I've been spending a lot of time looking at bench designs as we need one for our 'hallway' by the door. It's the first thing I've really designed and built from scratch so the process has been a really good experience.
As always, I made alterations and tweaks along the way such as changing the distance between the slats (wider as you move away from the centre) and leaving a gap between the end of the slats and the frame. I also made good use of the table saw again, cutting a step out of the top piece making a ledge for the slats to sit on and for cutting mortices in the bottom pieces. The materials cost about US$15.
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| The two iterations of the design in Sketchup (this one has more slats and is slightly longer) |
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| The shed and table saw set up. |
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| It's great to be woodworking outside on days like this |
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| The frame pre-oiling. (Very messy shed, I know) |
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| Test assembly success! |
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| After the stain/seal had dried |
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| Here you can see the mortices are staggered: 2" and 1" deep and the opposite on the other side |
If you are interested, check out my mid century modern furniture business Trystcraft . I find, restore, refinish (no chalk paint!) and repair mid century modern furniture and ship it worldwide.
