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Benchwright
Sources

The bench · French, 18th century · 1769

The Roubo bench

A thick top on four plumb legs, with the top, legs and front stretcher in one plane so work can be clamped anywhere along the front.

Set it out

Front elevation243840640612713721626801127102102470275
End elevation55912730564801
The bench as the sheet first draws it for a maker of 1780 mm, in Scots pine (European redwood): 2438 mm long, 559 mm wide, 801 mm high. Front and end elevations at one scale.

History

The bench is named for André-Jacob Roubo, a Parisian joiner who described and engraved it in plate 11 of L'Art du menuisier. The title page of that part is dated 1769 and calls him "Compagnon Menuisier". He names the bench "the first and most necessary" of the joiner's tools and describes it as a top, four legs, four rails and a bottom. His fittings are a planing stop, eight or nine holdfast holes, three more in each front leg, a wooden crochet on the front edge, a drawer, a rack and a grease box. The leg vise he mentions only as a cabinetmaker's press that joiners had not adopted.

Roubo did not invent it. Christopher Schwarz traces the same heavy timber-framed form back at least to a Hieronymus Wierix engraving of about 1580, finds it across Germany, England and France and in Shaker villages, and warns that it is a mistake to label every such bench a "Roubo". It is a joiner's bench, for doors, windows, trim and plain casework, more than a cabinetmaker's.

The modern revival dates from Schwarz's yellow-pine version for Woodworking Magazine in 2005, followed by his slab-top cherry bench in 2010, benches in French oak in 2013 and the fully laminated Anarchist's Workbench in 2020. Will Myers built his in red oak in 2011. Benchcrafted's Split-Top Roubo is the best documented commercial descendant, though it draws mainly on Roubo's later "German" bench.

The sizes this sheet opens with are Schwarz's 2020 bench, because it is the most completely measured modern design, with Roubo's own joint between leg and top. Each rule marks Roubo's own figure, in pouces and pieds, and names the other documented figures beside it. Schwarz read Roubo's pouces as inches; the true values are about 6.6 percent larger (1 pouce is 27.07 mm).

What plate 11 shows

Plate 11 is a perspective engraving of the inside of a joiner's shop. It has no scale. Counts and arrangements can be read from it; dimensions cannot, and nothing on the sheet is measured from it. The copy of the 1769 volume read for this site is text only, so the plate was read from a reproduction.

Figure 1 draws all four legs plumb, with no splay and no rake, and the wide face of each leg to the front. The top overhangs the base at both ends, by very roughly one and a half to two leg widths, read by eye. The text gives no figure for the overhang, so the only sourced number is Schwarz's 16 in.

Figure 2 shows the leg joint cut across the wide face of the leg, with the tenon flush to the back and no rear shoulder. That was the custom. In the text Roubo recommends leaving a rear shoulder, so that the top bears on the leg behind as well as in front and does not sink with age. Schwarz notes that the dimensions in the text "don't really jibe with the drawings".

The plate draws two peg ends at each visible end of the front stretcher, and a blind stretcher mortise in the leg. The text says only that the rails are assembled. It does not mention pegs, and whether they were drawbored is not stated.

There are nine holdfast holes in the top as drawn, four in one row and five in the other, and three more spaced evenly down each front leg with no dimensions. The planing stop stands in the left overhang, hard against the outside of the left front leg, its body hanging below the top. The crochet runs from the left end of the top to the left front leg, about as deep as the edge of the top, with four fasteners. A drawer hangs under the right-hand overhang, and the tool rack is toward the left end of the back edge.

Figures 3 and 4 show the cabinetmaker's press, which Roubo says joiners had not adopted: a chop, a wooden screw threaded into the leg itself, and a loose spacer at the foot. There is no parallel guide and no garter in the text or the plate, and no height is given for the screw. The sliding deadman is not in plate 11 or its text; Schwarz describes one on Roubo's later "German" bench, plate 279.

