Garden Bench with Table #1: Sketchup plans

You guys with the Sketchup skills make me deeply jealous.

Nice job – and so fast!

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com

Hey, I’ll trade you skills if you want! ;)

The nice thing about Sketchup is everything comes-out perfect. If my woodworking skills would only match I’d be in good shape. :)

sketchup is so awesome (if you know how to use it which i don’t). you’ve got a great start here! thanks for the post!

Greg, thanks for the Sketchup!

-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - http://www.woodworkersguide.com

That is just what I have been looking for thanks for the info. I use Cad and I will see if I can put it in that also.

Greg,

This is a nice looking design. You have a good start on this piece. It is a shame that you have to wait 2 weeks to start it but it will be worth the wait.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Nice Sketchup work! I like the 3D cutlist.

-- Women love me.....trees fear me

Favorited! Thanks for the work you put into this. I made the mistake of showing my wife, and now it’s on my to-do list.

-- Living on the square...

I put it together this morning in about 4 hours. I love building stuff in Sketchup. I’m starting to get pretty good at it.

Is your background in computers?

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com

Yeah, I’ve been playing with PC’s since I was 10. I run the computer system in the school system I work in. I always like computers because my handwriting stinks and I can’t even draw a conclusion. Computers let me express my creativity without the ability to draw a straight line. :)

I made a slight boo-boo with the material list and cutting diagram. I forgot the inside seat bases were 1” longer to meet the front rail. You can see the difference here:

I updated the material list and cutting diagram, so you may want to download them again:

http://cid-258899c12334cc4d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Garden%20Bench

Thank you for the great post. Being mindful of what Damocles posted I’ll just favourite this and show my wife later when I get a little further along on my project list :-)

The cut list is really well done, very clear.

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark

Nice work Greg. I am computer savy but don’t know Sketch Up. What do you recommend as the best way to learn it? Just dive in or have you discovered something to flatten the learning curve. Also the files are read only will this prevent us “copiers” from bringing the file in Sketch Up and modifying it?

Rickey,

I’ve noticed if you open the file directly from SkyDrive they give you that read-only message, so just save it somewhere first before opening it and you should be fine. You could also do a save-as as well.

As for learning Sketchup, the Google tutorials are a great place to start:

http://download.sketchup.com/OnlineDoc/gsu_win/GoogleSketchUpHelp.htm

http://download.sketchup.com/downloads/training/tutorials50/Sketchup%20Video%20Tutorials.html

For woodworking related Sketchup work, I learned a great deal from Gary M. Katz, in particular check his Bookcase video and follow-along:

http://www.garymkatz.com/recent_articles.html

Nice job on sketchup. I need to get better with that and save myself the money on plans. Have fun with the bench!!

-- Steve-o