As many of you may be aware, the latest fad in woodworking right now is anything "Andre Roubo" and in particular, his folding book stand. Blame Schwarz and Underhill.

Anyway, since everybody else seems to be jumping off the bridge I thought I'd try it too. Gosh, I'm suggestible.

All hand work, no electrons were harmed in making this. I've got a lot of practicing to do with hand resawing! Still, pretty dang cool that it worked the first time. I'll make a few more in pine before I attempt something a little more durable.

(DVD sold separately.)

I've seen a chair made much the same way.

Paul
the little guy

RW,,, nice little project. I saw a similar post on Woodnet. Is that where you got the idea?

Rat.

Hey RW really cool bookstand, can't wait to see what wood you use for the final. Really nice.

Well, the original idea came from Andre Roubo and L'Art du Menuisier. But as of late it has appeared on Roy Underhill's TV show, Popular Woodworking magazine and Chris Schwarz's blog. Now its starting to filter it way into the forums as you mentioned.

I've seen pictures of a folding chair done this way. I believe they have an extra joint cut down lower to act as a hinged stay for when the chair is open.

FLWoodRat, watch this (except I didn't use no stinkin' bandsaw).
http://blip.tv/file/4650791

Thanks RW.. But I have to say..... You Gallutes are so sensitive about some one implying that you some day may use a POWER TOOL.... LOL. Thanks for the link.

Bruce

Save the electrons.

Re: "save the electrons"

Collect the entire set!

Paul
the sarcastic little guy

OK, after a couple more tests in pine (that didn't survive the splitting operation) I went for it in chestnut!

I was given a couple of chestnut boards salvaged from old church pews. Most of them went into a friend's trestle table but I've got two (well, one now after some other projects). Not much chestnut to be had around these parts since the blight in the early 1900s!

7" wide and about 15" tall folded. A little smaller than the real one but I was limited by the board width.

Still no glue joints or other messing about. It started as one piece of wood and stayed one piece of wood. Lots of cross-grain planing to clean up saw marks and then much awkward cardscraping followed up by a shot with 220 to even things out.

I'll oil it down with some BLO and then look for areas that need touching up with the scraper. Then more BLO and finally some paste wax. Chestnut has this sort of browny-green (but not hues of baby-poo) that mellows out to a creamy brown after a while. Open grain wood too.

Last picture is proof it will fold up.

very nice. Roy Underhill did one of these a while back as well.

Yep. I saw the write up in the last Pop. Woodworking he did as well as a few other notes here and there. I saw that episode of the Woodwright's Shop but it took me a little while to connect the dots.

I've got some nice cherry to make another one and I'll be doing that at the Lie-Nielsen Handtool Show here at the Kansas City Woodworkers' Guild next weekend.

Schwarz is indeed the "Oprha" of woodworking

for those who can read French
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5489835x
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5492309t

And likely WITHOUT the vast personal fortune...



Q: How do you make a small fortune in woodworking?
A: Start with a large one.

this is the kind of shop you have with a small fortune
http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/bl ... +Shop.aspx

(personally, it is a pity to have that kind of machinery
for a home shop, those German beauties (Martin) are supposed
to be at work all day long... )

but back to Roubo (which is the actual topic of the thread I think,)
it is the reference text if you are into working methods and
habits of the XVIII in France. There are 6 volumes in the collection
(l'art du menuisier): ébénisterie, furniture, construction, vehicle and box-making
(my rough translation to English). I think Moxon's "Mechanick exercises" is the English equivalent to Roubo's books (he precedes Roubo by one century.)

I guess those are must read to galoots (and those in the Front for the Liberation of the Electrons ), but seriously, it is a good thing to
know how to do things by hand first, then with machines, so the
best of both approaches can be used where it makes the most sense
at a given time.

Ronaldo -

Honestly, I can't read much more than a few sentences in French and even then I need help. But I'm going to wander through the links you gave me. Just like when Neil or JSmith and the rest of you start tossing out names and dates and I have to go look stuff up.

What I like to refer to as "The College of Fly on the Wall". Open your eyes and ears and you can learn A LOT!

I have the reprint of Moxon that Lost Art Press did a few years ago. And I understand they are working on Roubo's "Art of the Joiner". I plan to be on the early purchase list for that as soon as it is announced. No idea about the other volumes.

I also enjoy reading through some of the old Sloyd method instructor's texts from the early part of the 20th century. Their teaching methods appeal to me (gross simplification : demonstrate basics of the mechanics and then allow self-exploration, the instructor is there as a guide, not a taskmaster).

Locally, there is The Linda Hall Library (http://www.lindahall.org/) and I need to take some time off and just hang out there for a while. They are purported to have a wonderful reference library for 18th and 19th century methods of work.

I fully agree with the "learn the basics/handwork first" idea. All the machines do is allow the operator to work more efficiently. Once you understand the principles of sawing to a line, squaring up a piece, laying out for joinery, etc. everything else seems much simpler. The machines are there to take over the drudgery of the work. Its fine to know how to rip a board down (and I'll do it by hand if it is too small to safely use a tablesaw/bandsaw) but honestly, it isn't at all exciting or fun after about 10 minutes of handsawing on some 8/4 hard maple.

I used to wonder "how did they do that?" and now I wonder "hmm, how would I do that?".

there is nothing like knowing your ways with the tools!
it is great to wonder how YOU would do something than
trying to figure out (well it happens ) how it could be done.

about "modern" reference books, there are some quite good ones
but in French only...
but I think one of the most important "tools" to learn
is how to draw and work with things in the space (descriptive geometry
and stuff), you do always have a computer ready in the shop
to help you figuring out something.

regarding the college of the fly on the wall, in Odate's book, he says that
in Japan there is no formal training, the apprentice
should learn by observation.
what is a pity here is that there is much info that was
kept secret and finally got lost over the years.
hopefully, the mentality is changing.

yep, machines are there to ease hard work, and knowing
how to do things with hand tools makes it easier
to setup and do things by machines.

Vey nice, I have been thinking about building it as well but I have to get caught up on other projects first.
Nate

I saw Underhill make one on TV, and decided to try. I picked a piece of Poplar that had ribbons of different colors so it would be easier to see it was made from one piece of wood. I laid out 5 joints, but I made a small mistake (according to Roy). I made the outside edge of the longer piece continuous on the side. Roy said making the short shelf continuous on the outside edge makes it stronger. He might be right, but at least I did it, and on the first try. Making the long rip cuts with my handsaw was the hardest. I wandered off course a little bit, making clean-up more difficult. It is a neat project.

Fan-freakin'tastic!

Now THAT is kewl, great job