quick and dirty benches

[caveman]

A few weeks ago my daughter asked if I could make some benches for the guests at her wedding to sit on.  I agreed, but let her know that I did not have nearly enough dry bench slabs to make benches and we would have to saw some.  All of  the water oak logs I have had lying around for awhile were sawn, doused with Solubor, sticker stacked for a few days/weeks and run through the planer.

Initially I intended to make metal legs out of 2" square tube but after getting the cost of tubing, I decided to cut some really crappy logs into 3"x3" 's, then make them in to octagons to ease turning them on the lathe.  After turning 16 legs my daughters let me know that they preferred the octagon legs.  This saved a few minutes on each leg as it was taking almost five minutes each to turn them. 

The legs were glued and a screw was added to each one.  A week or so before the wedding, which is less than a month away, we will flip the benches over on the mill and make them level.  I anticipate some of the green slabs will misbehave so they will have a little more time to get their wiggles out.  Some have character while others may become characters.  If they get too out of hand, I will burn them at the stake.

  

  

  

 

Yesterday my uncle and his friend came over to help as well as my parents.  I was debarking, cutting to length, running the router on the ends and marking holes while my uncle was drilling the mortises and his friend was gluing.  Any time I would get ahead, I would drill and glue also.

My folks wiped thinned boiled linseed oil on the legs and bench tops.  Yesterday we assembled 19 benches before 1 p.m. to add to the 15 we did the past two weekends.  Someone offered to let us borrow 60-80 benches so hopefully we will not have to make anymore right away-just get these ready to go.

[AK Newbie]

The benches look great!

[Savannahdan]

Nice looking benches.  Sounds like you'll have around 100+- with the borrowed benches.  That's a lot of hineys, OOPS guests.

[WDH]

A labor of love.

[WV Sawmiller]

Caveman,

   A post right up my alley! I have been making a few log benches similar to what you are doing and have similar posts in this section. Differences include I cut mine about 4" thick and drill a 3" mortise and cut a 3" tenon on the end of the legs. The hard part was getting the angle right for the legs so they were not a trip hazard extending out too far or unstable and simply fall over. The easy part was leveling as I just put the bench on the mill upside down, set blade wide and cut off excess at 17". Some specific questions about your technique:

How thick are the slabs used (Look to be about 2")?

How deep is your mortise/Tenon?

What is the diameter of your tenon/mortise?

Do you add the screw from underneath or from the top?

What size/type screw?

You mention thinned boiled linseed oil - how much did you thin it?

Have you used such linseed oil mix on fairly green wood or were your slabs pretty dry?

If so how well does it hold up?

   I have a couple of recently finished ash benches and am aching to go put linseed oil on them before I try to sell them. Thanks for the post and any additional info will be gravy.

[caveman]

WV, I'll try to answer your questions. 
? 1.  Slabs were cut at 2" - kerf, planed until flat
? 2.  2" tenon and mortise.  As the legs dried they fit a little looser.
?3.  Most of the mortises were 1 5/8".  A few got too deep and the benches have added character.
?4/5  A 3" deck screw was added from the bottom and cross grain at a relatively shallow angle.
?6.   Thinned about 50%, which raised the grain.  We will sand and oil again before using them.
?7.  The slabs are green although some of the logs have been lying around for a few years.  I sticker stacked them and placed in front of fans for a week or two but they are wet on the inside.
?8  These are all water oak slabs so I doubt they will last long if exposed to the elements but on a covered porch they should do okay.

I would have liked to have had time to properly dry them but my daughter just mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she would like benches and I am trying to save a few bucks.  If they are well behaved, they may get sold on CL or offered to one or more of the local wedding venues for rent or purchase.

I have done several benches that are similar out of cedar, which had much lower MC, but this is experimental.

Danny, this is definitely a labor of love although I could have spent my spring break getting blown around the Gulf-the wind was humming today.

[WV Sawmiller]

Caveman,

   Thanks for the quick response.

