Here’s my contribution to the Garden Bench show. I based this from a design in Fine Wood Working Magazine, August 2000 edition. I used all white oak saved from a work bench at the back of an old barn we cleaned out last summer. Everything in the bench (except the hardware), came from three 2” x 8” x 8’ Oak bench top pieces. After I got the back rest drawn out from the pattern I transferred to full size paper. I say based, because I made a couple of minor changes to the back lattice pattern, to use the lumber I had available.

This has lived on my porch, and has been fantastic for everything from a Beer Summit with my neighbors, shoe changing station, and place for the mailman to leave packages.

I assembled the back first, and learned that if a little Gorilla Glue is good, then a little more is a major cleanup waiting to get on everything. Spent lots of time with a sharp chisel and sandpaper to finally clean that up, but the bench is rock solid, weighs in at about 100 pounds. Light oil finish at this point, letting it weather for another year or two before I polyurethane the finish.

About 16 hours in the project.

Q

My planes used to live in a drawer in my toolbox, or in my travel box.
I was inspired by Douglas Bordner’s plane till, < http://lumberjocks.com/projects/10143 > ( who I understand was inspired by Thomas Angle’s collection < http://lumberjocks.com/projects/3018 ).

In concept I wanted something a little more flexible in arrangement, and in practice perhaps a little quicker to build.

I had a single board that I had salvaged from an old workbench. Using my deWalt planer, this board demolished a set of blades but it pulled out some character that I had no idea how to incorporate into anything else I was working on. As tough as this was on the deWalt, I thought of how glad I was that I wasn’t trying to sweat through this with a hand plane. Then it struck me that the perfect use for this would be as a plane hanger.

Just imagine how grateful all these old Stanley’s are that I didn’t make them do this piece? I didn’t want to hide any of the character, so with a little strategic placing of the hanger pegs, I get to display the character of the wood along with some of my traditional tools.

Pegs are 1/2” hardwood, 4 “ in length 3 1/4” exposed. Holes drilled with a 6” spacing at 6* angle. Block planes are on 3/8” hardwood, 4” length at a 4” spacing. Very light Early American stain with one coat of tung oil finish. Held to wall studs with 3” drywall screws. Entire unit can transfer to new workshop emerging from the basement clutter soon.

What a wonderful afternoon with my three year old, building a hula hoop instead of watching Sponge Bob.

This is completely inspired by by Marks blog …Plans for Making A Wooden Hoola Hoop for a 7 Year Old Girl – By Rachel DeCou…http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/5937

Step one of the instructions…”Make a circle of wood.”

I started with a standard 2”x4” , cut 10 strips 1” wide by about 1/8th”.

Soaked in hot water in a pvc pipe for 15 minutes.

Coaxed into a round shape with a ratchet strap for outside tension, a spare tire for inside shape and tension and my three year old applying white glue…

Glue on the strips, glue on the tire, glue on me, glue on the camera, the only thing not glued down was the laughter…

Imagine trying to push spaghetti through a straw…

This is drying overnight, tomorrow knock down some rough spots, round over the edges and on to step two…” Paint the whole thing.”

So far this weighs in at less than 16 oz. with a 24” diameter. ( Standard is about 28” but I didn’t want to take a wheel off of my truck…)

Q

Found this in some barn wood I was recycling.

These boards were part of a loft floor from an old barn that was built prior to the 1940’s. Interesting mix of oak, walnut, sycamore and poplar. This was a flooring board, so I’m guessing that the bullet was in the tree before it was harvested. No copper jacket, and the size appears to be a .22 caliber.

My little wizard metal detector found this bullet near a knot. I started to dig it out then remembered a post on LJ’s about letting the bullet run through the planer, the soft lead and copper shouldn’t damage the blades.(http://lumberjocks.com/topics/2864)

I did and it didn’t.

There’s a lot of character and possible story with this piece, I’m looking for suggestions about how to best use this piece.

Q

Captions again…

My outdoor workshop…I used a snow shovel to pick up the shavings. I burned up this Craftsman saw on this project…I think I’m going to convert it into a router table.

Short doors with paint and other trim completed

Upper stairs and partial shot of the ceiling finish

Captions…

Removing the professionally installed stairs and railings. Top half of stairs has had a 9”rise and 10” step, lower had a variable 10 or 11 inch rise with the same 10” step. These were dangerous for the homeowner and guests. I widened the platform at the tob, raised the platform in the center and extended the lower stairs for a uniform 7” rise and 11” inch step.

Clamps were too short, so we used the tie down straps during glue up and asssembly.

Installed rails…not a bad look for some shipping crates and couple of used 2”x4”s

The stairs to the loft were an afterthought in the design of this cabin. The original plan called for a ladder, but after the owner tried using it, they realized that what looks good on paper wasn’t practical for their use.

With only a few minor exceptions, all the lumber for this is left over or recycled from another part of the cabin build. Most of the stair storage area is recycled from the 2×6 scaffolding used to build the cabin. 3/4 plywood is older from a warehouse and shipping containers. ( Amazing how good that recycled stuff looks after running it through a planer, just bring your metal detector and extra blades.)

None or this cabin was built by professional contractors, all labor was family members working weekends and vacations to erect the structure. I think one of them owned a square and a level…but left it in the truck because the chainsaw is quicker without them….

A contractor was on site trying to install the stairs and other finish work…but quit after attempting to start. Reference the non square build.

I originally showed up on site to install ceramic tile around the woodburning stove platform…which led to finish the drywall, stair construction, paintwork and trim installation.

The tall door comes from 3 leftover 2”x4”s and half a sheet of beadboard, the two shorter doors are the other half of the sheet of beadboard and a couple of 2”x6”s. The tall door at 7” is unique to allow full access to store his step ladder and so Sasquatch won’t have to duck when he comes to visit.

More to the story later.