Producing the Second Batch of Roubo Workbench Kits [Part 2]

Welcome to my backyard and my log pile. And welcome back to our production of the second batch of workbench kits. Last time we got a couple logs cut up, and today we’re going to keep going. We’re going to be making some bench tops. 

We have this log here to deal with this time, which is a very goofy one. It is a much larger log that split in half, and I’m going to try and get our workbench tops out of this thing in a radial fashion. 

First we have to fish this log out of here and get it over to the saw. 

This has to be up there on the list of the goofiest things I’ve ever had on this saw. This might be an interesting sawing challenge. About a 1/3 of the log is missing, so we’re going to do a little more manipulating here to get this thing lined up.

As a quick refresher, this is the end of the block that we’re trying to get to. I’m trying to saw these radially, so getting a couple blocks all the way around. Hopefully we get five bench tops out of this. There are some crotches on the other end of the log as well, but this log is also a bit longer than it needs to be, so I don’t think that will be a problem.

After getting it leveled out on the saw, we can make the first cut and remove the waste that’s sticking up in the air. 

I’m going to get one or two non quarter-sawn workbench top out of this section. I’ll make my full flat cut about 18-20 inches down from where I am right now, but to start out, I’m going to grab a piece of 12 quarter and then those bench tops. 

With that first slab off of there and a quick look up here, we have some rot, which isn’t a big deal but it gets a little bit narrow. So this isn’t going to make a wide enough piece for a bench top. Instead, I’m going to take another piece of 12 quarter off, and try to get two bench tops a bit lower in the log, which should actually be quarter-sawn.

Things are getting a little bit more interesting. So, this last one I cut and pulled off has a perfectly quarter-sawn slab in it. 

That’s going to make the next series of cuts particularly interesting, because they will need to be biased as in the picture above in order to be quarter-sawn. 

Normally I’d come in here and cut to get this one out of here, but that might also be hard because these quarters are deeper than I can make a cut on. 

As I’m thinking about how I want to make my next cut, here’s a look at the slab here. We’ve got a really nice crotch slab one here. It always saddens me to cut this stuff up in our work benches but, it’s all wood. But it’s pretty nice looking stuff, and this is going to be a beautiful work bench for somebody. 

In the interest of procrastinating what I’m going to do with my next cut, I’m going to go through and just finish processing these two bench tops. So, chainsaw and edging time. 

All right, let’s see how these first ones look. That’s a nice bench. Check out the nice grain on these things! The one on the right is the first one cut off the log, and it has a more of a rift sawn orientation. The one on the left is your premium quarter-sawn bench top. Currently it is 18 inches wide, should finish out around 16 inches, so that will be an XL bench top. These are close to 10 feet long, and these are going to be eight foot bench kits, so I will trim these down. 

So it’s been a couple of days, and I’ve given this a lot of thought. I think it’s pretty obvious what we’re going to do here. I’m going to try my best to cut this thing to preserve as much as possible. 

I’ve outlined my three bench tops, and I’m going to try to saw through without messing up the benches. This is a little bit risky, because I could either get five bench tops out of here or I could screw something up and only get two. So I’m going for broke I guess. I’m also going to straight line both sides. That way I have a nice straight edge for reference when I go to stand these up on the saw. 

So I’m going to grab the saw and say a prayer that this works out. 

It’s a few days later, so the weather has changed. But it’s time to finish cutting this apart. 

After getting one chunk onto the saw, I can start making my cuts to get the next benchtop out of here. 

Changed the orientation of the log to get the next benchtop.

Quick progress update. This guy here is going to be slab number five out of here. Might be a little bit narrow, but probably not much. 

This was the first cut today, which will be workbench number three. I’m going to edge this one, and then I’ll quarter the other chunk to get two more bench tops out of it. That way I can cut all the thickness cuts in one swoop. 

We got seven bench tops out of the big log, which is quite a lot more than I was expecting to get out of that! Some really nice, big, wide ones too. 

That’s going to do for this one. Thank you as always for joining me, I greatly appreciate it. For any questions or comments on the workbench kits, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’ll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. And until next time, happy woodworking!