Making a Bench - Part II

  Last week's blog was on building a bench lid from boards that came from  a barn that was on a farm owned by my daughter-in-law's grandfather.   This week I worked on the base for that bench.    Old lumber is always interesting to work with.   I imagine that this lumber came from a barn that was at least 80 years old or more.   One of the 2x4's was actually 2 inches thick by 4 inches wide.   You don't see that too often any more.   I started out by ripping the 2x4's in half giving me 1x4's that I could use for the sides supports.



  I did not have a plan for the base so I sort of leaned on Vanessa (my daughter-in-law)  for ideas on how she wanted this bench to look.    For the legs I used a 4x4 post out of the barn.    I could not get in close enough with my camera, but the grain pattern on these old 4x4's was very tight.  Good quality fir.   Trees must have grown slower and harder years back.   Even though the boards had to be more than 80 years old, once you cut off the outside they looked like new.  

   
    I ran the 4x4's over my dado blade to clean out an area that I can join the side boards to.

   To the right is a picture of the four corner posts with all the outside edge trimmed off so that I can glue on the side pieces.   The goal was to cover up all the open raw wood with wood that has been exposed to the weather for several years.

  Next I cut dadoes near the bottom to run a support board for the sides and the back.   I started out with my usual idea that all joints would be held together using glue and wood dowels.  Lately I have been trying to avoid the use of nails or screws when assembling a project.  So that was what I did here when assembling the first side.  It was too slow and seemed difficult to keep everything totally square.   So the dowels went back on the shelf and out came the nail gun.

  
   The picture to the right shows the process of using glue on all the joints.   (Good old Titebond.)  Looking at the picture to the right, the bench from this view is upside down.   Here I am showing where I did use some plywood and this was the only place that I used wood that did not come from the barn.  There is suppose to be a little section under the lid for hats and gloves and that plywood piece will be the bottom of that section.



 This is the completed base of the bench.   It is open in the front so that baskets can slide under the seat.  Depending on the basket size, there should be room for three baskets.
   I did do a little sanding on the inside of the storage area, but with the exception of the plywood base, all the wood is just like it was when it came out of the barn.  

   I used a piano hinge to attach the lid to the base.   I don't know what to think of this project.   It is definitely solid and depending on how it is stained or not stained may effect the final result.  
   Despite my running the metal detector over all the boards and visually not seeing any nails, I did hit five different nail pieces with two different saw blades.  These were nails where the head and tops had been pulled out yet the nail broke off in the board and the bottom half of the nail was hiding just where my saw blade traveled.   (Grrrrr!)    

  I put a couple of lid supports on to hold the lid up when it is raised.  I added a couple of felt pads for when the lid is closed to soften up the sound a little.

   This bench was designed by Vanessa and is looking good.   It is good wood and solid so I am thinking it will last another 80 years.