Building Potting Benches

[Jim Koepke]

A member asked me to post more information on my potting bench build after seeing my recent post about using a story stick for building two more potting benches. The benches seem to sell well at our local farmers market. Last year we did have a couple of times where two could have been sold if there were two to sell. This year we want to be prepared and try to keep stock on hand. Hopefully it won't be too hard to build more as needed.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-Another-Story

There are a few design elements to consider. This is not fine furniture, but it also somewhat better than bolting and nailing some lumber together without some extra joinery for strength.

When picking out the lumber to make a potting bench it is helpful to ensure it has clear edges (without knots) for the rabbets to support the shelf slats. I also try to make sure there is enough clear wood to have very few knots in the top shelf.

The shelf design is made for standard 20X10 nursery trays.

The slats for the shelves are cut to 19". With the rabbeted supports the shelf comes out to just a little over 20" deep. Five pieces at 19" works out to an inch of scrap left over from 8' stock.

The length of the shelves are made to be long enough so the legs can be half lapped on to them and there will still be ~40" between the legs so they fit over the wheel wells in my truck for transport.

The bottom of the lower shelf is 15-1/2" from the bottom of the legs. This allows room most 5 gallon buckets to slide underneath the bench.

The back legs are 5' and the front legs are just under 3'. This is due to lumber being purchased from Home Depot in 8' lengths.

So here is today's installment of work in progress.

The ends of the runners will have a tail cut on them for the joinery so if there is a knot on the end it is either trimmed off or the piece is flipped to see if the other end will yield a piece with two good ends.

The shelf runners were cut (yesterday) using a story stick to mark their size:

Stick Tells the Story.jpg

A fat line is used for pieces marked a little proud for shooting and dovetails. The head is set to the side farthest from the base of the stick. The pencil lines and wording will get inked when the project is finished. This will be one of my "preserved" sticks for use on the same project in the future. Changes can be made using a block plane for an eraser. Some of my story sticks are used then erased when the next project need it.

After all eight runners were cut, a rabbet plane was set to just a little less than the thickness of the shelf slats. This allows for the slats to be planed a little and then the ends will be chamfered.

Setting the Rabbet.jpg

The runners are examined so the better looking face goes out. Also it is best if one doesn't have to rabbet through a lot of knots. Cedar can have some squirrelly grain so it helps to slit the back edge of the rabbet before starting:

Easy Score.jpg

This a Stanley marking gauge with the pin sharpened like a knife blade. It leaves a nicely scribed edge to the rabbet.

Time to make some shavings:

Shaving the Rabbet.jpg

After the rabbet plane reaches depth (here it is just shy of 3/8") the rabbet is checked and adjusted for square as needed. Here are the planes used on this step.

De Planes.jpg

This could all be done with only a standard rabbeting plane and a smoother. Here the smoother is a #3 sized plane. The other planes are a shoulder plane and a pair of side rabbets. For me these planes make it a lot easier for cleaning up any roughness on the rabbet walls. If one only has a rabbet plane then cut all the rabbets first before changing the setting to do the clean up. It may also be a good idea to sharpen the blade before starting. Mine was recently sharpened, but after today it would probably do good to give it a hone before the next time it gets a workout.

Here is the stack of finished runners/rails for the shelves.

Pieces of Eight.jpg

Next will be the sides and dovetails.

jtk

-- to be continued

[ken hatch]

Jim,

Nice write up....I will be following.

ken

[Bill Adamsen]

I too will follow. What does the finished product look like. I can also be patient and wait 'till done.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Jim. Anything that will be used outside reveals the quality of the build with how well it stands up. So, safe to say your customers will appreciate your efforts as they use these for years.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Jim,

+1 more on enjoying the post. My wife and I currently live in a dry and windy area, and since living here have done very little gardening. We also live on a south edge of town, where there is little to nothing to block the dry hot wind so gardening is tough in our yard. A friend lives just a half mile away or so, but has lots of trees, fences, and houses between him and the south edge of town, and the difference in the potential for a garden is amazing.

In a few years, however, we are planning to move to where one set of kids and grandkids live, which has excellent gardening potential. I used to have a pretty large and productive garden, so the potting bench is interesting both as a woodworking project and as a potential useful item for gardening. (I used to do most of my own nursery work for the garden plants.)

At any rate count me as one more who is enjoying the post and also looks forward to more as the projects winds its way along toward completing. I hope they sell well.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

What does the finished product look like.

Here are some from the past:

Potting Bench in Truck.jpg

This one was put on the truck and sold before any decent pictures were taken.

