[Workbench] Legs and Stretchers

There is little to say about laminating, planing, and gluing up the legs and stretchers for the Roubo workbench, but that is what has been happening. The only note I have really made is that the inner boards, which make up the tenons, should be planed to exact finished dimension but th outer boards should be left fat so that they can be planed in the end. This is probably obvious to someone who has done this kind of thing before (or is smarter than I am) but it did occur to me after the first leg, so only one of them might be a few hairs under spec; the rest are good to go at 5" square.

Not photographed because there is not much to see yet is the vise chop which I am making out of wild cherry lumber. It will be much thicker than most, because I intend to create a mortise for the roller guide to slip into (a la Jim Tolpin).

I did use the tablesaw to chamfer the track for the sliding deadman. Every time I use that thing, I think "I do not want to do this anymore". I should listen to myself at some point, but I still suffer thinking that powertools are faster. It may have been, in this case, since it took just a second to set it up and cut the two chamfers, but I was tense and uncomfortable the entire time. Planing, on the other hand, is fun and relaxing. Maybe I should just sell the tablesaw and be done with it. "But what if I need to install another floor someday?" I ask myself... Even I do not relish the thought of ripping dozens of floor boards by hand. Renting might be the answer here.

Here's the front stretcher, with deadman track, glued up:

Anyway, the legs are essentially complete, although the tenons need a little tuning despite using nailed-on spacer blocks to align them. They also need to be trimmed to length (or is it now "height"?).

Here are some legs:

Next up will be boring holes and mortises for holdfasts, vise, stretchers, and parallel guide in the legs. Then the front and rear stretchers will be installed, and then the side stretchers.

All of the planing has made quite a pile of dust. The wood-loving mushrooms in my yard are going to have a very good year: