Workbench woodworking projects: Build the best garden bench ever

woodworking projects

I love woodworking projects for the yard. This one (two) will get a ton of use from benches to tables to even DIY fitness and storing lumber.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
We partnered with Wood, It’s Real for this project. It’s our design and DIY. We’re using pressure treated Southern Yellow Pine to build the these benches.

It’s rare on woodworking projects, remodeling, or home improvement that I cut all the pieces of a project at once, but this best-ever-garden-bench is one where I did.

  • Top: (3) at 32-inches
  • Legs: (4) at 16-inches (long-to-long, 12-degree bevel)
  • Feet: (2) at 17-inches
  • Stretchers: (2) at 22 1/2-inches (long-to-long, 12-degree miter)

You could—and I’ve done it—make this with a circular saw. It’s faster and easier to use a miter saw for most of the cutting. I use a circular saw and router at the end.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
The bevel/miter angle for the garden bench: 12-degrees.

Look carefully at the feet above. The corners are ‘clipped’ to ease the edges. To make them all the same I mark the miter saw deck—and I don’t measure anything on the wood. One mark. No measuring. Just register the corners with the pencil line and cut a 45.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
Miters on the feet ‘ease the edges’.

Assembly starts with the feet and legs. Layout is the trickiest part.

I mark the center of the foot, 8 1/12-inches. One leg goes on each side of that mark. And to center the legs inside the feet, I hold them 2-inches away from the front and back edges. It’s kind of important that the legs touch all the marks so they’re as straight as possible when you connect all the pieces below.

A bar clamp helps stabilize everything—without it, it’s like trying to make a snowball with a glass of water. Once stable, screws up through the bottom of the feet into the legs gets everything locked up tight.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
Woodworker’s ‘third hand’: The bar clamp.

Tip: I use one leg assembly to prop up the other while I fasten the stretcher flush. I make sure to keep everything on the same angle.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
Fasten the stretchers to the sides of the legs.

Dry-fitting the top onto the leg assembly enables you to check the reveal. In other words, that the top pieces extend the same distance past the bottom on all four sides. I like to measure at the corners. Here, it ended up being 6-inches on the sides and 1 1/4-inches front and back.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
Check the reveal—that the top extends the same distance on all four sides.

Sock a few screw into the stretcher to lock in the first top piece. The stretcher’s edge-grain will really grab the screws. For the center piece of the top panel, you only have end-grain to fasten into. I find that operating the impact driver slower—back off the trigger so it spins about 1/4 of the max rmp—the screws threads can bite better on wood fiber. If that doesn’t work, add a cleat behind the the leg and fasten into it instead of the end-grain.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projetcs
Fasten the tops to the legs.

This is nowhere near Norm Abram’s woodworking projects in scope, detail or complexity. His lifetime of skill and practice never ceases to amaze. Nevertheless, I don’t want this bench to look like it fell off the back of a truck either, so I clip the corners to soften the edges.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
Mark a clip-cut with your layout square to soften the hard corners.

Again with the ‘I don’t want this to look like it fell off a truck’ mojo. I flush-cut the edges of the seat after they’re installed. It’s near impossible to hold everything perfectly flush during assembly. No problem. Just trim it all after the fact. Kind of like building a fence or a deck…Watch this video to see what I mean.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
Tune up the ends with a circular saw.

Oh, how I love you beveled router bit and trim router. Thank you for caressing the 90-degree edges of my woodworking projects and adding that level of refinement—even though a circular saw was the last tool we used—that makes a little magic.

‣ MyFixitUpLife woodworking projects
Last step: A little router action.

For more projects and information about using Southern Yellow Pine, visit www.WoodItsReal.com.

author avatar
Mark
A licensed contractor, tool expert, wood and outdoor enthusiast, and elite Spartan Race competitor, he writes about home improvement and tools for national magazines and websites, and teaches hands-on clinics for other remodeling professionals. Check out his book, The Carpenter's Notebook.

Related Posts

Leave a comment

Verified by MonsterInsights