Building a bench (the kind you sit on)

[Chris Griggs]

Thought I share a new build I started last night. There's a set of windows in our new house that we currently have a small circular dining table siting under that doesn't get used for anything other than a cat perch. Since this little table sits about 6 feet from our main dining table and never gets used, we've decided there is likely a better way to use that space. I suggested that a bench with some built in storage might be nice to have in the dining room under those windows, so after consulting my wife and looking through a bunch of pictures online to figure out what she would like I came up with this design.

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It's pretty straight forward. The woodworker in me wanted to make something more curvy or with more complex joinery, but the homeowner and husband in me wanted something that would make my wife happy, fit in with our dining table, and not take forever to make. To feed the designer in me, I've added some subtle curves to the aprons and on to the sides of the armrests that I think will make it look less generic whilst still fitting with the overall piece and the room it is in.

I have some nice wide walnut boards that will serve as the deep aprons/sides of the storage area. The top I'll probably actually just trim with walnut and use a secondary for the center section of it since the plan is to have my MIL make some type of cushion/upholstery that will cover it anyway.

All the joinery will pretty much be M&T, and there really isn't that much of it. The one part I still need to think through is the best way to tenon the aprons into the legs. I'm thinking since they are so wide I'll do some type of breadboard style tenon glued and pegged at the top, but just pegged into elongate holes lower down so that they can expand downward but not upward which would potentially screw up the top/seat.

I got started on the leg stock last night, which I'll need to make from laminations due to the thickness of the wood I have on hand. Technically, I should probably go buy some 8/4-10/4 walnut, but the stuff I have all comes from the same tree so using it for each part will ensure a color match throughout the piece (also I have it, it was free, and I'm both cheap and lazy, so I might as well use it....and also, I confess, I'm one of those idiots who sometime spends money on tools when I should be spending it on wood....so what I have is what gets used)

This will not be 100% handtool build. My new best friend His Excellency Sir Bandsaw as already been participating, and there is a good chance that his relative Mr. Drill Press will be involved in those long leg mortises.

Will be 90-95% handtool though...

Here's what I got done last night...

Jointing a wide board to rip the leg stock from

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Sir Bandsaw did a nice job ripping the pieces...much faster, cleaner, and likely quieter than I could do by hand.
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4 out of 8 sections for leg prepped for lamination
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Didn't have a lot of time last night so that's it so far. Trying get 2" by 2" legs out of these, but if they're a hair smaller, that's ok too. Hoping to have the legs glued up by the weekend so I can start on the joinery.

No idea how long this will take. Hoping just a handful of weekends, but even though its pretty simple, I can never be sure if a project will take 6 weeks or 6 months to be completed. We'll see how it goes.

[Judson Green]

Good luck Chris! I like your design. And nice band saw gloat.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks...but that's not bandsaw gloat.

THIS is a bandsaw gloat...

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[Brian Holcombe]

Looks good Chris! What do you have in the works for a finish on this?

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks Brian. I'll probably just do an oil and wax finish on it. I typically like to shellac things but I don't really see any kind of film based finish on this and I imagine alcoholic beverages will be set on the arms, so I think I'll skip the shellac this time.

At most I'll probably do an oil varnish blend (e.g watco), but generally I like to avoid stinky stuff so I'll likely stick with one of the Tried and True products or just regular BORG BLO followed by a wax. Easy to apply, nice to look at, and nice too the touch.

[Prashun Patel]

If it were me, I'd mix borg semigloss poly with BLO and do my oil/varnish that way. Applies the same way, and feels as nice to the touch.

[Chris Griggs]

Good thinking Prashun. I'll probably do that if I go the oil/varnish blend route. I did that once before but I can't recall the proportions. IIRC its 1 part BLO, 1 part varnish, and one part MS is typically recommended? What's your preferred proportion?

[Graham Haydon]

Nice one Chris, even nicer to see a British style bench! That bandsaw is very well tuned, kudos. You raise a valid point on keeping it simple, sometimes it's the hardest thing to do.

[paul cottingham]

I have used water based poly over Tried and True on walnut and it looks great. And not stinky.

[Chris Griggs]

Nice one Chris, even nicer to see a British style bench! That bandsaw is very well tuned, kudos. You raise a valid point on keeping it simple, sometimes it's the hardest thing to do.