Good at, bad at

Good at

  • mass and stiffness: 139 kg in pine before vises (Schwarz), 155 kg in oak (Myers)
  • top, legs and front stretcher in one plane, so work clamps anywhere on the front
  • no aprons or tool tray in the way of a clamp or a holdfast
  • simple joinery, and little of it
  • takes almost any vise later

Bad at

  • needs very thick stock, or a lot of laminating and clamps
  • a slab top moves for years
  • the through joint stands proud as the top shrinks
  • heavy, and it does not knock down
  • stop, holdfasts and crochet take practice and mark the work

The rules

Every measure the sheet lets you change, in the order the work is set out, with the rule behind it and who gave it. A circled number is the same note on the sheet. A blue band is the range a source gives, in the source’s own words; a measure with no source has no band. Figures are for a maker of 1780 mm.

To your body

Height · Working hand
Note 1

Height

The sources disagree. Roubo: ordinarily two and a half pieds, and never higher than the top of your thighs, or the bench robs you of your strength. Schwarz: stand with your arms relaxed and measure from the floor to where the little finger joins the hand, and stay between 28 and 36 in; a band of about 3 in feels right. Roubo's rule gives the lower bench for most people. The starting value here is derived: 0.45 of your stature, the ratio of Schwarz's own bench to his own height.

Floor to the top surface. The starting figure is an estimate from your stature; measure yourself and type the result.

The sheet starts at
801 mm
It allows
711 mm to 914 mm
The source gives
Roubo, ordinarily 2 1/2 pieds (812 mm) [1]
Note 2

Working hand

A right-hander planes from right to left, so the stop, the crochet and the vise are at the left end. For a left-hander the whole arrangement is mirrored.

Which end the vise, crochet and planing stop go.

Right-handed the sheet starts here
Vise, crochet and planing stop at the left end.
Left-handed
The same bench mirrored: vise, crochet and stop at the right end.

The top

Length · Width · Top thickness · Top made from · Strip thickness · Overhang, left end · Overhang, right end
Note 4

Width

Roubo contradicts himself: 20 to 22 pouces where he describes the bench, but 18 to 20 pouces "pour l'ordinaire" a few pages earlier where he lays out the shop. Schwarz builds at 22 in, likes "about 24 in wide, a tad less is fine", finds 18-1/2 in a bit tippy, and warns against going much over 24 in.

Front to back across the top. Both limits here are our judgement; no source gives either.

The sheet starts at
559 mm
It allows
470 mm to 686 mm
The source gives
Roubo, 20 to 22 pouces (541 mm to 596 mm) [1]
Note 5

Top thickness

Roubo gives the top as 5 to 6 pouces thick. Schwarz builds at 5 in; his 2005 bench and Benchcrafted's are 4 in, his cherry slab 4-1/2 in, the 2010 bench 4-3/8 in as built, and his countertop bench is 3 in.

The weight of a thick top is what keeps the bench still at work.

The sheet starts at
127 mm
It allows
76 mm to 162 mm
The source gives
Roubo, 5 to 6 pouces (135 mm to 162 mm) [1]
Note 6

Top made from

Roubo's top is one plank of elm or, more commonly, beech, heart side up because that face is harder and any movement crowns the top. The modern top is strips glued face to face. It is steadier at the outset; a slab wants about five years in the shop before it settles.

A slab goes heart side up, with no pith in it.

Strips glued face to face the sheet starts here
Schwarz, 2020. Stable from the start and does not twist.
One slab
Roubo. Faster, but it moves for its first few years.
Note 7

Strip thickness

Schwarz plans on 1-1/4 in from 2x construction timber once it has dried and been flattened; his top is eighteen strips glued in three bundles of six. Benchcrafted gets 1-3/4 in from 8/4 hardwood.

Finished thickness of each strip in the top. The lower limit is our judgement.

