Thread: Roubo workbench planning

I went to the Gungahlin one as I live in NSW just over the border. But work out near Fyshwick so can easily check this out on Monday. Good to know thanks for the heads up


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So turns out that the panels I purchased have been phased out. They were 19mm thick. I have a photo of the packaging that I placed in this thread. They now have heaps of stock at 22mm thick identical everywhere else but now instead of $50 are $110.

Blows that idea out of the water. I'll go back to 100ish X 40 lengths. At this stage I'll be making it out of a hardwood that I'll space out the purchasing and truly take my time. Or something like Oregon that I can source from all over.



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Get the rubberwood ones.

They are much cheaper and the timber is unbelievably hard.

Originally Posted by delbs

So turns out that the panels I purchased have been phased out. They were 19mm thick.
They now have heaps of stock at 22mm thick identical everywhere else but now instead of $50 are $110.

Blows that idea out of the water. I'll go back to 100ish X 40 lengths. At this stage I'll be making it out of a hardwood that I'll space out the purchasing and truly take my time. Or something like Oregon that I can source from all over.

Calculate the per cube cost of your proposed wood

By my calculations, on a per cube basis, 100ish x 40 Tassie oak is still around 3-4 x the cost of the 22 mm thick FJ panels.
Remember at anything less than 130 wide you can't rip the boards in half to create a bench that is thick enough to use a hold fast in. So although you end up with a thicker (and therefore more massive) bench, the cost for the timber starts to rapidly escalate.


Remember Chris Swartz's mantra -- cheap wood is good, if you need more mass just make the top a little thicker

Whilst I've been busy and haven't selected stock material for my top yet I did get around to installing this carbatech vice. Now I can begin planing the legs and rails to make the bottom half while I continue looking for top stock

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I used New Guinea Rosewood for mine, it came out pretty good. And it’s hefty as all get out.
The Beast Workbench Design walkthrough of custom timber workbench - YouTube

So I think I've finally found my bench stock. Whilst I was considering a variety of hardwood options I had collected 100x100 Oregon stock from a friend for legs which were on my timber rack

Then I was considering the Tassie oak panel option from bunnings but each time I went to buy more couldn't bring myself to it thinking I was making the wrong decision.

So I held out and today went to this 2nd hand building supplies place in Canberra and found these 3 X Oregon beams at 2m X 240mm wide X 100 thick. They're old and definitely dry so I'm excited to begin planing these back and joint together using my dowel max.

Might find some Jarrah pieces to dovetail on an end but I'm happy with this find. So far my bench material costs for timber have come to $200


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Originally Posted by riverbuilder

I used New Guinea Rosewood for mine, it came out pretty good. And it’s hefty as all get out.
The Beast Workbench Design walkthrough of custom timber workbench - YouTube

Fantastic bench build love the look of the rosewood and wheel setup great job.

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Hi D. Oregon is my favourite species of timber. Great choice. Recycled can be a bit splintery and sometimes there are brittle spots. Are you plannning to use 2 of the beams in their current size as a split roubo style top?

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi D. Oregon is my favourite species of timber. Great choice. Recycled can be a bit splintery and sometimes there are brittle spots. Are you plannning to use 2 of the beams in their current size as a split roubo style top?

Agreed. It's nice to work with. I've removed the nails from one of the beams and begun to clean it up. I believe some of these nails were made to never come out haha. Had taken significant effort to remove the two large ones deeply embedded

I can see this is flat sawn. Structurally it's fine and it's dry but when I lopped off the end to clean it up it split apart as seen in the photo.

Is there any benefit to ripping these boards to re orient them and laminate ? This would allow me to rip all three and make equal widths for a split top

Or do I not bother and leave the grain orientation as it is and just flatten it over time if it wants to warp up on the sides again

Loving the colour through once scrubbed down

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Hi D. Ripping to laminate will help avoid the checking, give you a more stable grain orientation and a slightly thicker top. You have also got me re thinking about possible use for a big chunk of Oregon I have.

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi D. Ripping to laminate will help avoid the checking, give you a more stable grain orientation and a slightly thicker top. You have also got me re thinking about possible use for a big chunk of Oregon I have.

Thanks for that. So I've measured it (originally the seller and i guessed) so I'm working with 260mm wide X 90mm thick.

So whatever length I rip I rotate 90 degrees to laminate so the grain is quarter sawn orientation?

I think this would be my best bet to do for all three and that would be able to provide enough for the split top I'm looking for



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Easiest option at the moment seems to rip one of the 3 lengths in half and laminating each half to the other two. this will give me a 390 laminated x 90 for two sides of a split top. question is, if i dont rip and rotate to laminate whats the worst case movement? cupping that i may need to plane down over the years. i need to measure the moisture in these tops but they seem pretty dry and well supported when i apply an end grain vice perhaps out of jarrah or some other hardwood.

Let the bench top clean up begin!

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