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