The sheet starts at
32 mm
It allows
19 mm to 45 mm
Note 8

Overhang, left end

Roubo's text gives no figure and his plate, an undimensioned perspective view, only shows that there is an overhang at each end, with the crochet and stop in one of them. Schwarz sets 16 in at each end of an 8 ft top, and shifts the base along if an end vise is planned.

Top beyond the outer face of the left legs. The limits are our judgement; no source gives any.

The sheet starts at
406 mm
It allows
150 mm to 610 mm
Note 9

Overhang, right end

Schwarz sets 16 in at each end of an 8 ft top. Roubo gives no figure.

Top beyond the outer face of the right legs. The limits are our judgement.

The sheet starts at
406 mm
It allows
150 mm to 610 mm

The base

Leg width · Leg thickness · Stretcher thickness · Stretcher width · Stretchers above the floor · Shelf
Note 10

Leg width

Roubo's legs are 6 pouces wide with the wide face to the front, as plate 11 draws them. Schwarz makes his 5 in square; Benchcrafted's are 5-3/8 in.

The face of the leg you see from the front. The lower limit is our judgement.

The sheet starts at
127 mm
It allows
89 mm to 162 mm
The source gives
Roubo, 6 pouces (162 mm) [1]
Note 12

Stretcher thickness

Roubo's rails are 2 pouces thick. Schwarz: "2 in is fine... I shoot for 2-1/2 in". Benchcrafted uses 1-3/4 in and Myers 2 in.

Half of it becomes the tenon. Never more than the leg less 25 mm, so a wall of leg is left inside the mortise. That limit is our arithmetic; no source gives one.

The sheet starts at
64 mm
It allows
44 mm to 76 mm
The source gives
Roubo, 2 pouces (54 mm) [1]

Joinery

Leg to top · Dovetail and tenon layout · Drawbore pegs
Note 16

Leg to top

Roubo joins the legs to the top with a "tenon & enfourchement à queue": a sliding dovetail in the edge of the top and, behind a gap of solid top, a through tenon wedged from above. Schwarz prefers a blind drawbored tenon, because the through joint has "zero practical use" and its end grain has to be planed flush as the top shrinks. Myers calls a single large tenon "more than adequate, and much safer".

How each leg meets the top.

Through tenon and sliding dovetail the sheet starts here
Roubo's joint. Both show as end grain on the top, and stand proud as the top shrinks.
Blind drawbored tenon
Schwarz's preference in 2020. Nothing shows on the top.
Note 17

Dovetail and tenon layout

No source states a proportion; Myers says the thicknesses "are really up to you". Three builds are documented, and the equal-thirds rule is our arithmetic from them. Roubo says the custom was to leave no shoulder behind the tenon, but recommends one so the top bears on the leg at the back as well as the front and does not sink with age.

Tail, gap, tenon and rear shoulder, measured across the leg from its outside face.

Equal thirds, rear shoulder the sheet starts here
Derived. Tail, gap and tenon equal after a 13 mm shoulder at the back, none over 1-1/2 in.
Roubo's custom: no rear shoulder
The tenon flush with the back of the leg, as plate 11 fig. 2 draws it. Roubo advises against it. On a leg thicker than his, tail and tenon stop at 1-1/2 in and the rest is solid top between them (derived).
32, 25, 32 mm
Myers, and Schwarz in 2010. Whatever is left is the rear shoulder.
38, 38, 38 mm
Schwarz on a leg a little over 5 in. Whatever is left is the rear shoulder.
Note 18

Drawbore pegs

Every stretcher tenon is drawbored, as Schwarz builds it: the hole in the tenon is bored a little nearer the shoulder than the hole through the leg, so the peg pulls the joint up. Too thin a peg splits; too thick a peg, or one too near the end of the tenon, blows the tenon apart. Roubo's text says only that the rails are "assemblées" and does not say they were drawbored; his plate draws two peg ends at each visible end of the front stretcher. Schwarz draws one, and one is drawn here.

Straight-grained dry oak, pointed like a pencil, waxed and not glued.

