Making a bench - Part I

My trusty metal detector used to check for nails

  It seems that ever since I made the comment that I will try to reduce the size of my wood scrap pile I have hauled more wood home then I have used up what I have on hand.  This pile in the picture to the right came from Vanessa's (My daughter-in-law) grandfathers' barn which stood on the family farm.   A barn that has been torn down lately.   She is hoping that I could make a bench out of those boards that came from the farm where so many cattle were once raised.
   Again, there is no plan so this will be one of those "I hope - Keep your fingers crossed projects.

Making a little saw dust. 

  Now Vanessa has asked that I try to keep the boards with their rough appearance.   Basically I plan to build the bench and she plans to do the staining and varnishing.   (Rough appearance - that means very little sanding - Yes!!!)

  What I have done so far is work on the bench top.  Next week I will blog about the base part of the bench.

Hmm.  My thoughts are that bicycles are
made to hang from a ceiling.  

       I started out using three 2x6's that I had sawed to 50 inches long.  First I ran those boards through the thickness planer trying to reduce the thickness down to 1 inch.   The reason for that was to help reduce the weight.   The plan is for the top seat to be a lid that opens to a space where gloves and stocking caps can be kept.  Going from 1 1/2 inches thick to 1 inch thick should be eliminating 1/3 of the weight.  (Still it will be a pretty heavy lid if it comes down on your fingers).  





    I ran the board through my joiner to get the edges squared up as I planned to glue these three boards into one.

   The picture to the right shows the boards after they are cleaned up and squared away.   It looks like the seat is going to come with some old nail holes.    I probably dressed it up more than Vanessa would have liked.   I wanted the seat to be somewhat smooth.   (I'm thinking that my little bottom may sit there some day as I take my shoes off.)









   One of the jigs that I had made quite awhile ago is my gluing rack.    It works pretty slick and I have used it quite often.   I'm just not sure I have blogged about it before.   The clamps sit in groves.   The top is flat and square so it comes in handy when gluing up large pieces like this lid.

    As you can see from the picture to the right, all three boards have glue on the edges and are clamped flat.   The boards are held in position - nice and tight - until the glue dries.

    While the glue was drying I did put some black wood filler in those open nail holes.    I think her plan is to stain the top/seat one color and the base a different color.

  The remainder of the boards that will be used for the base are not going to be planed or sanded.   Since they came from a barn I thought it might be a good idea to clean them up a little so I used the power washer on them.

  It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

   We will have more next week.