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Traditional Roubo Workbench Plan

Woodworking Patterns

A heavy, mortise-and-tenon and dovetail-jointed woodworking workbench design based on plates published in Andre Jacob Roubo's eighteenth century French cabinetmaking treatise, L'Art du Menuisier, featuring a thick slab top, integrated leg vise and, in many modern builds, a tail vise for holding work steady during hand-tool joinery. Roubo (1739-1791) published his three-volume, over 300-plate treatise in 1774; the workbench design drawn from it saw a significant revival among hand-tool woodworkers in the early twenty-first century and remains a widely built benchmark plan for a serious hand-work bench.

Facts
Designer or Originator
Andre-Jacob Roubo 1
Origin
Based on plates in Andre Jacob Roubo's 1774 French treatise L'Art du Menuisier; the specific workbench plan saw a major building revival among hand-tool woodworkers in the early twenty-first century. 1
Distinguishing Technique or Result
A thick slab top is joined to heavy legs with pinned mortise-and-tenon and dovetail joinery, paired with a front leg vise, built to resist the racking forces of hand-tool joinery rather than machine work. 1
Connections

Associated With

Woodworking, Crafts

Tools Used

Jointer Plane is used in Traditional Roubo Workbench Plan.

Sources
1. Andre Jacob Roubo (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Introduction, third sentence, on Roubo's workbench design
    Another of Roubo's legacies still used today is a design for a workbench, which has proven to be popular amongst modern woodworkers.
  • Legacy paragraph, sentence beginning Another of Roubos legacies still used today
    Another of Roubo's legacies still used today is a design for a workbench, which has proven to be popular amongst modern woodworkers.
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