Potting Bench.jpg

This one took a while to sell. During the months when the farmers market was closed I changed the back:

Potting & Other Benches.jpg

All the items in this image have been sold except the tool tote.

jtk

[Reinis Kanders]

Nice work Jim. Those benches can sell well in suburban market, William Sonoma now even sells chicken coops and potting benches ($600). Your bench looks better than theirs.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/produ...-NoFacet-_--_-

I have about 1/2 acre garden/orchard that keeps me quite busy during the season, but honestly never felt a need for a potting bench.

[Jim Koepke]

I have about 1/2 acre garden/orchard that keeps me quite busy during the season, but honestly never felt a need for a potting bench.

A potting bench comes in handy if you do a lot of starts from cuttings or if a lot of your garden is in containers.

We always tell potential buyers the dry sink can be filled with a bag of ice for backyard parties.

Today the end pieces for the shelves were cut. First the story stick was marked:

Setting End Rail Cut.jpg

Everything was set and checked (and rechecked) for square. The fat mark indicates the piece being cut proud.

Here it is used with a try square to mark the stock:

Setting the Square.jpg

The head stock is set against the end, the square moved into place, the stick is set up against the vise and the line is scored with a knife.

The stock is then moved to the cutting benches seen behind me in this and the next picture.

After the piece is cut, the stock is checked and any chaff is knocked off the end with a block plane so it doesn't throw off the next mark:

Shaving the Chaff.jpg

The story stick can be seen here leaning against the tail vise.

After all the end pieces were cut it was on to cutting the tails on the front and back rails.

A pair of dividers was used to step off 1//4 of the width of the rail. This was used to step in from the edges. This makes the outside of the tail 1/2 of the total width and the pins 1/4 of the outside width. Both ends of all the rails were marked with a pencil before marking the tail angles.

Tail Layout.jpg

Then the each board was scribed with a wheel gauge and the angled cut lines were drawn on the face:

More Tail Layout.jpg

This was done by laying out the tail on both ends of a rail, cutting it out and then going to the next rail. It actually went fairly smoothly and ended up like this:

Sixteen Tails.jpg

Next it is cutting the pins.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

The first step in many an endeavor is getting organized. The making of two of anything needs to start organized and stay organized.

This means marking the work:

Getting Organized.jpg

For this project there is top shelf and bottom shelf, front pieces and back pieces. The least attractive piece will be on the bottom back. Pieces are marked | or || for bottom or top respectively. There is an arrow drawn to indicate the show side. These marks are all in the waste area of the pin board. Other marks will be on the pieces in areas where they will not show.

Often I have noticed my dovetails fit better later into the project. So it has become my practice to start with the least to be seen or worst corner to start my dovetails.

Before cutting the pins, the tails are checked for square and are given any attention needed:

This is also a good time to check all the pieces for uniformity in length and make any adjustments as needed.

Once all the tail boards are checked and attended the first pins are marked.

Making A Mark.jpg

The set up is pretty much standard dovetail. The vertical piece was up against the pin board and used to set the tail board's top flush with the top of the pin board. The square was used to keep everything honest. A knife is used against the tail to mark the end grain of the pin board.

The marks on the end grain are used to line up a wheel gauge to mark the depth.

Inside Layout.jpg

It actually helps a bit when it is time to pare to have the gauge marks extend a touch past the cut lines. Here the gauged lines were darkened with pencil for clarity. The arrow (looks like a line with an X) points up. The 1Ω (omega) matches a mark on the tail board. These marks are on the inside of the pin board and will be hidden after the pieces are glued.

There are many ways to cut dovetails. Here is what works for me. First the kerf is lightly started, sawing from the outside face:

Starting Pin Cut.jpg

Then the saw is tipped back to "saw to the line" while staying in the starting kerf to keep the saw on line:

Down To The Line.jpg

When the scribed depth line is reached, the saw is leveled out to cut the other side.

Finishing The Pin Cut.jpg

The waste was cut out with a fret saw on this piece due to my having some concern about the knot. Since my skill is getting better with a fret saw they all may be sawn first then pared. This makes sense with cedar since it is easy to compress and make a mess of it all.

More Paring.jpg

Often mentioned as a test for sharpness is being able to pare pine end grain. Cedar is a bit more difficult to pare cleanly than pine.The inside of the joint was chamfered to help prevent chip out. Still had just a little. That is why most of the paring is done from the outside. The knot made for some denser wood here. We will see how it goes on the next piece

One Down Fifteen To Go.jpg

First one looks good, now just fifteen more like it.

jtk

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice fit! I like the proportions of those dovetails as well.

