Customer built roubo benches
Below are some cool roubo bench builds that folks have accomplished from my plans.
Roubo Bench home page
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Roubo Bench home page
Buy Shigshop Roubo bench plans
Deryl D.'s roubo
Deryl built his bench out of yellow pine, in my opinion, a perfect choice - inexpensive, great structural qualities, and soft enough so your nice maple/oak/cherry/walnut/etc. work piece won't get dented while working it - the bench will take the abuse! Plus, if and when it comes time to re-plane the top, it's not too difficult.
Some of his comments and pics...
" It’s only around 7’. I made square dogholes because I’m a square doghole kind of guy, lol. I also went with the end cap bolted on with some captured nuts. Only other real difference is the mechanical on the dogleg: "
And, regarding the leg vise mechanicals...
"That is steel angle painted metallic - not alu, by the way. The handwheels were from Grizzly.com, who had by far the best deal, with the handle holes already drilled and tapped. Thanks again for some great plans, and the help along the way. I really don’t deserve how well the vises operate - with a finger."
and
"The bench is $95 (2017) of yellow pine, cut out of 2x10’s. The Gap Stop/cap/parallel are all “Arkie Cherry” (edit: he slotted it for a convenient place to hang tools such as chisels and saws). The handles are turned pallet wood. I went with a shelf instead of the cabinet, as you can see the ledger strip. Another change was how I laminated the chop, and I added 1/4” to all tenons for no real reason. A major headache was not seeing your “if you shorten the height, take it from below the stretchers” - until after I took it out of the “middle”. Lots of needless math and brain cells burnt. Hardware cost was around $100-150 (acme screw was $50) and it cost me around $100 for a machinist to turn the shoulders/handle stems and fit the wheels/ drill holes for the split pins (dollars extremely well spent).
If I had to do it all over again, I would spend more for some better wood. The pine isn’t pretty, but - it is a workbench. (edit: you did it right, Deryl... and BTW, it is very pretty - if i was in the south, I would have used the same, up north, it's fir)"
Some of his comments and pics...
" It’s only around 7’. I made square dogholes because I’m a square doghole kind of guy, lol. I also went with the end cap bolted on with some captured nuts. Only other real difference is the mechanical on the dogleg: "
And, regarding the leg vise mechanicals...
"That is steel angle painted metallic - not alu, by the way. The handwheels were from Grizzly.com, who had by far the best deal, with the handle holes already drilled and tapped. Thanks again for some great plans, and the help along the way. I really don’t deserve how well the vises operate - with a finger."
and
"The bench is $95 (2017) of yellow pine, cut out of 2x10’s. The Gap Stop/cap/parallel are all “Arkie Cherry” (edit: he slotted it for a convenient place to hang tools such as chisels and saws). The handles are turned pallet wood. I went with a shelf instead of the cabinet, as you can see the ledger strip. Another change was how I laminated the chop, and I added 1/4” to all tenons for no real reason. A major headache was not seeing your “if you shorten the height, take it from below the stretchers” - until after I took it out of the “middle”. Lots of needless math and brain cells burnt. Hardware cost was around $100-150 (acme screw was $50) and it cost me around $100 for a machinist to turn the shoulders/handle stems and fit the wheels/ drill holes for the split pins (dollars extremely well spent).
If I had to do it all over again, I would spend more for some better wood. The pine isn’t pretty, but - it is a workbench. (edit: you did it right, Deryl... and BTW, it is very pretty - if i was in the south, I would have used the same, up north, it's fir)"
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Jim M.'s bench
Jim sent me a pic of his douglas fir bench.
Here are some of his comments:
"I built the Roubo bench from your plans last January (2016). After a year of almost daily use I have to say that I am quite pleased with it in every way. I kept to the plans for the most part, the slab is a bit thicker, the dead man is "Harp" shaped and the gap filler is skeletonized to hold hand tools. Thanks for your effort in the plans and making them available."
and
"On the wagon vise I pre-cut the bench top before glue up to minimize the amount of chisel work. I made several of the wagon vise chops before I was happy with the assembly, the glue up method worked better for me than cutting it out of one block of maple. The bench dog holes were drilled last after the slabs were planed flat in hope they would be somewhat perpendicular to the bench top.
and
"I have about $300 in the completed bench. I sourced the acme rod and nuts, chain, sprockets from eBay, That took a month or two until I found prices I would pay. The hand wheels are from Grizzly. All the other components were found locally."
$300 (2016) for a bench like this is incredible.
Jim looks like a pretty serious woodworker - check out that dust collector and wood tool cabinet... Love that sliding dead man.
BTW, Jim, those little shavings on the floor are a nice touch, I'm sure you made some massive piles of them.
Here are some of his comments:
"I built the Roubo bench from your plans last January (2016). After a year of almost daily use I have to say that I am quite pleased with it in every way. I kept to the plans for the most part, the slab is a bit thicker, the dead man is "Harp" shaped and the gap filler is skeletonized to hold hand tools. Thanks for your effort in the plans and making them available."
and
"On the wagon vise I pre-cut the bench top before glue up to minimize the amount of chisel work. I made several of the wagon vise chops before I was happy with the assembly, the glue up method worked better for me than cutting it out of one block of maple. The bench dog holes were drilled last after the slabs were planed flat in hope they would be somewhat perpendicular to the bench top.
and
"I have about $300 in the completed bench. I sourced the acme rod and nuts, chain, sprockets from eBay, That took a month or two until I found prices I would pay. The hand wheels are from Grizzly. All the other components were found locally."
$300 (2016) for a bench like this is incredible.
Jim looks like a pretty serious woodworker - check out that dust collector and wood tool cabinet... Love that sliding dead man.
BTW, Jim, those little shavings on the floor are a nice touch, I'm sure you made some massive piles of them.
