Ruobo Bench Construction

I've seen this countless other places but I like it so I'm posting it here. An inside look at Roubo's workshop or a typical shop of the period. Also includes details on how the benches are constructed.

1769: André Jacob Roubo, L'Art du Menuisier Paris, 1769-74.

Building A Secret Door

Something I've always wanted to do. This video is very informative. Lots of good step-by-step instruction and it's given be some good ideas.

Big thanks to the original poster for taking the time to post it.

How To Build a Hidden Door on Howcast

Stanley No. 45 Combination Plane

I love this plane. Picked this up online not long ago and I have had the chance to test it out. Works really well and is very well taken care of for being over 100 years old. I think it dates to around 1895 if I'm not mistaken. The box that it came in is made of chestnut and is still in pretty good shape too.

The plane came with a couple of extra hollow/round attachments for the bottom along with the cutters. Haven't tried them out yet though.

Here are a couple of sites for more info on the tool.

Toolemera Press - for a manual of the 45 Combo plane.
Hans Brunner Tools - general info regarding most Stanley planes.

click the "Read more" link to see some more photos...

Roubo-ish Workbench - Finished

When I first began building this back in March I had posted a couple of blog entries and had planned to do more as the build progressed. Unfortunately that never happened and now here we are at the end of the journey.

Personally I would rather spend the time in the shop than sitting in front of the computer blogging about my time in the shop.

more photos after the jump...

Stanley No. 4 Smooth Plane

Here is a Stanley No. 4 smooth plane I picked up from the same place I found the No. 8 Jointer.

Handplane Essentials - Book Review

Handplane Essentials by Christopher Schwarz
First I want to say that I'm in no way associated the author of this book or the publishing company. I'm simply a woodworker giving my honest opinion about a product I've purchased and want to share my thoughts. Maybe this will help another woodworker make a decision on whether or not to purchase the same thing - maybe not.

This is a beautifully published book. All black and white (duotone or tritone - haven't checked with my loupe yet) photos. A lot of good information organized into various categories including some reviews and historical articles.

One thing that I wasn't expecting however was the fact that most of the book seems to be an aggregation or reprints of past magazine articles previously written by the author. If you are someone that has read a lot of the articles written by the author you may be disappointed. That is really the only negative I can find about this book. But for me it doesn't take away from all the great info contained within. I've read it through and often find myself referring back to it when needed. I'm not sure if this is considered companion material to the Handplane Basics DVD but the two work well together in my opinion.

New Workbench - Part 2 - Beginning to Build the Top

I ended up buying some 2x12x8 Southern Yellow Pine on sale for the top. For now this is a better alternative to using some of the reclaimed oak I've brought home recently. I'll save that for future furniture projects down the road a bit. Final dimensions of the top will be 6'x2'x2.5". I know for some the thicknes may not be thick enough but for me it's a balance between budget and the type of work I do.

The 2x12's were ripped to 2 1/2 inch widths, marked for grain direction and surface planed to make them all the same thickness. Sorry, no jointer as of yet, not a perfect solution I know but I have to make due with what I have. Each of the 2 1/2 inch strips are then glued up in sets of 4 to make 4 large individual sections. Those individual section will then be jointed with my No. 8 Stanley and then surface planed to uniform thickness. Then they will be glued in to one large piece that will eventually be flattened with the jointer plane once they are attached to the legs.

The photos are from the a glue up of one individual section and one section that has already been glued and jointed.