16 mm the sheet starts here
Schwarz, 2020. Tenon hole 1/8 in nearer the shoulder.
19 mm
His second choice. He gives no offset for it.
10 mm
Schwarz, 2010, riven white oak. Offset 1/16 to 3/32 in.

Holding the work

Leg vise · Crisscross · Vise screw below the top · Planing stop · Holdfast holes · Holdfast hole · Crochet
Note 19

Leg vise

Roubo describes the leg vise as a cabinetmaker's press that joiners had not taken up: a chop 4 to 5 pouces wide and at least 2 thick, a wooden screw threaded into the leg itself, and a loose block at the foot as thick as the work. There is no parallel guide in his text or plate. The guide and the Crisscross are modern ways of fixing that block. Have the hardware in hand before cutting any wood.

On the front leg at your working end, its chop against the flush leg and top.

With a Crisscross the sheet starts here
Schwarz's 2020 choice. Benchcrafted's scissor hardware does the job of the guide.
With a parallel guide and pin
A pierced bar through the leg. Schwarz in 2010, and Myers.
None
Roubo's joiners had not adopted it. They worked with the stop, the crochet and holdfasts.
Note 20

Crisscross

Benchcrafted shortened the arms of the Crisscross Solo and Retro in February 2025, from 19 in to 17-1/2 in, and the mortise for them from 19-1/2 in to 18 in. Its width and depth, the inch of wood below it and the room above it for the screw are the same for both. Benchcrafted says to start only once the hardware is in your shop, so measure the arms before you lay out the leg.

Which hardware you have. The mortise in the leg and chop is cut to suit its arms.

Arms 17-1/2 in the sheet starts here
As Benchcrafted has made them since February 2025. The mortise is 18 in.
Arms 19 in
Made before February 2025. The mortise is 19-1/2 in.
Note 21

Vise screw below the top

Schwarz gives the modern norm as 8 in and old benches as 12 to 15 in; his own is 11 in, and about 10 in on his 2010 bench. Roubo gives no figure.

Top surface down to the centre of the screw. Starts at Schwarz's 11 in, or less on a low bench so a Crisscross still fits under it.

The sheet starts at
275 mm
It allows
203 mm to 381 mm
The source gives
Schwarz, 8 to 15 in (203 mm to 381 mm) [4]
Note 22

Planing stop

Roubo: a 3 pouce square mortise 3 pouces from the front edge, dead square with flat walls, and a stop of very dry hard oak at least a pied long with a toothed iron hook. Schwarz makes his 2-1/2 in square and forms the mortise as a gap in the glue-up. The stop hangs below the top, so it has to sit wholly in the overhang, clear of the leg.

A square stick through the top, tight enough to need a mallet.

64 mm square the sheet starts here
Schwarz, 2020: 12 in long, about 11 in from the end.
3 pouces square
Roubo: 3 pouces from the front edge, at least a pied long, drawn hard against the leg.
None
Note 23

Holdfast holes

The sources differ. Roubo bores eight or nine: four in a row 8 to 10 pouces from the front edge, the rest on the other side, centred between the first. Schwarz bores three rows on 15 in centres, the back row 3 in from the back edge and each row 7 in forward of the last, spaced for a holdfast with a 7 in reach.

Bored square to the top. Roubo: do not multiply them without need.

Three rows on 381 mm centres the sheet starts here
Schwarz, 2020, with three more in the far front leg.
Eight or nine holes in two rows
Roubo, with three in each front leg. Partly our reading of an ambiguous text.
None yet
Bore them when the work asks for them.
Note 24

Holdfast hole

Roubo's holes are 14 to 16 lignes for shanks of 12 to 15 lignes. Schwarz bores 1 in, "a more traditional size" than the modern commercial 3/4 in, and finds a big holdfast closely fitted to its hole works better.

Diameter. Buy or forge the holdfasts first; the choice cannot be undone.

