I have wanted a more traditional workbench for many years, well since The Wood Whisperer built his split top Roubo Workbench, which a traditional French design. Something about have a gap down the middle of my workbench for things like clamping or storing my tools just appealed to me. There are many different tradition designs on the market like the Nicholson Workbench, which is traditional English design. They are all a little different with different features but the foundation is the same on them. They have a thick sturdy base that holds a beefy top that can with stand hand tool work. The only thing that kept me from building it a long time ago is the cost and the super complicated joinery. So I set myself a mission and that was to simplify it without sacrificing some strength. A Split Top Roubo Workbench is usually built with pinned mortise and tenon joints and dovetails. I knew this would be something many woodworkers would build so I team up with my friends of at Kreg Tool to create the plans and have them reside on their DIY Project Plan Website BuildSomething.com. I opted to use a reinforced floating tenon. I use the Festool Domino because that is what I have but it can easily be done with multiple dowels or shop made floating tenons. I reinforced it with a Kreg HD screw. As of right now I left off the vises because again they are more complicated then what I wanted to get into and I will look for an alternative option later if the need arises. I did leave rabbits in my lower rails because I plan on building storage under it and will create plans for that as well. When it came down to picking material I designed this to be built out of 2x6x8 southern yellow pine (SYP). SYP is plenty strong and hard for a workbench and if you don’t have SYP in your area then use what is readily available. After all you want your workbench to dent before that gorgeous dovetail barrister bookcase you have spent the last few months building. Because I get an amazing deal from a local guy on Malaysian Acacia, I decided to build mine out of that.
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Okay so here is the link for the plans so that you can start building your very own Simplified Split Top Roubo Workbench for your shop.
* This post contains affiliate links & is being sponsored by Kreg. For my full disclaimer, click here.