What to do with a broken already refinished once before garden bench…...well rebuild it again of course.
Of course let me show the original remaining bench ends and the old #2 no hole red cedar fence slats that were just lying there looking sad.
The wood from a fence rebuild had been laying around for several years, been repurposed as a shorter garden fence and then migrated to a stacked piles of slowly decaying boards in the back yard.
Well weathered #2 no hole Western Red Cedar, a wood which refuses to die.
Of course the wood planer made quick work of the top layers and revealed a beautiful red wood for use.
The planer is a nice Dewalt I bought many decades ago and has good steel blades which I regularly get resharpened since planing old wood does dull the blades and you sometimes discover embedded iron objects (nails).
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Now you also need a well used, abused, and already once rebuilt garden bench (end only needed) where the rust spots are showing and the bolts are rusted on.
Paint stripper, steel wool, and old fashioned elbow grease are needed for the paint…..and patience.
A Dremel drill and cutting wheels made short work of the rusted bolts.
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Oh, by the way a workshop to do your work in is handy, and yes that is a wall of clamps on the right and yes a wood worker can never have too many clamps!
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The left side of the shop has other tools, screwdrivers, wrenches, bits, awls, and other tools of mayhem and restruction (should be a word).
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Now after scraping, planing, cutting to size, repainting, and futzing around for a few days you het to the point of putting the bench back together.…
….hmmm, but to ease the work of drilling holes I cheat and use…
A drill press, clamps, and a jig to ensure equally spaced holes in the wood and faster reproduction.
Homemade jigs are a wood workers first task to build and become skilled at since you need em all the time.
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Then you assemble one side, set down, and slot on the other side.
Hmm, like all wood projects there is then some adjustment since a “sit” test indicated some wider slats in some spots….I had a stack of boards available for this since, well old replaned fence boards are cheap.
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After assembly I applied several coats of a good UV resistance outdoor varnish to the board.
You then have a nice morning coffee bench to place in the front yard to harass the neighbors from as you read Daily KOS.
Enjoy folks and remember use, repair, re-use, re-build, tear apart and use for something else is my mantra.
