Purpleheart and Cedar Garden Bench

Nice work! You must have gotten a great buy on the purpleheart to make the cost less than $50.

I am curious why you did not make another stretcher on the front legs? Was this to make it easy to store things underneath?

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

It helped that the fence boards totaled less than $20.
I think I paid $4.50bf for the purpleheart and used less than 5 bf.

I left the front open because my sister wanted to set in front of it to do her potting.
The slats let the excess potting soil fall through and the open front gives easier access to recover this soil.

-- Leon -- Houston, TX - " I create all my own designs and it looks like it "

for me, the downfall of this table would be that I wouldn’t want to cover it with potting soil!

as for the background, was this picture taken during Christmas time, or do you have neighbors like me that don’t take down their lights!

-- ~ www.darrylmasterson.com ~ www.woodworkingdungeon.blogspot.com ~

It was made as a christmas present and I left it in the front yard when my sister came over for Christmas dinner to surprise her.

-- Leon -- Houston, TX - " I create all my own designs and it looks like it "

There are many simple ways to build a table. I did not choose any of those.

well isn’t that the truth—this is one fancy bench for potting!!!!

this is simply magnificent.

beautiful

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Great looking bench. I do like the contrast.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Nice purpleheart accents!

-- John

Nicely done. I love that you used a finish that allows the natural colors of the wood to be shown. Unless I absolutely have to match some other piece, I try hard to let the wood do the coloring.

Great job!

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

This is a really unique table. Are you going to enter it in the contest?

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Very nice potting bench. You should definitely enter it in the garden contest.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Outstanding workmanship Leon!

-- Carpe Lignum - Seize The Wood,

You are lucky someone didn’t nick it before your sister saw it. Very nice!

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

Well, the hours were worth it. Love the purpleheart!

-- cheers, Claire (in Oz!)

Another great project gone to pot—-ting. Nice job.

-- Rob (A) Waxahachie,TX

Man, that’s nice. I’m sorry I missed it the first time around!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

A very nice combination of wood. This will be a contender.

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Very pretty bench.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Thanks to all for all the nice comments. I only discovered LumberJocks about a month ago but I’m really enjoying it. The web site is awesome and everyone has been very encouraging.

I may dust off my camera and post a few more projects.

-- Leon -- Houston, TX - " I create all my own designs and it looks like it "

Purpleheart is great looking wood, I like it myself even though I’ve found it tough to work with. Excellent job!

-- --Chuck

I am glad this came out of the archives. I have a bunch of cedar I took off my deck, just waiting to be used.

-- Maplewood, MN

I hope you don’t follow my design too closely. This is actually more of a table than a bench.
I did sit on it ( once ) and it was none too sturdy. End to end is pretty stable but front to back is not stiff enough. I connected the slats with spacers and with dowels running through the slats and spacers. Neither the cedar or purpleheart slats we very stiff.

Plus the dowels and spacers were a pain in the butt to cut and align. I think I’d add more cross pieces instead of the spacers and dowels. I’d probably notch the cross pieces with a dado blade and attach them under the slats so they don’t show so much.

Good luck with your project. I’m anxious to see the result.

-- Leon -- Houston, TX - " I create all my own designs and it looks like it "