# Roubo folding bookstand



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

OK, so some of you probably subscribe to Popular Woodworking and have seen the recent article by Roy Underhill about the Roubo Folding Bookstand. Roy's article might have turned some of you off both for its adherence to handtool methods and his rambling on about the history of the bookstand. Neither of these problems have ever stopped me from trying something that looks neat though...

I'd had seen this somewhere else but I couldn't remember where. Then it dawned on me, I'd seen his on TV several years ago! Well with a little help from some other people I know in other woodworking forums and the top scroll work pattern supplied by Chris Schwarz I decided to make one.

After a couple of practice runs in pine (one of which survived) I went for it using a piece of chestnut. Yes, real chestnut. This is one of two boards I was given from a salvage job on some old church pews. Most of them went into a friends trestle table. But I kept a few boards. Not much chestnut to be had here in the USA since the early 1900s. 

So any way, this one is a little smaller than the original because of my material size. About 7" wide instead of 8". Close enough.

All one piece, no glue joints, no trickery except careful chiseling and even more careful sawing to split the two halves above and below the hinge. That is why I needed to practice. Two of my test versions in pine self destructed during the final stages of separation. :cray:

No finish yet applied. I'll start with some BLO and then look for any places that need touching up with the card scraper. The more BLO and finally some wax. Chesnut has this sort of interesting browny-green (and no, not baby-poo shades). It ages in to a mellow brown after a while.

Last photo is proof that it folds up. :jester:


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## Noob (Apr 18, 2009)

Very clever, took me awhile to figure out how it was done. Actually I'm not exactly sure how you made it...


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Truly brilliant and the thread would be even more so with some shots taken during the making. Pictures Rob, that's what we want, pictures!


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

harrysin said:


> Truly brilliant and the thread would be even more so with some shots taken during the making. Pictures Rob, that's what we want, pictures!


It's not me in these shots but would you settle for a movie?

Video: Roubo's Folding Bookstand | Popular Woodworking Magazine


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi

This is a very old bible book stand, made with a rip hand saw/band saw and a chisel,I made mine about 35 years ago..
see Roy Underhill show on the PBS. from a tree log to a stand, in about 60 mins..


http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_tr...=+Folding+Bookstand&_sacat=See-All-Categories

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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

bobj3 said:


> Hi
> 
> This is a very old bible book stand, made with a rip hand saw/band saw and a chisel,I made mine about 35 years ago..
> see Roy Underhill show on the PBS. from a tree log to a stand, in about 60 mins..
> ...


The Roubo design is slightly different in its use than the ones shown in the eBay link. Those are built to hold the book spine down while the Roubo design is meant to hold it upright. 

The hinge design is the same in both but to hold the book spine down you have to carve a bit more on the hinges to provide clearance as the stand should open a little past 45 degrees.

There is a painting of Layfette taking his oath of office where the bible is being held in one of the upright stands. As I understand the decorative elements, the piercings show in the eBay examples are less common on the French versions.

Unfortunately the episode from Roy's show is not available on-line but they may eventually put more than the past four seasons up on their web page.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

HI Rob

At one time I had a link on my Signature to All his online videos, 160 if I recall but I dropped it about 2 weeks ago..and did not save it. 
Roy shows both types on his video..and why they made them both ways..

The small one was for the horse back bible thump-er and would hold the book at a 45 deg. on his lap...or on his saddler horn.

++++++
Hey Rob
add on note I found some of them ,see below
http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/schedule/video.html

http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/schedule/past_seasons.html

2205 Spill Plane & Book Stand
Two wonderful woodworking tricks from centuries past to amaze and amuse the modern world. 
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rwyoung said:


> The Roubo design is slightly different in its use than the ones shown in the eBay link. Those are built to hold the book spine down while the Roubo design is meant to hold it upright.
> 
> The hinge design is the same in both but to hold the book spine down you have to carve a bit more on the hinges to provide clearance as the stand should open a little past 45 degrees.
> 
> ...


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

bobj3 said:


> HI Rob
> 
> At one time I had a link on my Signature to All his online videos, 160 if I recall but I dropped it about 2 weeks ago..and did not save it.
> Roy shows both types on his video..and why they made them both ways..
> ...


Unfortunately, those links terminate in the shop PBS pages and mostly as "out of stock" or "item not found" type pages. 

Here is where you find the episodes archived on-line:
watch episodes online . Woodwright's Shop with Roy UnderHill | PBS

And then only back to the '06-'07 season. The bookstand was from 2002.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Rob

You are to hard to please, I posted 64 videos for the online items..
http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/schedule/video.html

I do have the one for the book stand on a VHS/CD but it's to much of a pain to post it..plus that copy write thing comes into play..

Here's some more just for kicks
http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/wwvideos.html

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rwyoung said:


> Unfortunately, those links terminate in the shop PBS pages and mostly as "out of stock" or "item not found" type pages.
> 
> Here is where you find the episodes archived on-line:
> watch episodes online . Woodwright's Shop with Roy UnderHill | PBS
> ...


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Rob
> 
> You are to hard to please, I posted 64 videos for the online items..
> PBS - Woodwright's Shop: Schedule
> ...


No, I'm not hard to please. The first link in your quote above gives only 4 seasons, NOT including the current one (series 3000). 

*My *link gives you all those PLUS the current season (#3000) for a grand total of 5 seasons.  That's why I provided it in the first place. I recently had an email conversation with the webmaster for the Woodwright Show pages and they are seriously behind in cleaning up old links as well as fixing up some problems with old and new video formats for the webcasts.

watch episodes online . Woodwright's Shop with Roy UnderHill | PBS


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