Hello. I have now finished the mortise and tenons for the base and have them all fit.
Here are the two base assemblies put together. The assembly closest to view still needs a thin leg installed on its right side. You can see the tenons on top of each assembly which will be going into mortises in the bench top.
Here is a view of the leg assemblies from the Roubo side of the bench, with the front legs that will be flush to the bench top side and the tenons that will be mortised into the bench top. The leg on the left is the leg which will be tapped for a 2 1/2” nut for the leg vise. When I was laminating all the leg parts I had one which was an inch wider than the rest, so I used it as the leg which will have the leg vise.
Here is a close up of the tenon and a better view to see the extra width on the leg vise leg. This leg is 5 1/2” wide instead of 4 1/2” like the rest.
This view will be from the German side of the bench where the shoulder vise will be.
The design for my bench’s base is different from any other trestle style base I have seen, because since the back side requires the legs be flush to the bench top edge. So the design has the joinery in different locations and the stretchers and trestles arranged differently. The tenons will all be drawbored with proabably two pegs each.
The leg on the left is the leg that will be on the Roubo side of the bench and have the leg vise. So you can see, instead of the trestle going over the leg, the trestle has a tenon that goes in the leg. This way the entire face of the leg is exposed without the trestle being shown. I’ll mention again this assembly still needs a stretcher between the legs.
The leg on the left is the leg that will be on the Roubo side of the bench. Again like the previous picture, the trestles go into the leg instead of the leg inbetween the trestles like most trestle bases. I’ll mention again this assembly still needs a third thin leg on the right.
If anyone needs a better visual of the bench design, go back to my first Workbench blog entry where I have pictures posted of the bench’s design. The pictures are not exactly the same as the final bench because some dimensions have changed since then. I still need to go out and buy more material for the three stretchers, a thin leg under the shoulder vise, the leg vise chop, and a strip that still needs to be added to the bench top. From this point there is not much left to do.