Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Ash log Roubo project 3, the undercarriage

With the legs all done and the short and long stretchers ready, I was ready to begin the assembly of the undercarriage of the workbench.

All the joints were drawbored, and I made a bunch of dowels for the project. I can't quite remember what size, but I think they were sort of 3/8" in diameter.

I used my homemade drawbore pins to test the fit of each of the joints, and they worked really well. Having made four of those enabled me to test both ends of a stretcher/leg assembly at the same time.

The long front stretcher was made with a triangular shape at the top, to accommodate a sliding deadman. I even remembered to make a slot in the front legs for the parallel guide for the leg vises before assembling all the parts!

I placed the top upside down on a couple of battens so I wouldn't mar the top in case there was a small stone or any other debris on the workshop floor.
The tenons and the mortises were lubricated with an old candle, as I didn't want things to seize up half way. The undercarriage was brought up to the mortises, and I double checked that the front of the bench top was also aligned with the front of the undercarriage before I began to negotiate the legs into place with the help of a hammer and a block of wood.

Slowly but surely the legs seated themselves in the mortises, and once the sound changed upon hitting a leg, I knew that they were in position.

The assembled undercarriage.

Checking that all parts line up.

Checking both sides.

Half way through.

About an inch to go. 




8 comments:

  1. You didn't use glue? How on earth can you be sure the top will stay on? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, I was afraid that it might not go all the way together, and then I would really be in trouble if I had used glue.
      Besides, I think (and hope) that it will be all right after all.
      It will also allow me to give it a few more whacks in case the top ever decides to shrink from the bottom. :-)

      Brgds Jonas

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  2. Looking good - and massive! Will be the pride of the workshop I can imagine when done

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ty.
      It is a bit interesting since the wood is rather fresh, so I expect that there will be some wood movement.
      I like that it is all made from the same tree.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. this is gonna be a massive bench, darn well fitting joint you got there

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bob,
      I have to admit that one of the joints for the rear legs isn't quite as nice, but it will still be up to the job :-)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. Replies
    1. Hi Mitchell

      Technically I could have used a sledge hammer, but I wanted to be able to maintain a bit of control during the process. So a 2 kg mallet was just the right thing.

      But once in a while it is nice to be able to beat to ones hearts desires without having to fear to break something.

      Brgds
      Jonas

      Delete