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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

I love this little thing. Go buy one.

More info posted here. I know I'll be in line for one of these.

I opted for the Lie-Nielsen closed throat over the Veritas. I tried the Veritas at one of the woodworking shows recently and found the canted handles to be awkward. If you have a little downward pressure while hanging over an edge it can be tippy. The Lie-Nielsen's version of a Stanley gives you more stability... at least for me.

Milwaukee recently came out with the M12 model jigsaw. It uses the smaller 12volt stick batteries their other cordless drills use (at this point I think I have just about all of them). Seeing that I'm swimming in M12 batteries... I bought the tool only.

Its light, nimble and has plenty of power. It has an LED battery charge status on the side and an LED guide light. It also has a clear splinter insert and scuff pad for the base. It has now rendered the Bosch useless.

Its the perfect saw for getting into tricky cuts or repairs on cabinets piled up in the shop without draping a cord over everything. If your in the market for a jigsaw, forego the corded ones. You'll never look back.

Get the larger one if your dealing with heavier jobs... cutting scrolls in framing for pergola's etc. For cutting lighter 3/4" material in the shop or on the jobsite... the smaller, lighter M12 version is the ticket.

I was in a Woodcraft last week perusing the aisles when I looked up at the Wood River V3's planes. I opened up the #3 to look over. I was so impressed with the overall quality, look and feel, that I figured for that kind of money (compared to the Lie-Nielsen), how bad could it suck? I actually asked to look at the Lie-Niesen #4 to compare to the Wood River. Gotta say, very close. Granted the LN has an edge on refinement. But, very close. The LN had about a 1/4 turn of backlash on the blade adjuster, the WR had a 1/2 turn. So what.

I bought it, threw it on the back floor of my truck and forgot it... until a few days later when I was looking for something else to bring into the shop. I opened it up, cleaned off the grease, looked at the blade which seemed sharp enough, then proceeded to plow through some poplar and maple. I couldn't believe the shavings I got out of the box. So, to recap... big thumbs up!