Making a bench

My neighbor down the street gave me a chunk of cedar that I immediately thought "Bench". I used my handy dandy 14 inch electric chain saw to cut off the rotten end. Then sanded the bottom and made some quick legs from some old but still good 4x4s I had laying around.

 The only problem with this is that my screws are 4 inch too so I had to drill with my biggest drill bit down about an inch and a half and then use my long bit holder and screw down into the holes.

I cut my angles at 30 degrees at 17 inches to the ground. I forgot to account for the 4x4 on top I needed since the cedar is very wavy so my bench turned out a little high. My toes can touch the ground or swing.

I put the leg assembly together and then eyeballed where I wanted them on the bottom of the bench. I marked both sides with a pencil.

If you have to use more than one piece then you eyeball from the top down; the legs will stand pretty good on their own. If you have just straight planks then screw them down.

I had to use a router with just a straight bit on it to take down the high spots inside the lines I marked for the 4x4s because of the waves. Just move slowly and take off just a little at a time. On one side I had to do half the side and the other just a few spots higher than the rest. I recommend safety goggles and ear protection since routers will spit chips and can whine if you try to take off too much wood.

I test it my leg assembly in my new grooves. I now have to drill holes to attach the leg assembly to the bench. I put in two screws on each side and flip the bench to see if my legs are even. They aren't.

With a free beautiful wavy piece of wood I don't mind cutting a little more. Judging my wobble I had three legs fine and one too long so I used my chainsaw to chop the end. Then I flip it back and attach the rest of the screws.

I sanded the edges and put polyurethane on the bottom and legs of the bench.

The next day I did the top.Next blog post will be about that and you can see the finished bench after I did some bas relief wood carving into it.