The One Day Bench

I wanted a quick project I could start and finish in a day. It just so happens that the older version of this bench had reached end of life and needed replacement. (I had made it with pine and 12 years in the Vancouver rain ended it's life prematurely.) I really like this particular bench for a few reasons.
1) It's sturdy.
2) It uses dimensional lumber you can pick up at the home centre.
3) It's construction is simple. You could make the hole thing with a hand saw and a hammer if you wanted to.

This particular bench design has some sentimental value for me. Portions of the original are at my Grandmother's lake property near Prince George. I replaced the legs on it about 15 years ago. The story I have is that several of them were made for a company softball tournament and she got to take one home. (I could have that story completely wrong.) As I mentioned, I built the whole thing in a day including the finish. This time I made it out of pressure treated so I think it will last a lot longer. The whole bench cost me $50.00 to make.

I don't have plans but I'll explain as best I can and detail the measurements and it should be enough. The size I made used 7 2x4's.
1) The bench is 48 inches wide. You can vary this up to 8 feet.
2) The front legs are 16 inches.
3) The middle stretcher is 28 inches. (This was the only improvement over the original. Gives it more lateral support.)
4) The piece that defines the back height is 25 inches with a slight curve at the top for aesthetics.
5) The back leg is 17 inches with a 15 degree cut for the bottom and a 60 degree cut at the top.
6) The seat supports are cut at a 15 degree angle with the long part at 21 1/2 inches.

Construction is very straight forward. Most pieces are simply cut to length. The only tricky pieces to cut are the 15 degree angles on the four seat supports and the back leg. The back leg starts with the angle cut on the bottom and the 60 degree cut starting from the long side on the other end. It's this angle that defines the angle of the back rest which is 15 degrees. I cut it with a chop saw but it's tricky since the saw only goes to 47 degrees so you have to shift the piece 90 degrees and make a 30 degree cut. A skill saw would work too. I assemble the inside half of each leg and attach the cross support before adding the second set of seat supports. Just remember that the projection beyond the seat supports of the back leg needs to match the projection of the front leg so that the bench sits flat. The location of the backrest piece becomes obvious once you have the back leg screwed on. The location of the seat and back slats on this version is 5 inches in from the ends though you would increase that as you make the bench bigger. I place the front seat slat with about a 1/2 inch overhang, the bottom right against the back and the two middle pieces equally spaced. The back slats start by adding the top one first and the bottom one about a 2x4 width up from the seat. The middle slat is then centered in the remaining space. Be sure to square up the seat when you assemble it. I also pre-finished all the pieces before assembly.

Giving a Christmas Tree a Second Chance

For the past 15 years we've had a fake tree. As a kid we always had a real tree but when I moved out my wife got her parents old tree and we've been using it ever since. This year we decided it would be fun to head to the Christmas Tree farm and get a real tree. My daughter wasn't too happy about cutting one down but she didn't mind 'saving' one from the tree lot. When Christmas was over however, sending the tree to the chipper wasn't a happy thought. Instead I took some time to hone my turning skills with a few simple projects.

The first project was pretty simple. A pencil holder. The centre was drilled out with a 2 3/8 forstner and the outside turned to about 3/8 of an inch thick. A bit of felt on the bottom and a shellac finish and it was done.

The second project was much less practical. A baseball bat made from a noble spruce isn't going to stay straight for long but it was a fun project. I wasn't sure on dimensions so I winged it by splitting it into thirds. One third for the thick part, one third for the thin part and one third for the transition. It turned out pretty well.

The final project was a simple vase for Valentine's Day. Centre was drilled out with a 3/4 auger bit and the outside was finished with wipe on poly and wax. I also had a small plastic insert so it can hold water for the flowers.

This was my first time turning green wood which is much more enjoyable. The only issue was the sap which was mostly in the bark layers. It left a film on my turning tools that was a bit of a pain to get off. Other than that, this was a great way to give a Christmas Tree a second chance at life.

A Shaker Style Kitchen Table

Our old kitchen table wasn't too exciting. It was round with drop leaves and a pedestal base and was a mass produced item. It served us well but needed to be refinished after too many hot dishes had been placed on it and several poorly supervised art projects had taken place without any thing to protect it. It was solid wood so refinishing was an option however this was a good opportunity to build something new.

Although we have a dining room, most of the eating takes place in the kitchen even when we have a couple of guests over. The 30 inch round table was a tight squeeze so this time we were looking for something a bit bigger. I've always liked the trestle table for it's ease of construction and it's timeless style. I didn't want something too contemporary that would look out of place in a decade. I also wanted to use good materials and proper construction so it would last a lifetime.

I can't really take any credit for the design of course since it's been around for a few hundred years. I took the base from a Fine Woodworking article and the finish technique from a table by Doucette and Wolfe. The top is solid cherry with bread board ends and the base is solid maple with pinned mortise and tenons. I had the most fun with the distressed finish on the base. A coat of red dye, followed by red milk paint, then black milk paint. The black milk paint was then sanded through enough to see the red before getting a few coats of a wipe on poly. I probably could have distressed the black a bit more but that will happen with time. So far I'm amazed at how stable this design is. There is enough play in the base that all legs sit on the floor without any wobble. So far the top has stayed nice and flat although I do have some concerns with how far apart I made the legs. At 62 inches for the top and a full four feet between centres on the legs it's a pretty long span and I'm concerned it may sag in the middle. If it does I'll just add a support immediately underneath. Even if it looks like an add on it will just be part of the tables history. Maybe it won't even be me that needs to do it.

