Oak garden bench

[david simper]

Here's a link to a shot of this project, which I have found very challenging:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanley_cl ... otostream/

There's another shot showing that the bench does not collapse with my family sitting on it.

I'm a bit disappointed with the back rest slats, which are too short in a few cases. I set these cuts up on the band saw and am therefore not sure what went wrong. Patience and timber were exhausted to cut anymore.

Thanks to George Buchanan for his help in clarifying the plan before I started cutting for this project.

Now for some nice simple boxes to use as Christmas presents. Phew!

 

[Ironballs]

Looks like a well made bench to me, have you left it unfinished so that it will weather to a nice silver grey colour?

 

[OPJ]

Looks good to me, as well (as does most of the stuff in your Flickr album! :wink

Not sure what you mean about the slats... Is it the tenon shoulders you are talking about?

 

[Dave S]

Looks good to me. Certainly can't see anything wrong with the slats from this pic.

Dave

 

[Tierney]

looks good, very chunky and sturdy looking.

Like the others I can't see anything wrong with the slats, so I'm sure 99.9% of people won't either!

DT

 

[devonwoody]

Plenty of joints there, so I know what you mean by "phew", only thing I can see with the slats there are a couple slightly different shade of timber.

I would tack on four rubber or plastic shoes under the legs to the ground to act as a damp proof course. It will then last more than one generation.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Looks good to me, as well (as does most of the stuff in your Flickr album! :wink

Not sure what you mean about the slats... Is it the tenon shoulders you are talking about?

Not sure if this is right but if you look at the bottom end of slats 5 & 7 (from either end) it looks like the shoulders are slightly short of a length, but this could just be a trick of the light.

Hardly worth worrying about David, I'm sure a few cylces of rain/sun will have everything move about a bit anyway so they might even tighten up over time

 

[david simper]

Thanks for the good wishes and tips.

I will look round for some plastic or rubber to make feet. That end grain is just ripe to suck up water, although the timber is incredibly dense so maybe it won't be so bad.

The piece is being left to weather without a finish. I instinctively don't feel comfortable with this, but am going to go with it.

It is the shoulders that are short. For another piece I would use a different joint type, which would give the mortise more shelter. And I might have some patience left to cut replacements if things still went wrong.

I would also use a different glue up sequence. However, this bit always seems to go wrong whatever my plan.