The sheet starts at
25 mm
It allows
19 mm to 36 mm
The source gives
Roubo, 14 to 16 lignes (32 mm to 36 mm) [1]
Note 25

Crochet

Roubo fixes the crochet to the front edge "with screws or strong nails" and says to leave off the iron points some fit to it and make the hook sloped instead. It only restrains a board on edge, so it works with the holdfasts in the legs. Schwarz: you do not need both a crochet and a leg vise. No source read gives its dimensions; the plate shows only that it runs from the end of the top to the leg and is about as deep as the top.

A wooden hook on the front edge at your working end. Its sizes here are our judgement.

The sheet starts with this off.

Options

Sliding deadman
Note 26

Sliding deadman

Plate 11 and its text have no deadman; there, the holes in the front legs do this job. It is period all the same. Schwarz describes Roubo's later "German" bench as having a sliding deadman with a leg vise. It rides a 45 degree ridge on the front stretcher and a groove under the top, its face in the front plane. Schwarz leaves it off his 2020 bench as unnecessary and easy to add later.

A sliding board jack between the front legs. Its width and holes here are our judgement.

The sheet starts with this off.

The joints

As the sheet first draws them. The proportions follow your measures once you change one.

Leg to top: through tenon and sliding dovetail × 4

Roubo's "tenon & enfourchement à queue". The leg rises through the top. Its outside part is a sliding dovetail housed in an open socket in the edge of the top; behind it, across a gap of solid top, is a through tenon. Both run the full width of the leg and show as end grain on the top. The dovetail is sloped on the two outside corners of the leg, marked on the end grain and squared down, so it is the same section over its whole height. Roubo widens the mortise at the top surface and drives wedges into the tenon so that it too is dovetailed in place. Leave the joint a little long and plane it flush; expect to plane it again as the top shrinks. Do not allow for wood movement here. Old benches whose tops have shrunk pull the legs into a slight A and stay sound.

Tail
38 mm
Gap of solid top
38 mm
Tenon
38 mm
Rear shoulder
13 mm
Layout
derived: equal thirds, none over 1-1/2 in
Tail slope
1-3/4 : 1, about 30 degrees
Tail width
127 mm inside, 84 mm at the face (derived)
Joint length
130 mm, planed flush
Wedges
4 degree point; number and size not given by any source

Long stretcher to leg: drawbored mortise and tenon × 4

A blind, bare-faced tenon: half the thickness of the stretcher with its one shoulder on the outside, so the stretcher finishes flush with the face of the leg and the front stretcher lies in the front plane. The tenon is the full width of the stretcher. It is drawbored: bore through the leg, mark the tenon through the hole, and bore the tenon a little nearer its shoulder than the mark. Glue the joint, wax the peg. Myers instead shoulders the tenon top and bottom. Roubo's text says only that the rails are joined in; his plate draws two peg ends at each visible end of the front stretcher.

Tenon
32 mm x 102 mm x 76 mm long
Mortise depth
79 mm
Leg left beyond the tenon
51 mm
Peg
16 mm, 25 mm from the shoulder, centred on the mortise height, right through the leg
Drawbore offset
1/8 in (3 mm)
Where the tenons meet
they overlap 13 mm by 13 mm (derived): rabbet one or mitre both

Short stretcher to leg: drawbored mortise and tenon × 4

The same joint as the long stretchers, entering the leg from the adjoining face at the same height, so the two tenons meet inside the leg. Its peg is moved up so the two bores do not cross. Where the tenons meet, cut a rabbet on one or mitre both at 45 degrees.

Tenon
32 mm x 102 mm x 76 mm long
Mortise depth
79 mm
Leg left beyond the tenon
51 mm
Peg
16 mm, 25 mm from the shoulder, 22 mm above centre, right through the leg
Drawbore offset
1/8 in (3 mm)
Where the tenons meet
they overlap 13 mm by 13 mm (derived): rabbet one or mitre both

Top: strips glued face to face × 17

The strips are glued face to face in bundles of six, each bundle flattened, then the bundles glued to each other. Put the heart side of each strip against the bark side of its neighbour, so any cupping closes the seams. Leave yellow pine in the clamps overnight, whatever the bottle says.

