that is straight-grained and will not split with use. My Nicholson retrofit from a few weeks ago was made with left over construction lumber purchased at a DC area home center. I promise you it was not select SYP. Next week’s Workbench Wednesday will feature a Douglas Fir Roubo belonging to a friend of my SIL out in NorK. I have several c. 1915 Douglas Fir beams (5″ x “12” x 14′) that will someday be made into workbenches.