Bench Seats and Table.pdf

Wooden Projects

for Outdoor Living

JOHN MARCKWORTH

POPULAR WOODWORKING BOOKS

CINCINNATI, OHIO

www.popularwoodworking.com

Beautiful

Outdoor Living

bench seats

and table

A favorite landscape design feature of my backyard

is a small, compact deck. It’s a great place to hang out with a

beverage, but the low square footage is easily overwhelmed by

a traditional garden table and four chairs. My solution to this

problem was to develop a design for a small table and four bench

seats that could be arranged in different seating configurations

or moved out of the way completely if necessary. They also func-

tion nicely as side tables for lawn chairs and are sturdy enough to

stand on to retrieve the cat from lower tree branches.

I chose to use teak for the tops and wenge for the frames and legs.

The wenge was an experiment. It’s a durable tropical hardwood

and, when oiled, provides a striking contrast to the lighter teak.

I made all four benches as a single production run. This not only

made the construction process faster and more efficient but also

ensured that component sizing and dimensions were exactly the

same for all of the benches. Although the measurements are dif-

ferent, I also made the table part of the production run, utilizing

the same machine setups for the different steps.

(

TOPOFSLATS

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inches (millimeters)

(mm)

A 2 apron sides

wenge

3 ⁄ 4

(19)

2 1 ⁄ 2 (64)

(508)

B 2 apron ends

wenge

3 ⁄ 4

(19)

2 1 ⁄ 22 (64)

(356)

C 4 legs

wenge

1 3 ⁄ 4 (45)

16 5 ⁄ 8 (422)

D 2 leg cross braces

wenge

3 ⁄ 4

(19)

2 1 ⁄ 2 (64)

(254)

E 1 stretcher

wenge

3 ⁄ 4

(19)

(51)

(381)

F 8 top slats

teak

3 ⁄ 4

(19)

1 3 ⁄ 8 (35)

18 1 ⁄ 8 (460)

3 ⁄ 116 " + ⁄ - (5mm) between slats and

between the slats, apron sides and ends

G 2 top slat cleats

wenge

5 ⁄ 8

(16)

3 ⁄ 4

(19)

12 1 ⁄ 2 (318)

H 1 top slat center brace

teak

1 1 ⁄ 2 (38)

3 ⁄ 4

(19)

12 1 ⁄ 2 (318)

T E C H ti p

could be used at the corners, I chose to use through dovetails. This provides a

solid joint with lots of gluing surface and the interlocking design keeps the joint from

separating or racking. I used a template jig system to machine-cut the dovetails. The

only trick here was to be sure that the width dimension of the apron stock matched the

jig’s layout pattern. Measure the jig carefully and adjust the stock’s width accordingly.

1 Begin the bench by building the apron. Although a number of different joints

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