Strips
18 of 32 mm
Glue-ups
3 bundles of up to six
Glued width
572 mm, planed to 559 mm

Shelf: boards on cleats × 4

Cleats fixed to the inside of the stretchers carry boards run front to back, as Roubo says, to give them more strength. Schwarz sets the cleats flush with the bottom edge of the stretchers, glues and screws them, and screws the boards down with plain bevelled edges. Shiplapped, tongued or loose boards are all documented.

Cleats
32 mm square
Shelf surface
166 mm above the floor (derived)

Planing stop: friction-fit through mortise × 1

A square stick through a square hole in the top, tight enough that it moves only under a mallet. Roubo wants the mortise perfectly square to the top with flat walls, because a hollow-walled mortise splits. In a laminated top Schwarz forms it as a gap left in two strips of the glue-up. It hangs below the top, so it sits in the overhang, clear of the leg.

Stop
64 mm square x 305 mm
From the front edge
64 mm
From the end
267 mm

Crisscross mortise in leg and chop × 1

Benchcrafted's scissor hangs the chop from the leg in a pair of matching mortises, centred left to right directly below the vise screw. Their length follows the arms, which Benchcrafted has made shorter since February 2025, so lay the mortises out with the hardware in the shop. The Solo is a plain slot with two pin holes bored through; for the Retro the top of each mortise is widened for its brackets. Where the front stretcher's tenon crosses the mortise, saw that piece of the tenon away, as Schwarz did.

Hardware
Solo or Retro, made from February 2025, arms 444.5 mm
Mortise
457 mm long, 44.5 mm wide, 36.5 mm deep in leg and chop
Below it
25 mm of leg
Screw
at least 44 mm above the mortise; 44 mm here
Retro
top 102 mm widened 9.5 mm each side
Stretcher tenon
5 mm sawn off where it crosses

Variants

On the sheet, under “Start from”

Schwarz's sizes, Roubo's joint
How this sheet opens: every size from Schwarz's 2020 bench, with Roubo's through tenon and sliding dovetail between leg and top where Schwarz now uses a blind tenon, and the height started from your stature where his own bench is 34 in.
The Anarchist's Workbench
Schwarz, 2020: 8 ft by 22 in and 34 in high, all laminated from 2x yellow pine, 5 in top on 5 in square legs with blind drawbored tenons, a leg vise on a Crisscross, no deadman.
Roubo, 1769 text
The sizes in Roubo's 1769 text; nothing is measured from plate 11, which has no scale. His most common length of 9 pieds, ordinary height of 2 1/2 pieds, a slab 20 pouces wide and 5 thick, legs 6 by 4 pouces, rails 4 by 2 pouces set 4 pouces up, 14 ligne holdfast holes, his own joint, stop and holes, a crochet and no vise. Where he gives a range the low end is taken, except the leg thickness. He gives no overhang and no sizes for the stretcher tenons, pegs, cleats or shelf boards, so Schwarz's are used. His text does not say the stretchers were drawbored; one peg is drawn at each joint where his plate shows two peg ends on the front stretcher. The rack, drawer and grease box are not drawn.
The Return of Roubo
Schwarz, 2010: a cherry slab as built, 4-3/8 by 18-1/2 by 67 in, on 6 in square legs with the through joint laid out 1-1/4, 1, 1-1/4 in, stretchers 3 in off the floor, 3/8 in drawbore pegs and a leg vise with a parallel guide, the screw about 10 in down. Not all of the base is his. His overhangs are not recorded: 346 mm is drawn, the least that lets the planing stop hang clear of the leg (our arithmetic). His stretchers were laminated 2x6, finished size not recorded, so the 2020 section is drawn. His height is not recorded; it starts from your stature.
Myers' oak slab
Will Myers, 2011: a red oak slab on legs just under 4 by 6 in, the joint laid out 1-1/4, 1, 1-1/4 in with a 3/8 in rear shoulder, stretchers 2 by 6-1/2 in, a leg vise with a parallel guide and a sliding deadman. Our research does not record the size of his top or his height, so the top is Schwarz's 2020 size and the height starts from your stature. His chop is 2 by 7 in; Schwarz's is drawn.