[Jim Koepke]

Actually it should be Depins, depins, depins since that was today's work. First off here is the first shelf frame finished with dimensions for those who want some:

Shelf Frame.jpg

After this was fit together an idea came to me of making a pair of sliding blocks with points for a story stick so they can be used for checking the squareness of a frame. Another project for another day.

For marking the tails the pin board is brought up flush with a piece for the tail board to rest upon. It is also set square to the bench top:

Square to Bench.jpg

Then another piece is set up to be a guide for the tail board to butt against. This is also checked for square:

Square to Tail Board.jpg

You can see in some of the images that my scribe line doesn't go much beyond the edge of the socket. With single tail set ups this works. It might not be so easy with multiple dovetails on a single board.

In the past my method of choice for removing waste when making dovetails was to chop with a chisel. Lately my ability with a fret saw has been improving and it seems faster to cut most of the waste by sawing. With chopping there is a tendency to cause tear out, especially in softer woods.

Before paring the waste left after sawing the inside of the socket is chamfered to the scribe line:

Chamfpering the Socket.jpg

My preferred chisels for this have a skewed edge. These are made from 1/2" square sided chisels. They are also quite helpful in cleaning dovetails sockets.

After chamfering the inside, the piece is flipped and the initial paring is done from the outside down to the scribed line.

Trying to remove too much at a time when paring can cause tear out:

Tear Out - Right.jpg

Here it is seen on the right where a thick shaving was removed. Chopping out the waste can leave what look to be big canyons at the bottom of a socket or between tails if done too aggressively.

On the left the white lines that look like scratches are from nicks in the chisel's cutting edge. Most of my sharpening of late has been on a couple of fine oil stones. Since the nicks do not impair the chisel's ability to cut a fine shaving the time hasn't been taken to soak a coarse stone and work out the little nicks.

jtk

[Jeff Ranck]

This has been interesting to read and learn how you work with that cool story stick of your. Keep it coming!

[Jim Koepke]

The shelf frames are finished. The story stick seems to work for checking squareness:

Checking For Square.jpg

It could be much more eloquent. It will be put on the to do list with improvements tossed in.

jtk

[Daniel Rode]

I don't have any plans to make a potting bench any time soon but I still love following along as you build. If my wife sees yours, I may be building one sooner that expected.

I work with pine a lot. It will test you patience and the sharpness of your tools. When you can get a smooth surface along the baseline of a dovetail in pine, you're doing it right Nice work, Jim and thanks for taking the time to photograph and post your build.

[Jim Koepke]

Out of the shop a few days.

Today was mostly spent prepping the shelf slats. Three planes and a drill press. (Oh the humanity!!!) The shelf slats are all 19" long.

The planes were a #4, #5 and a #102.

The #4 was used for smoothing mostly:

Smoothing.jpg

It was often necessary to skew the plane to get more of a slicing action.

The #5 was used mostly on the edges:

Edging.jpg

The #5 was occasionally called into service for smoothing as was the #4 to help tame the edges in places.

The #102 was used for breaking the corners:

Breaking Edge.jpg

My left hand is supporting the piece during this procedure. At times my left hand was doing the planing or at other times the #102 was pulled depending on how the grain was running.

and chamfering the ends:

End Chamfer.jpg

The dogs on the bench help hold the piece steady for this. Then the center dog is just pressed back down to make way for the next piece.

A guide was made to help pre-drill the holes for the 4d galvanized nails.

Pilot Drill.jpg

This helps to prevent the top piece from splitting. The galvanized nails do not rust and discolor the wood. The desired angle was eyeballed with a bevel gauge used to make the fixture. The drill is set to the center of the fixture and then there are guide blocks on either side to place the holes. They look a lot nicer with even spacing than with the variation that comes if they are driven without pilot holes.

My plan is to make one "premium" bench with a dry sink and minimal knots on the shelf slats. The second bench will be offered at a lower price without a sink and the shelf slats will have some knots.

It won't surprise me if people buy the "standard" model for a price savings.

My father had a furniture store. People would come in and look at a roll top desk and say they could get it for about half the price somewhere else.

He finally started carrying the lower priced model. He would show people how one was made of solid oak, the other of particle board, plywood and veneers. He would explain the joinery. He would have them lift the light end of each. Most could lift the inexpensive one. Most couldn't lift the oak model. Still, people decided they wanted the less expensive model.

jtk