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After a little tweaking of the mortise, the first leg went in. You can see a gap at the shoulder (it’s about 1/16″ now). That’s actually what’s left of the rough underside of the top. I’ll take down the middle hump on the underside and it should close right back up.

Assuming, that is, I can get the leg out of the mortise.

– Christopher Schwarz


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Showing 10 comments
  • Michael DeWald

    I agree with one of the comments above. It’s a workbench. It’s massive. The gap is very small. Wood this big is gonna move anyway. Leave it alone!

  • Ellis

    Amazing work. I’m really going to miss this on-going-bench-making-saga when you finish!

  • Steve Branam

    Oh, that’s just gorgeous! I’ve been thinking about building Roy’s small Roubo with its sliding dovetails for a portable bench, but this is definitely worth considering. These joints have such tremendous mechanical stability, will this even need stretchers other than to provide a rail for a sliding deadman?

  • AAAndrew

    I’m sorry. With all of that surface area to get right, to have just that little tiny bit of gap is amazing. I have a feeling that once you get the whole thing up and settled in, that gap will close all by itself. Even if it doesn’t, this is a massive workbench, not the finest furniture. But it’s your call.

    AAAndrew
    A strong believer in "good enough" which may be why I don’t do this for a living.

  • Josh B

    Very cool. I really like how that joint looks all put together. The cherry looks really good too, that’s really going to be a fine looking bench. Now I want to build a new bench so I can try that joint…

    Cheers,

    Josh

  • Christopher Schwarz

    You can knock down this joint fairly easily. Or you can glue it. I’m gluing it.

    Chris

  • Lyle

    Brilliant!

  • Will you glue up the joint also?

  • Bryce

    Nice. I was thinking about using that joint to attach legs, but don’t know if I can afford to have a bench that can’t be broken down for moving. It looks like if you put those together, then you don’t want to disassemble. Since your probably pounding the thing apart right now, what do you think?

    Thanks

  • Nate Hinkle

    Looks awesome!

    Nate

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