Workbench Construction Finally Continues

Well it has only been 7 months since my last post on the workbench construction. After packing to move, going back to Japan for a couple of months, moving into new home, unpacking and getting life back to normal again, I finally started working on the bench again. It was a little daunting at first as I haven’t touched a handtool in several months and I am not that proficient with them to begin with.

So anyway…

I really like the look of the “Roubo” style bench. I don’t think that my bench will meet the requirements of Roubo but I do want to incorporate some of the features. One of these features is the thru tenons and sliding dovetails into the bench top.

I start by marking the legs where I want to cut and where I DONT want to cut. This process of using a Sharpie to make a bunch of X’s is very helpfull.

Next, I begin by cutting away all of the X’s.

To handle the center waste, I just bore a hole near where the shoulder of the tenon is.

And then chop, split, whatever it takes to get that stuff out of there.

And this is what I finally end up with.

I still need to clean up some of the cuts before I go any further. I may get the nerve to cut the mating holes in my workbench top in a couple more months. After all that work, especially without the use of power tools, I am a little nervous.