Gardening work bench

[LCHIEN]

This old one is falling down, about 20 years old. Gonna have to put dates on them. Made of cedar fence pickets. Served well, but... it has a decided lean to it. and the lower shelves caved in

[LCHIEN]

Time for some major Dadoes.
This is some 4x4 treated pine posts saved from removed fences. Going to be the legs.

I love my Freud dadoes. I have 6" ones for my BT3 so I can get 13/16" cuts. 3/4" deep, 3.5" wide, going to half lap some 2x4s.


Pushing around 48" 4x4s really makes me appreciate the SMT of the BT3000 and the 26" extended miter fence I got for it.
And so glad for a 12" miter saw!

[capncarl]

I like a good garden work bench.
A couple of mods I’d suggest, 1. Run the back legs up to support the hanging pots to strengthen the back. 2. Raise the bottom shelf from 4” off the ground to 12” off the ground. (Older backs dont like to bend as far as they use to and it is easier to see critters hiding under the shelf.)
I have discussed garden work benches with garden shop owners. They told me that they sell every bench they get in! I toyed with making them and selling them on consignment but decided that I had enough going on without another project.
One feature on a garden work bench that I’ve liked is a slotted section of the top that allows soil to fall through to a bin or drawer below.

[LCHIEN]

CapnCarl,

Thanks for the advice.

The bottom platform is 8" off the ground, already cut. But, my wife is short. :-) I do understand the not bending down part. The original shelf has collapsed because I built it to take empty pots and water cans, instead she put bags of river rocks on it. :-(

To be honest, I have not yet completely designed the top shelf BUT, the back 4x4 rise ten inches above the table top to be able to fasten to it. Thats the longest reclaimed timbers I had. I hope she doesn't store river rocks up there.

Loring

[LCHIEN]

Today I made a template to mark the location of the holes for the apron and side stretchers. I thought I was clever making a removable spacer, lower right, to make the one drill template work in two places. Transfer punch set from HF is a great tool if you don't have one. After making the template I can quickly mark all the like joints for consistent spacing. 32 holes marked by transfer template with just two measurements.




https://www.sawdustzone.org/articles...sfer-punch-set



Then I used the heck out of my drill press to counter bore and then drill the 32 holes in the apron pieces.



Stainless steel lag screws and washers coming sometime tomorrow from Amazon... Stainless steel hardware not cheap I hope to have this bench outlast me. May or may not be able to assemble the frame with glue and lag screws. Hope its warm enough to use glue and the screws get here. I'll be able to use the transfer punch again to pinpoint the locations of the pilot holes in the legs.

[leehljp]

Looks great. I would love to see the finished table. I guess most wives are the same. My wife puts heavy thing in places designed for light loads too!

I have two of those transfer punch sets. One is used exclusively for pen disassembly. The multiplicity of sizes are ideal for putting inside a pen for a perfect fit and then tapping or driving a component out without damaging it.

[LCHIEN]

Decided to add some hanger bolts to the apron-leg joint.
Required drilling the corner of the leg at the apex at a 45° angle.
Using some V-blocks I handily made once upon a time. See post#12 https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...-have-you-made

Use one or two V-blocks to hold the leg edge up so you are drilling straight down.
Cut off a piece of the v-block to make a drill guide for entering the hole to a flat surface and not sliding off to one side or the other.
I used a brad point bit, probably a regular bit would have worked OK, too. 3/16" for a planned 1/4" hanger bolt.



Hanger bolts due this weekend. At a pausing point.

[LCHIEN]

Personalization: Thinking about using the Router lettering set to put an inscription on the front apron(s) - top and shelf edge. Or on the top when I design it.

Home Sweet Home?
Our address?
For Mae Love Loring 2021?
GROW SPROUT BLOOM etc (words of encouragement)
Any ideas?

[leehljp]

Is there a phrase that our wife uses often - related to gardening?

LOML on occasions says, with a glance in my direction: "Wish I had a green thumb" . . . meaning she wants ME to take care of her plants.

[LCHIEN]

Well, the hanger bolts arrived and I got in some work on the bench. Use double nuts to be able to drive them. Not shown, I quickly put a 1/4" washer between the nuts, makes it a lot easier to separate and drive keeping the wrenches from trying to work on two nuts at the same time. Use dish soap as a lubricant on the wood threads.



Drive in with ratchet and then switched to impact driver.






Fitting up one end and squaring it off...



I used the transfer punch again to locate the pilot holes and then drove them in with the impact wrench. One mistake, I chose the countersink to be 5/8" for the 1/4 x 2-1/2" SS lag bolts and washers. Fine for the washers and bolts but every socket I had was a tight fit in a 5/8" hole, I had to pry and wiggle the socket out of every hole after driving them. Should have used at least 11/16 or 3/4" countersink. it worked but it was a bit of a pain - fortunately all the countersinks were drilled on the Drill press with good concentricity.. I also used glue on all these joints.



Next I thought it great to use my work table to position the two end assemblies and attach the rear aprons or stretchers. Could have been a Bad mistake. Fortunately I found it would be trapped on the table once glued, Getting it off would have been a real headache of disassembly of the table. So I assembled it on the ground.



Diagonal braces for which I installed the hanger bolts. This is before I put the screws in to fasten the ends in place.



Make a template/guide for toenailing the diagonal braces - I always try and make a template for repeated measurements and operations. In this case 16 times. 2-3/4" deck screws. Is it still called toenailing if its with screws?



Back on the assembly table - easier on my old body than bending down. You are looking at the bottom of the bench, lying on its back with the extended height legs on the bottom going away from you.



Still need to rout the text on the front rails. Which I have not installed yet for that reason.

[LCHIEN]

It was a nice day today, 65-70 degrees and I routed the lettering for the front after my wife suggested what to put.
Treated pine is not the best to rout signs in. The wood tends to be a bit stringy and its also a bit brittle to hold fine details.
But they look OK from a couple of feet away.



I also installed the center supports for the table top and shelf.

[leehljp]

That looks fantastic! The last picture shows your attention to detail - the mitered corner on the 2x4. That small cut saves a lot of bruises and bumps, more so than a round over.

[twistsol]

Looks great. I like how you did the heart. It looks rock solid and should outlast all of us.

[radhak]

Great looking bench! Are you going to stain/finish for protection?

Thanks for the w-i-p pictures!

[LCHIEN]

Radhak, it's all cedar and treated pine so its more or less weather resistant. If you finish it with a waterproof stain you have to refinish it every year and I have 8 or 9 major backyard wood items - that's too much work. So I just let them weather naturally and they will last 10-15 years.

So today It took me most of the day to cut and install the planks for the top and shelf. OK, so I'm old and don't bend over so easily so I take a lot of breaks.

First look at the old bench. This is looking down from the top. I used a similar cedar fence picket inset into a apron design. I initially used 5/8" wide strip to serve as a support for the pickets around the perimeter of the apron and as you can see the boards aged and rotted from the edges in and at some point I doubled the support strip to 2 x 5/8" thick and moved the holes farther in and still the screw holes gave up and are pretty much not holding down what's left of the pickets. The pickets used to go pretty tight up to the apron.

So in the new bench we have 1-1/2" wide aprons and the supports are 1-1/2" wide



Hating to measure stuff I made a template to drill the holes equidistant from the end... I also located the template location for a screw to the center support, but I decided I did not have to secure it... it would provide all the support needed w/o being secured. I can always add it later.



Here you can see how nicely the holes line up. I hate it when they wander back and forth.




Here's the table with all the tops fitted.



Next I shall duplicate the potting soil bag holder that served pretty well. I already cut most of the pieces tonight.