Sunday, March 28, 2010

ROUBO TOP

I decided to commence construction of the top - that way I can throw it up on a pair of sawhorses to get the glue-ups complete. The top will then serve as a work surface during the construction of the legs and stretchers.


Since the top will be flattened using hand planes, it is imperative that the grain direction of all the boards forming the lamination run in the same direction. This afternoon I set about determining the grain direction of each board by planing in what looked to be the correct direction and then checking for tear-out. I also measured the MC of each board and recorded the result on each board. It will be interesting to see how this changes over the next week.


The Rain Forest. The boards lying on the floor will become the top. The lumber in the background will become the legs and stretchers









Here you can better see the grain direction as I have marked them on the individual boards














Next weekend I will begin planing and truing the boards to size. The top will be in the order of 1,600 by 600 x 100 - so I expect handling it to be somewhat of a challenge - another good reason to complete the top first.

4 comments:

  1. Ok, cool! I will add this blog to my favorite, favorite's list and wait with bated breath for the next blog! Hey tell us more about who you are... Your profile is a little thin - does that mean you are too?

    A creep

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  2. BTW - that's me - the creep! Not you! You are super cool - what with all this wood and tools and stuff

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  3. Ow - can you suggest the best paint stripper - got a project to do and can't find the Mc Kennick (pardon the spelling) one that works like a charm - some of us get to restore old stuff - not work with pretty cherry wood...

    The ever popular creep (me)

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  4. I generally use the Jack's Paint brand stripper - works like a bomb! The Roubo is going to be made from common old garden pine - if it were cherry, I'd have to take a second mortgage on the house :-)

    ReplyDelete