10/8/2015
It was a wonderful day when I was able to move on to activities other than planing this past weekend. I first drilled out most of the waste from the massive mortises in the top with a 1″ Irwin bit and Stanley no. 923 brace (12″). Then followed the removal of the waste from the sliding dovetail part of the famous Roubo joinery.
This was the first time I used my new Bad Axe back saw on a project. It is not called a Roubo Beast Master for nothing. After doing damage with the saws and chisel, I used a router plane (Lie-Nielsen) and a Stanley no. 10 Rabbet plane to perfect the sliding dovetail mortise wall (unfortunately not pictured).
Next up was the chopping out of the standard mortise. You can see how my shop made saw bench doubles up as a seat at the chopping station.
Here I am in the process of fitting the legs. Non of them needed much persuasion to occupy their new home. I think these pictures also testify how well my bench handles these massive beams, which are currently in the order of 84 mm x 181 mm x 3300mm.
By Sunday afternoon, I assembled the bench in order to mark out the exact location of the long stretcher’s shoulders. I always enjoy this stage of proceedings as it is the first opportunity to really get an idea of what the bench will look like.
My father-in-law was so kind to help me, while enjoying the pleasant late afternoon winter sun.
My final task was to do the rest of the marking out of the tenons. They are now ready for the Bad Axe Roubo Beast Master. You might notice that the tenons are off centre by quite a margin. I deliberately designed them this way. These stretchers sit flush with the front of the leg so I decided to move the tenon as far away from the front edge as possible. This should ensure a stronger joint to the leg as there will be more timber left between the front of the leg and the stretcher’s tenon.
Good job on that massive joinery.
BTW love the decor of your shop with all these kids drawing and such, it sure personalized it, nice touch. Tell your young budding artists to keep up the good work 🙂
Regards
Bob
Hi Bob
Thanks again for the compliment, it sure was a wonderful feeling to assemble the bench partly after all the elbow grease. I collect all the my kids’ art in the shop, it is my inspiration and hopefully what I get up to in there will inspire them in future. One can only hope.
Thank you for your comments.
Kind regards
Gerhard
Hey Gerhard,
Your new bench is coming along nicely. This was a great post, you have some fantastic photos in this one.
Are the through tenons in the upper stretcher/leg joint going to be trimmed flush later?
Hope you are well.
Jonathan
Hey Jonathan
I am not sure my photos measure up to yours, but thank you for the compliment anyway. Yes, all the through joinery (which includes the aprons, short and long stretchers) will be draw bored, wedged and then trimmed flush after the glue-up. I used this technique on all the joinery of my first bench. It looks good (to me) and is incredibly strong. You actually create a much bigger glue surface with the through tenons and the combination of draw pins and wedges add immense mechanical strength. I especially like using the heavy (1/2″) draw pins, because then there are no need for clamps and the they close up those joints like a charm.
We are very well on this side. Please send my regards to your family.
Gerhard