Just another Roubo

Yet another Roubo bench in a sea of Roubo's. Mine isn't much different from the others but I did do a more traditional tail vise and the wife splurged on a pretty cool bonus for me.

This bench has been in the planning and buying stages for the last two plus years. I think it was two years ago I received my vise hardware for Christmas. The cool seat my wife got me a year and a half ago for father's day. The oak, I managed to grab for about $1BF a couple years back. The eucalyptus are just pieces I've had but the leg vise is a piece I've kept around for exactly that purpose due to it's thickness and size. Probably had that for three years now or more. So this was a long time coming for sure.

Last Father's day my wife went crazy and splurged big time on a gift, we were supposed to go to Hawaii and then Handworks this year but both fell through due to the current global epidemic. So instead of Hawaii, she bought me a Shaper Origin and we probably still saved money in the end. With that said, I figured I would see what this thing could do on a big project like a new workbench. It definitely answered the call. Mortises, tenons, vise hardware, inlays…made the job pretty easy. Even though the Origin isn't the fastest tool, it's accurate and pretty cool to use really. So I let it do the work. I also don't have a table saw so doing the tenons with the Origin was a treat over using the bandsaw or a handsaw.

I didn't seem to capture pictures of making the mortises but the cool thing about the origin is you can choose what you cut from the design on screen. So for the tenon I can choose to cut the outside of the middle section down to whatever depth I need and then use the same file and choose to cut the inside section. I ended up making the mortises about .005 larger than the tenons so they would slide in nice.

The vise hardware was decided by the quick release in the Hovarter gear. I would have been pleased to go with Benchcrafted but I like the quick release. I do have some Benchcrafted hardware in there I'll cover later. 

I used two of the Hovarter leg vise kits on this bench. One was a leg vise and the other I transformed into an old school tail vise. I had to do a lot of metal work top make the slide for the tail vise but it was well worth the time. I use that vise more than the leg vise. 

Here are some in progress pics of the vises. 

The Benchcrafted portion of the hardware is the swing out seat for when I'm doing small work at the tail vise. Again, another lovely wife purchase. It is actually one of the best features on the bench, I'm happy she got it because I wouldn't think I would like it so I wouldn't have spent the cash but super pleased with it. 

Under bench storage. Small shop problems get solved by putting storage literally everywhere. 

Here is my solution, drawers in the front and storage in the back. I saw the wood whisperer had something similar so I studied his and built this one. 

I think that's about it. Hit me up if you have any questions.