English Garden Bench

After considering several possible new projects, I decided upon this one when it occurred to me that the first thing guests at our house saw was the two white resin/plastic chairs and table on our front porch. That's just not the way to greet guests at the house of a woodworker, is it? This project is from the book Building Garden Furniture by Ray Martin & Lee Rankin.

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Garden Bench
after one day on the project		 Garden Bench
after a few days on the project		 Garden Bench
Project Complete

The English Garden Bench is constructed entirely of Red Oak. For this project, I purchased my most expensive single piece of stock (so far): an 8/4 S2S piece of lumber which measured 11"x14'. I had the lumber yard cut it into 9' and 5' lengths, and together with the other three 8', 8', and 9' boards it just exactly fit into my Mazda Protege(!). Further, it was all that I and my table saw could do to rip that 9' long 8/4 sucker! I really need to purchase a couple of outfeed roller stands...

The directions for the Bench called for cutting the angled edges in the rear legs from the 8/4 stock using a jigsaw. Here's a tip: NO WAY JOSE! The jigsaw had no trouble cutting WITH the grain, but AGAINST the grain I got huge Cha-CHAWs as I went, and the cut was miserable. I ended up cutting a 2"x12" scrap at the correct angle and using it as a tapering jig on the table saw. Careful calculations of the blade height, etc., prevented an overcutting. I used the jigsaw with a thin kerf blade to finish up the cut, then a backsaw to cut the "flashing" flush.

Feb 28 - I'm nearly done with cutting all the pieces to shape and with only a little bit more work I should be able to dry-fit the bench together. I've purchased a couple of outfeed roller stands, and having done so I can heartily recommend plunking down the extra cash on the ones with the multiple ball-bearing-type top and a square shaft rather than the single rolling pin type with a round shaft. Hot Tip: I've also discovered that with the proper blade a jigsaw can cut right through 8/4 Oak.

Mar 28 - Assembly of the bench has been painfully slow because I don't have enough clamps to glue everything at once. The polyurethane glue I'm using requires 24 hours to set, so I've ended up gluing a few things at once, waiting overnight, then glueing up the next few pieces. I did purchase four 6-foot pipe clamps in order to glue up the frame, and it seems to have worked reasonably well.

May 2 - I've applied two coats of satin polyurethane to every surface, and three coats to the seat, backrest and handrails.

I started this project on January 31, 1999 and finished it on May 2. I spent about 52 hours on this project.

This page was last updated February 5, 2002