Norman Robertson Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 First time posting anything, so please be kind. That said, would love to hear your honest thoughts. I was inspired by Mark's video on power-carving. I had a stack of heavily weathered old redwood 2 X 6's from an old deck. I ran these old boards through the planer and found some beautiful heart wood, some of which had very interesting figure, as well as a few screw and nail holes. I laminated them together into larger blocks from which I then began my carving. I did not want to hide the fact that the wood is reclaimed, so I purposefully left the old screw holes, knots and other defects in place, as much as was possible. I roughed out the material with a King Arthur chainsaw wheel on my angle grinder. As Mark pointed out in his video, this is probably the hardest to control option when it comes to angle grinder power carving, but with some practice, you can control it fairly well. I have done a few other outdoor sculpting projects with it, so I have quite a few hours into using the thing. Once roughed out, I used a rasp and orbital sander to smooth out the legs and seat area down to 320 grit. I intentionally left the edges and back in a "rough hewn" state, to add some texture to the otherwise smooth surface. I finished it with 4 coats of Watco Teak Oil finish, buffing with 4-0 steel wool in between coats. I also used a slow settin, two part epoxy to cover the end grain on the bottoms of the legs and at the top of the legs where they tennon into the mortise in the bottom of the seat. I originally intended this to be an outdoor piece, but it came out so nice, my wife assigned it the duty of being our "shoe putting on bench", near our back door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Yep, looks awesome! I too would like to see how the base is attached..Welcome to the forums! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody1 Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 That's really nice! Would like to see some more details as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Ya done good! Now, show us more pics, we're nosy, and are always looking for ideas to steal! What we do, we put out for all to see, If you learn from us, we want to learn from you! By the way.... Welcome to the forum! Nice hat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Robertson Posted August 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Thanks, All, and yes, I will post more pics. Wanted to post more to start with, but was limited by size (mb). What I did to join the legs was to use a router to dig our a wide and shallow mortise in the bottom of the laminated seat to accept the top shape of the joined legs. The legs were joined together with biscuits, primarily to hold them correctly in place as the glue dried. I then added the square block in the crux where the two legs join. This added a decorative touch, and allowed me to hide some lag screws which went through the block from the exposed face through to the opposing leg, making a kind of X pattern of lags keeping the legs from ever wanting to split like a baby dear on ice, when the seat is under load. Before I put the block in place I also added four lag screws up through the legs into the bottom of the seat block. I realize lag screws don't scream, "fine woodworking", but with all the forces being applied to a relatively narrow connection interface between the legs and the seat, I wanted the connection to be rock solid and to last, especially considering it was intended for outside originally. And thanks on the "nice hat" comment. I signed in using my Facebook profile, and as you can likely guess, I am also a mountain biker, and/or prone to hitting my head on things!Norm Here is a shot of the, less than elegant, joinery reinforcement. I thought about countersinking them a bit more and plugging the holes, but decided against it, as it sits so low to the ground, you can only see it if you upend the bench. Norm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banderson Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 Looks great. The finish really brings out the grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 See, we are nosy. And you did a bang up job on that bench. There is every kind of furniture being made by members here, there's every kind of box being made, along with ton's of other things that can be made from wood! You'll rarely ever hear someone here say that's not "fine woodwork". We have all learned that if it's "fine" for the builder, then it's fine woodwork! We help each other improve and solve problems! You'll like it here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted August 18, 2015 Report Share Posted August 18, 2015 I used to date a gal that looked like that first pic. Norman, great looking bench and welcome to the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted August 19, 2015 Report Share Posted August 19, 2015 Very nice, Norman! I see why your wife commandeered it for the house. Thanks for sharing, and welcome in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Robertson Posted August 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Thanks everyone, appreciate the kind words. Working on some bandsaw jewelry boxes for my nieces now. Will post some pics when done. First time making band saw boxes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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