Endcap work on the Roubo

  • Posted on: 7 November 2016
  • By: Jay Oyster

Cutting the workbench endcap tenonGetting the shop up and running again has been a bit of a slog. Even getting the table-saw outfeed table into my shop turned out to be a major undertaking. Still, I've gotten the basic shop together, and started work on the workbench again. I didn't take many pictures beyond what I'm showing here, but I am making progress again. I managed to get about 3 hours of shop time this weekend. The first in a very long time.

I cut the tenon for the endcap, so I can start working on the wagon vise. Doing this cut with the circular saw turned out to present some challenges. The straight edge I clamped on the end on which to run the saw to cut the cheeks, slipped . . . on both faces. So Instead of a rectangular tenon, it turned out to be more of a parallelogram. I had to fix that with hand planes and hand saws, and ended up with a tenon that is a bit thinner than expected. Still, the fine work was satisfying, and I got back in touch with my hand tool mojo. Still need to drill out the end cap mortise and figure out the layout of the wagon vise. 

Not shown here, but I did figure out the spacing of the legs on the bottom of the benchtop, which is important for laying out where the face vise and the carved front edge lay. I still plan to carve the Robert Frost quote in the front edge. However, I have decided to get rid of the tulip shape of the front vice chop. Too fiddly. I just want a vice that'll work.


Cutting the tenon on my newly liberated outfeed table
Woodworking