A Pair of Gun Cabinets

In 1973 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police released a 100 anniversary gun to it's members. They were available to purchase and the first set sold out so quickly there was a second run. My father-in-law was a member at the time and purchase two of them from the first run. He moved a lot in the early years and the guns always came with him. He eventually had twin boys and decided he would give the guns to them. The only thing left to do was to get them mounted in a secure cabinet and that's where I came in.

The rules on gun storage aren't very strict other than that they have to be secured by a lock. The design is mostly my own and consists of a five inch deep dovetailed box with a spline reinforced door panel. Butt hinges and an older style lock with the two toothed key finish up the wood working. The interior panel is a red felt on 1/8 inch backer board and the mounts are simply two blocks of wood custom fit to each gun covered in felt. They keep the gun in position without being too invasive. It was a fun project.

Tool Cabinet (Almost Done)

Drawers, drawers, drawers. Why is it always the drawers that hold up completion? My hand tools were starting to add up and I had several layers of them in a drawer in lower cabinets. With the purchase of another Lee valley plane it seemed like it was time to build a better place to store them. I'm not entirely sure what I need in a wall cabinet so in some ways this is a prototype though I will likely use it for several years. I kept materials simple using poplar and baltic birch plywood. The joinery was through dovetails on the case and finger joints for the doors. The first major mistake came with the finger joints and will be the reason that I keep the doors open most of the time. I flipped one of the doors when cutting the grooves for the plywood panels and as a result the finger joints run top to bottom on one door and left to right on another. Not a huge mistake especially when the doors are open but noticeable when the doors are closed. Rather than trying to create too many fitted locations for little bits and pieces I opted for drawers. My rough sketch plans showed four columns of three but a second mistake resulted in the drawer section being split into three instead of four. We'll call this one a design modification. The only real impact was that I find that drawers that are longer than they are wide slide better in their opening. These are almost square so it shouldn't be too bad. Everything you see here has been finished, and the only thing outstanding is the drawers. I'm hoping to get to those in the next couple weeks. I'm finding even the little shelves are handy though. The only issue is that things get pushed to the back and are hard to retrieve. Drawers should help that.

Building a 'B' House

A quick post for a quick project. If I had a gardening blog, this project would belong there but there is wood involved so I'll mention it here. Every garden needs a bit of whimsy. I've been reading about the plight of bees lately and learned about mason bees. They live solitary lives rather than in colonies and like to lay their eggs in small tunnels. The centre portion is made of pine with 5" holes drilled in it. I found the hollow sticks in a nearby park. I think they are a bit too big but they were all I could find this spring. I may try to replace them next year if no one moves in. The glass beads are a bit of an experiment. They're placed in a cookie sheet so that the whole thing collects water. The theory is that the bees will be able to drink from it. If I don't get any tenants it may be the bright colours and shiny surfaces causing the problems. I'll leave them for now and replace with small pebbles next year. I've got it on the ground for the picture but I've since attached it to a Southeast facing fence.

If you're interested in learning more about mason bees I found a lot of great information on this site.
(http://www.foxleas.com/bee_house.htm)

Doors Are My Nemesis

Doors are my nemesis.

I have no idea why but doors are always the part of a project that slow me down. I go gangbusters on the main part of the project and then when it comes time to do the doors, I make every excuse to not get started on them.
This particular project actually started early last year. I typically start gardening in March so it's usually best if I get a project done before the end of February, otherwise it can get stuck. That was definitely the case with this one. Majority of the piece was done quickly but I just had the doors remaining. I'm not even sure why I procrastinate on them. They're not overly difficult and if you mess them up you can always start over without losing too much time or material. If I had to guess it's probably from some of my shop projects. The doors always came last since the rest of the project was already functional without them. That isn't the case for a finished piece like this set of book shelves.

Well enough ranting about doors. I've had a nice set of book shelves on my bucket list for a while. I had done a built in at our previous house which of course couldn't come with us when we moved so this time I wanted a nice stand alone piece. I went with this plan from PlansNow.com because I liked the fact that it looked like a piece of furniture. Having the shelves covered will keep out the dust and I got to try my hand at installing a lock. If you haven't done one before, make sure you understand what 'distance to pin' means when buying the lock. I had to go back a second time.

Installing the hinges has become a fairly routine task for me now. For this piece, despite having to align three sets of hinges per side, careful layout and clean chisel work turned out perfectly. The wood is white oak with an aniline dye and wipe on polyurethane for the finish. The plugs are purple heart. All the important parts are solid wood though I did go with plywood for the side panels and the shelves. The side panels turned out fine but I think next time I'll try to go with solid wood for the shelves. Despite being a total of 1" thick, there is still a small amount of bow in the shelves.