My Roubo's Vise...

The vise for my Hybrid Roubo is a prototype of a prototype. I first mocked up the basics with plywood before committing to maple. It looked promising so I went ahead with building it out of 8/4 maple... still convincing myself if it fails miserably, it was still only a prototype.

Turns out it was a complete success.

I finished all the parts, including the screw & nut (Lake Erie Toolworks), with two coats of Watco oil and a coat of butcher's wax. The nut is attached losely with Spax screws. It just has to be held in place to push the beam out while the vise is being opened and not torque sideways. Its left lose to allow for any wiggles, wobbles or wood movement. 

The pics should speak for themselves, but if you have any questions leave a comment.

 

My Roubo Build...

I never could bring myself to do any kind of abusive work on my Shaker Bench. It was just too nice to hammer up and drip glue all over, so I decided to move it down to the basement workshop (where it lives a more civilized life) and build another bench.

I settled on the Hybrid Roubo design that was featured on Fine Woodworking's site. Its your basic Roubo in looks & dimensions, but adds timber frame joinery along with knee braces. They use a Lie-Nilesen front chain vise instead of a leg vise.

I went with hard maple for both the legs and top. Next time I would use poplar for the legs. Its just too much work making these joints in hard maple.

I chose to leave the through tenons on the lower rails proud. I'm not using a leg vise, or a front vise that extends over the leg so I don't see this as an issue... for now.

I went with a box beam vise design I adapted from one shown in "The Workbench Book" by Scott Landis. It works incredibly smooth. I'll probably be making a seperate post on its construction.

The bench measures in at 36 1/2" tall, 25 1/2" wide and 72" long. She tops out at just under four hundreds pounds.

Click here to see the picture gallery.

Here is a quick video of how smooth and quiet the vise is...

Woodpeckers Micro Adjust & Carter's Magfence II...

Picked up a couple things at The Woodworking Show in West Springfield Mass this weekend. First up is Woodpecker's Micro Adjust. Its made for their router tops and fences. I have one of their tops & RF3 fence on my shop built table. Its a simple bolt on affair and makes sneaking up on adjustments a snap. Basically you set the rear bar parallel to the miter gauge slot in front, then tighten the rear bar down (make reference marks). Losen the knobs that set the fence, make your micro adjust, lock the fence. There is enough travel to accomadate most bits without having move the rear anchor bar. Also solves the issue of going out of parallel everytime you move the fence for adjustment. One thing that would be awesome is a quick release button on the threaded adjustment screw so you could leave everything in locked in place for bit changes. Otherwise, its a very solid, robust unit. Well worth the money.

I suppose you can retrofit this to your setup & table by drilling alignmnet holes in the rear anchor bar to match your top, then figuring out a way to attach it to your fence. 

 I also grabbed Carter Products Magfence II. For the show's special price they included the higher Sacrificial Wear Fence.  Everything seems to work as advertised. Set it in place, turn the knobs and its locked to the table. You can make micro adjustments by tapping it with a mallet or chunk of wood. You don't have to worry about it while sawing... it doesn't move. It responds to a good rap, but I couldn't move it by pushing it.

Hanging Tool Cabinet...

It was time to make a wall cabinet to keep things organized.

Once again I utilized mostly scrap laying around the shop... 3/4" birch plywood, FJP crown molding, #2 pine beadboard and some cherry. I painted the plywood cabinet, used sanding sealer on the pine beadboard and tung oil on the cherry shelves.

Shaker Armoire (reclaimed)...

Had an old store bought Armoire from one of those unfinished furniture stores. It was kind of a non-descript knotty pine cabinet with big wood knobs, overlay doors, 1/8" masonite back, plywood overlay drawers that ran on a flimsy center rail that was stapled to a failing face frame. A thick top with an ugly band molding under it. I decided it needed a face lift.

I ripped off the face frame and replaced it with a beaded frame. I ripped the doors down so they'd be inset and rehung them with euro hinges. Then I routed a profile on the top to thin out the looks and made up a smaller bed mold to go under the top. I replaced the back with 1x6" pine beadboard. The drawers were beyond help so I made new ones out of 3/4" pine. I used 1/2" MDO for the bottoms. I rabbited the bottoms to fit in a 1/4" dado and used some left over self closing slides. Very solid affair now.

Everything was from left over material. The new pine needs some time to discolor and catch up with the old. Haven't decided if I want to put a finish on it, or leave it.

Few pics of the face lift...