Thanks Graham. Yeah I messed with the design a lot and kept going back to something with simple lines. I'm not going to pretend like it won't still be a challenge (everything is a challenge when your a weekend warrior) or that I'm capable of some crazy complex carved, turned, inlayed, sculpted piece, but I definitely was tempted to design something that would push my comfort zone...I had visions of some curvy frames panels or some sculpted splayed legs, but it just would have look wrong for this project.

Glad you like my workbench. I'm a fan of it. The English bench is certainly one of many wonderful contributions the Brits have made to the craft....wish I could say the same about your guys food (I do enjoy beans & toast on occasion, but just because my grandfather was full English doesn't mean I have any interest in eating a Full English)

The bandsaw is my first. I got it from someone locally who posted it here in the SMC classifieds. I didn't want to bother using it for any projects until I had it tuned to perfection (or to the very best of my ability anyway) so I read everything I could find online and a friend of mine sent me a bunch of Michael Fortune articles that helped a lot. It took me tinkering for 2-4 hours everyday/night for about a week and a half before I was able to do that resaw and call it good. The funny thing is, that after all that tuning I realized that the biggest factor that was making or breaking my resaws was how good of a job I was doing feeding the stock. Not just in terms of not going to fast (I wasn't), but in terms of making sure that I was feeding at a consistent rate and not tilting or twisting the board as I fed it. I probably could have saved myself a lot of time effort if I had realized that right away, but I guess it doesn't hurt to have it dial in by the book, to the letter, etc... I certainly saved a lot of money by buying something simple and used, and then learning to dial it in, as opposed to buying a saw that was unnecessarily large and overpowered for my purposes (which was my initial intent when I started saving for one). I sure learned a lot in the process too, and as a result can now feel and hear as soon as something isn't working right in my feeding. George has been known to say that "you have to make love to the bandsaw" and now I understand what he means.

I have used water based poly over Tried and True on walnut and it looks great. And not stinky.

Really, water based? Was it the General Finishes stuff. The BORG stuff I've used looks like plexiglass.

[Adam Cruea]

If you're meaning something like Minwax poly. . .cut it with Mineral Spirits. I use a 20% MS mixture and it works great, not heavy and plexiglass-like.

[Prashun Patel]

Most people say the easiest is 1/3 each BLO, MS, and any oil-based varnish.
Personally, I don't add that much BLO. It just makes the mix too thick; but it does slow up the drying. In a 'chobani' yogurt cup I might add a table spoon of BLO and then the rest 50/50 ms/varnish.

The 'Maloof' mix is BLO/tung/poly, but that's just felt too complicated for me.

People complain about poly looking like plastic, but in an ov blend like this, you don't build a film. so I don't notice it.

I apply it exactly like a pure oil finish.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks Prashun. That's helpful.

[Chris Griggs]

I finished planing off the rough sawn surface on all the leg pieces this morning and went about figuring out the best orientations for lamination. From the ripping down of the full sized board thru the planing I was careful to keep track of the original board orientation to help me get the best grain match in the lamination. You can just make out the large cabinet makers triangles drawn on the boards.
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I mess around with a few orientations of adjacent pieces and ultimately decided that the best route was to fold the side by side cuts onto each other. This doesn't give me the best grain match on both sides of the legs, but what it does do is give me is two not laminated faces and one laminated face with a perfect grain match...

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As you can see below the opposite laminated face doesn't match at all, so this will become the interior joinery face. 3 good looking faces is more than enough.

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With my orientations for lamination decided I managed to get the first leg in clamps before I left this morning.


This is no time to skimp on glue..
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...nor is it a time to skimp on clamping pressure.

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A bit of smooth planing should make the grain matched side of the lamination nearly invisible. There may be an inadvertent book matching effect that shows up but the grain is fairly straight so it won't be too noticeable.

[James Conrad]

Its actually been a really long time since I've used anything other than BLO/T&T or Shellac.

Hey Chris, try equal parts satin poly, BLO and tung oil (not tongue) and finish with your wax. You can thin it with MS if you find it too thick as is or use gloss poly in the mix if you want a little more shine in subsequent coats. A little stinky, but makes for a bit more durable finish for a piece that is going to get use.