   This has me thinking about using some 2" slabs, mortise all the way through, saw a split in my tenon, drive the legs on to/through the bottom of the bench, drive a 1-1/2" wooden wedge into the tenon end from the top, then saw the legs and excess tenon/wedge off on my mill. (My tenon cutter does 1-1/2" male end, 3" long with 60 degree shoulder.) Clamping to saw the tenon end off could take some thinking about or the legs might just fit between the bed rails on the mill and be no problem. Might take a little sanding or planing on the tenon end on the top of the bench. Then if the legs shrunk during additional drying could still drive a metal wedge in like on an ax head. Probably going to be more cabin/porch furniture rather than a millionaire's mansion (unless the Clampetts are still around).

   BTW - Congrats on the upcoming wedding. The advise I was given many years ago was to give your wife the checkbook and keep your mouth shut. (Actually my daughter has been very frugal in her weddings and we were quite lucky.)

[scleigh]

Nice work caveman. The things we do for our children.....

[Weekend_Sawyer]

First and foremost, congratulations!

Second, that's a very nice thing to do for your daughters wedding. Something that will never be forgotten.

Third, WOW I love your garage!!!! and is that a studebaker??!! too cool.

Jon

[caveman]

SavannahDan, I will probably throw together a few more benches but a friend has offered to let us use 60-80 of theirs.  Some of the benches will be used for the ceremony and then moved so folks can sit on them to eat supper.  As of now, we are planning on about 275-300 folks so we will still have to rent some chairs.

Weekend Sawyer, the car is a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk.  It belongs to my dad.  When we built that building in 1991 I thought it was way too big.  Stuff has a way of following us home and accumulating. 

Gotta run-state land judging contest today.

[hopm]

My daughter had one of her teammates who was recently married. She was going to use haybales and rough sawed lumber for seating. She asked if I had anything she could use. I had 50 or so rough cut 2x12's I told them they could use. I had no idea they were going to cut them to 4 and 8 foot lenghts!!! I got a little knot in my stomach when they brought back the shorter version......

[caveman]

The benches were a hit with a lot of the guests at the rehearsal tonight.  The owner of the lodge where the wedding will be tomorrow is interested in buying them but I do not know if it is in her budget right now.  I was hoping it would be in order to mitigate my financial responsibility to her for the wedding festivities/venue.  I will also need to make some more for folks who are helping decorate or serve food at the wedding as thank you gifts.

My alarm goes off in five hours for Jmoore and me to head back out there and cook a bunch of pork, chicken, beans and potatoes.  We will be using cherry wood for heat/flavor.

[Savannahdan]

Please take some pictures of the event.  Sounds like a sea of benches.

[WV Sawmiller]

Cavey,

   Glad to hear the benches were a hit and I like the idea of bartering for wedding costs. We like to barter here in WV. May be a real good deal for both of you (as any good barter trade should be).

   Be careful cooking with that cherry wood. I did a couple deer roasts and used cherry one time and it had a sour taste. Since then I have been leery of it. I try to use hickory, apple or oak but if you've had good luck with cherry keep on using it.

   I trust all will go well with the wedding today. My best wishes to both of them and to the rest of the family.

[WDH]

Howard,

Cherry is one of my favorite smoking woods.  Did yours have the bark on it?

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

   I am sure it did and I never debark any firewood. I had always heard fruit wood was supposed to be good for smoking and there may be another cause but I don't know what it was and I have just been leery of cherry ever since.

[caveman]

Well, the wedding is just a memory now.  I will retrieve the benches today but that is not entirely a bad thing other than they are heavy and I have to handle them again.  I owe a few folks big time for their help and coincidently several of them were inquired about buying benches- I think I have a thank you gift in order.  Fortunately, all of the folks who inquired about benches asked about different ones. 

