Project Information
My youngest son's school recently built a chicken coop, but there was no place for the students to sit while they observed the chickens. So I designed and built this bench with a few goals in mind: 1) Use only standard decking ipe lumber which is 5.25" Wide x 3/4" thick (which I had left over from a family member's deck project). 2) Make it super strong and durable enough to hold up to both weather elements and the abuse that naturally comes from active school children.
For added strength, I used threaded rods (see last picture) to tighten the spacers which were also Tite-bond III glued and screwed in place. The legs were made from three pieces of the decking lumber glued up and then tapered down to 2.25" at the bottom (same as thickness from the three 3/4" boards that were glued up). Hard to explain, but for the top of the legs two of the boards were longer such they they would fit and act like the spacers and in this way attach in a very strong way (thus the threaded rod goes through the top of the legs as well).
The front and back rails are glued/screwed/plugged into place to cover the threaded rods and bolts. The finish is ipe Clip Oil which really brings out the color compared to untreated (see next to last picture). The bench is six feet long and 18" high. It is VERY stout and weighs in at 86 pounds!
For added strength, I used threaded rods (see last picture) to tighten the spacers which were also Tite-bond III glued and screwed in place. The legs were made from three pieces of the decking lumber glued up and then tapered down to 2.25" at the bottom (same as thickness from the three 3/4" boards that were glued up). Hard to explain, but for the top of the legs two of the boards were longer such they they would fit and act like the spacers and in this way attach in a very strong way (thus the threaded rod goes through the top of the legs as well).
The front and back rails are glued/screwed/plugged into place to cover the threaded rods and bolts. The finish is ipe Clip Oil which really brings out the color compared to untreated (see next to last picture). The bench is six feet long and 18" high. It is VERY stout and weighs in at 86 pounds!