Add height to my Roubo workbench

[dlgWoodWork]

I am going to do a little redesign of my shop. This will include putting my Roubo workbench on the outfeed side of my new Sawstop cabinet saw. But the Roubo is about 3-4" shorter than the Sawstop.

What would be the best way to add feet to raise up the Roubo? The legs are 5" x 5" square. My thought is to make 5" x 5" square 3-4" high and gluing them to the bottom of the legs and running a lag bolt up thru the center of the squares into the legs.

Is that a good solution? Got a better way? Am I over thinking this?

Any advice is welcomed.

[Mark Allen]

Instead of raising the bench, I would build some outfeed rollers you can put on your bench; changing the bench height that much will negatively affect how you use it for it's intended purpose, assuming you built the bench for optimal height in the first place.

[Splinter Puller]

It would probably work. If you will still be using your bench to handplane wood then whatever method of leg extension will have to resist racking forces. I'd probably make a 5x5 plug extension and surround it with another layer of 3/4" wood and make "booties" that I could easily remove in the future.

[stav]

I like the idea of adding something to the top that will allow you to use the work bench as is.

[dlgWoodWork]

I should have noted, I'm not real thrilled with the height it is now. It's 31" or so high. I do hand plane a little, but not much. I use the leg vise a lot. After having the bench for some time now I think I would prefer it taller.

The low bench is good for planing but that is only about 2% of what I use the bench for.

[jkjen89]

What about a 4 x 6 across the bottom. Maybe cut the bottom to make two feet so it doesn't rock.

John

[Guest]

I had these bottom plates fabricated at a local machine shop. The machine levelers are from MSC Industrial Supply. The plates were turned down from solid steel plate, drilled and tapped for 1/2" X 13 studs on the levelers, and they were pretty expensive. You could probably accomplish the same thing by welding a nut to steel plate for a lot less money. They give me about 4" of vertical adjustment and they are very solid. I've been using my bench for 7 or 8 years And there has been no wobble or movement of any kind.

Hank

[Doug_H]

Is the workbench too short for you to work comfortably? If it fits you, I do not see why you would want to change the height. You could make a removable secondary outfeed "box" to go on top of the workbench when you need it.

End-grain to endgrain glue joints are notoriously weak, so I would consider some sort of scarf or bridle joint, even if it's just four boards inlet into each side of each leg. If that's unclear -- think of making a socket with four boards at the end of each leg and then fitting the extension leg into the socket. You could bolt it together without gluing it to your bench, in case you change your mind later.

Doug

[Steve Friedman]

Not sure it's enough, but I attached something like this to the legs of my bench in order to stop it from scooting all over the garage floor. These claim to support 2,000 pounds each, but the pin is only 3" long.

Levellers

[AUswimKC]

How about some 5x5 square 'cups'?

The leg would fit inside with 2-3" of overlap over the leg. Then you can screw sideways.

I hope that makes sense