The lodge where the reception and rehearsal dinner were held was really cool.  I have never seen so much wide pecky cypress in one place.  All of the walls, except for a relatively new addition, were covered with it.  The owner told me she would like to cover the knock down ceiling of the addition with pecky cypress.  I have some but not nearly enough to do that job.  I suggested she call Ellmoe at Bushnell Sawmill.  If anyone in our area could fill the bill it would be him.

Forestry Forum member JMoore helped me all day yesterday.  Together we smoked nearly 200 pounds of pork butts, 20 chickens, 12 gallons of green beans and 70 pounds of potatoes.  We spent a good deal of time pulling pork cutting up potatoes and onions (which we cooked with the potatoes).  My mother made the three tiered wedding cake, a gluten-free cake  and the chocolate groom's cake.  All were a hit, as the only evidence of their existence was a few crumbs and a picture or two.  My dad performed the ceremony (he is not a preacher but did a good job impersonating one) and both of our other daughters were bride's maids.  I do not look forward to breaking the plates of my other daughters and giving them the boot but Morgan, the oldest, had a good wedding.  The only advice I gave her and her new husband was to put as much effort into their marriage as they did their wedding and they would be fine.  I have a lot of other advice for them but it will come in small doses at opportune times.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Glad everything went well.
Benches look great.
Sure am sorry we didn't get together while I was a homeowner in Florida, but we may rent a place for a month or two in the future.

[caveman]

Pete, I look forward to meeting you.  The boy my daughter married had some relatives who attended the wedding who live in the Finger Lakes region.  One commented that a particular bench resembled one of the lakes but I do not remember the name of the lake.

  I think it was one of these.

Pecky Cypress was generously used in the lodge where the rehearsal dinner and reception were held.


  

  

 

[caveman]

John and I have been building a few benches lately.  Ironically, a month or so ago we cut several 8' oak slabs in half to make short benches.  That very afternoon a customer showed up and needed 17 live edged slabs -oops.  We were able to find enough for them but we were struggling to accomodate.

The most recent benches were from some 6' blue stained longleaf.  These slabs were from a log that narrowly dodged the burn pile.  They were kiln dried and the legs were found inside some 4x4's.  They are soaking up the oil and will take a few more applications.
 Several out of focus pictures.
 

 

Notice how dry the blue pine bench is in the bottom picture compared to the top. 

[WDH]

Really like those.   That blue pinebis so beautiful. 

[caveman]

Thanks, Danny.  They are soaking up the BLO.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow so I do not know if they will get more oil tomorrow or not (about 3" of rain in 2020, so no complaints) but the guy who is getting them likes the look.  If he decides he prefers oak benches when he gets here, I don't think we will have trouble moving these.  We have three more slabs from this log that are 18-20" wide that could flatten out to be something pretty cool.

The cherry log you gave me was drying in the kiln with this load.  Its slabs and some maple are crowding my workspace.  I don't know what we will make legs for those slabs out of.  Right now the options seem to be 1" square tube, or Ipe.  The Ipe is tough on draw knives, tenon cutters and the poor fellow holding them.  I hope all continue to do well and stay safe.

[caveman]

Update on the benches.  They guy left with the two pine benches he came for and two more shorter, oak benches.  Today was a welcomed rainy day so John and I planed a few more slabs and built a few more benches before lunchtime.  They still need finish but we, mainly he, sanded them prior to gluing the legs on.  This should be a time saver - YH's taking steps to save steps gets repeated to me daily by John.  


I had a weekly, online faculty meeting a little after noon and then spent the rest of the afternoon taking attendance and grading ag work submitted by computer, email, Microsoft team, text message and any other means students have to get it in.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I think this was the thread that started making 2" thick live edge slab benches. Before this I made them about 4" thick. I've made a bunch and have 3 - 6' RO logs parked in front of the mill to make some more. One thing that I have learned is it seems the shorter benches sell better than the long ones so mine will mostly be 3' or less unless a special order. Here is my process and lots of comments since started. https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=97464.20