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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Pint Size Roubo

My third workbench project has started in earnest.  Since the word 'pathetic' is to damaging to my ego, I'm going with Pint Sized Roubo.  She'll be about 22" wide and only 58 inches long.  The saving grace is that this bench is coming in under 200 bux in material (so far).  She is for sale for $600.00, though anyone interested may first wish to see the construction photos as this build progresses.

Why the petite dimensions you ask?  Well, pragmatic as always, I scored a hunk of Ash about 11" wide, 3+" inches thick, and just under 10' long.  This hunk of Ash split in half is the bench top.  The legs will be treated pine 3X5's after dressing on the jointer and planer.

There is a not so interesting anecdote surrounding the legs.  I happened upon a construction materials salvage yard outside of West Plains Missouri about a year ago.  They had a tall pile of treated 4"X6"X15' boards at 15 bux each.  All I needed was one to get all four legs of this planned bench.  The kids weren't happy as I made them help sort through the pile in search of one without the plinth in it.  On the same trip I scored a Shipleigh hand saw with so much set you could roll a dime down the teeth.  I had to use the saw to break down the long board for the trip home; the wide set was perfect for going through the wet treated pine.

A Summer in my makeshift solar kiln, dry Winter, and dry basement storage has brought the legs down to just under 10% moisture content.  They milled nicely on Machine Day (see below).  The top machined just as nicely this morning--though I have been waiting 2 years to get to this point.

In retrospect, I should have purchased enough of the treated pine to construct a massive Roubo.

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