The plan

The first drawing:

The first plan:

The Google-Sketchup-Plan:

So here are the features:

• body of a sturdy French Worbench (Roubo-Style) but with the left legs angled.
• a leg vise (angled like the left legs) because of restricted workspace on the left side.
• A channel alongside the middle of the bench (more clamping-possibilities and fewer gluing work)
• a planing stop and dogholes
• surface vise from Veritas

Woodcutting to Length

I cut the wood to desired length (170 cm) by cutting around the line with a mobile circular saw which cut 6cm deep.
So the rest (4 cm) i had to cut with a handsaw. Was easy and fast.

See the cracks?

The Wood

Now it's time to start!
I got four oak beams (26 x 16 cm, 2 m long) for my workbench.
The price was very good, the drawback are the numerous cracks on every side of the beams.
What to do?
Filling the cracks with epoxy, with wedges ... I wasn't sure about the solution.
So I wrote an email to Christopher Schwarz and he answered me!
While I was waiting for his answer I had the same idea as him: Butterfly splines ... so I started to make butterfly spine after butterfly spine ...