Roubo Workbench Top Is Flat and Square!

I have nearly finished the planing on my workbench top, and I timed the ends off with a hand saw to bring it down to 6 feet long and square up the ends. The top is now flat, but still has some marks I need to plane out.

I was quite careful about sawing off the ends of the bench top, even using a speed square to check the saw blade. The results were OK, but not perfect. The over all bench in now square with in 1/32" and I am quite happy with that. However, the ends, while square across the width of the top are not very square in the thickness because the saw blade wanted to wonder despite my best efforts to keep it straight. Damn! It's not the end of the world but it will make mounting a end vise more difficult.

The photo above should clear up what I was saying about the ends being out of square through the thickness of the top. The line across the top however is nice and square.

So there it is 6 foot long and 20 1/2 inches wide. The next step is to start constructing the legs. I am unable to find any beam or post 6" X 6" at a local lumber yard. So, I have decided to laminate the legs using 2 x 6 pine boards. What a hassle, but it must get done so I can begin to cut the tenon and dovetail that secure the legs to the top. Once the legs are attached to the top, I will do a little more planing to remove saw marks from the top of the bench. I'm not going to do to much work on the top because the grain is not straight, and is very difficult to plane. I have been getting lots and lots of tear out on the top that I don't like, but there is not much I can do about it. Lucky 4 me, this is a workbench not a dining room table so some roughness on the surface is acceptable. 

Doin It Old School

I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but I am building this bench entirely with hand tools. No bandsaw, no tablesaw, no jointer, no planer. When Mark cuts my slab out of an Ash tree it will be cut using a huge power saw. But that is not inconsistent with the way things were done in the 18th century really. People like Roubo would have purchased a slab from a sawyer who used a power saw driven by a waterfall or steam.

For those who may not be familiar with the kind of tools needed to build something like a workbench here is an overview.

Above we have a No 7 hand plane used to flatten the bench top. Other planes such as a No. 4 smoothing plane and a No. 5 Jack plane are also used in the process. The brace and auger bits will be used to hog out waist material in the mortises as well as drilling holes for putting dowel pins in the tenons.  

Here we have my bench chisels, mortice chisels, and various back saws.

This is a photo of my vintage hand saws made by Henry Disston & Sons company. One rip cut one cross cut. I really wish I had a larger variety but ya gotta go with what ya got sometimes. 

Above is a jointer's hammer to assist in assembly of the project, a pair of winding sticks to help determine if a piece of stock is twisted and in need of planning. And a large protractor with a pair of dividers for doing layout work.

I am sure other tools will be involved in this build but none of them will have a power cord attached!