On record

Documented forms of the bench. The sheet does not draw all of them.

Slab top, through joint
Schwarz's 2010 bench. He looked for a slab 5 by 20 by 72 in; as built it is 4-3/8 by 18-1/2 by 67 in, on 6 by 6 legs, with laminated stretchers 3 in above the floor. [4][5]
Blind leg tenon
Schwarz's 2020 joint: a tenon half the thickness of the leg, stopped short of the surface so the top can be flattened many times, and drawbored from the edge of the top. [4]
Tenon stopped at two-thirds
Roubo's own version of the leg joint for kitchen tables, which are built the same way. The joint stops at two-thirds of the thickness of the top. [12]
Split top
Benchcrafted's bench: two slabs 4 in thick with a removable stop in the gap between them, legs 5-3/8 by 3-1/2 in, a sliding deadman and a tail vise. It draws mainly on Roubo's later "German" bench. [8]
Knock-down
Benchcrafted again: bench bolts and barrel nuts on the long rails only, the end frames drawbored, and the top sitting on stub tenons and held with lag screws. [8]
Stretchers in line, or offset
All four at one height, with blind tenons that meet inside the leg, or the end stretchers raised or lowered so the tenons can pass through. [4]
Left-handed
Vise, crochet and planing stop go to the right end. [13]
Leg vise mechanism
A parallel guide with a steel pin, or a Benchcrafted Crisscross; a wooden screw or a metal one. Roubo's press has none of these. The screw threads into the leg and a loose block keeps the chop parallel. [1][4][9]
Tool tray
Roubo has none. Schwarz allows one hung on the back edge on a French cleat, with the top kept at its full width. [4]
A shorter bench
Five to six feet long, in pine, for a small room. [4]

Sources cited

The bracketed numbers on this page. Each is set out in full, with what was taken from it, on the Sources page.

  1. [1]A.-J. Roubo, 1769, ch. V, sect. III, about pp. 54 to 57, text to pl. 11. L'Art du menuisier, première partie
  2. [2]A.-J. Roubo, 1769, pl. 11, figs. 1 to 4. L'Art du menuisier, plate 11: Vue intérieure de la boutique d'un menuisier
  3. [3]Christopher Schwarz and Bjenk Ellefsen, 2008. Andre J. Roubo: Translation of L'Art du Menuisier
  4. [4]Christopher Schwarz, 2020. The Anarchist's Workbench
  5. [5]Christopher Schwarz, 2010. The Return of Roubo
  6. [6]Christopher Schwarz, 2010. A.J. Roubo's Sliding-Dovetail-Tenon Joint
  7. [7]Will Myers, 2011. Building a Roubo Bench
  8. [8]Benchcrafted, 2025. Split Top Roubo Workbench: Construction Notes
  9. [9]Benchcrafted, 2022. Classic Leg Vise Installation Instructions
  10. [10]Benchcrafted, 2025. Assembly and Installation Instructions: Crisscross Solo and Retro, Glide Leg Vise
  11. [11]Christopher Schwarz, 2017. The Plate 11 Bench
  12. [12]Christopher Schwarz, 2016. A Roubo Workbench from Green Wood
  13. [13]Christopher Schwarz, 2006. Tweaking the Roubo Bench While the Glue Dries
  14. [14]Sawmill Creek forum. Sliding deadman
  15. [15]Christopher Schwarz, 2006. Expanded Drawings for the Roubo Bench
  16. [16]Lost Art Press. Why We Prefer a Tight Fit & an Untapered Shaft
  17. [17]Christopher Schwarz, 2020. Reader Questions: Benchtops, Trestle Tables and West Coast Lumber