My friends at TA Fitness opened a new location and needed some furniture. One of the members has a woodmizer and provided the lumber. Sadly the wood is quite green and cups/warps as it dries. So, what do you do with a 10 foot long, 2 inch thick slab with a cup in the middle? Make a bench, of course! This is the first piece of furniture that I have made from green wood.
Notice the nice cup in the middle?
Not good for a table, but great to sit on.
I hand sanded the rough cut board then made some legs from another board. The legs have through tenons that will be wedged.
The leg and tenon are not square. It’s sort of a trapezoid.
Marking where I will cut the slot for a wedge.
Cutting the slots, the reflective blade lets me see if I’m square to the line.
Making some oak wedges for those leg tenons.
Test fit of the wedges.
I used a drill and jig saw to remove most of the wood from the mortise, then I used a chisel mortiser to make the sides nice and square.
Final clean up with a chisel and it’s ready to go.
Fine tuning the tenons so they fit the mortise just right.
Just right! One wack with a mallet and this will be seated (and probably impossible to remove).
Ahhhh! It’s GO TIME. Quick setting glue and a big project. AHHHHH! :)
Yay, all the legs fit!
Now to drive the glued wedges home and this joint will never come apart.
Letting it dry. That is one huge bench.
Chisel all honed and ready for action.
Making the top of the through tenon flush with the bench.
A sharp chisel is the fastest and cleanest way to do this, sanding end grain would take forever.
Done! I’ll fill the gaps with some wood filler. Hey, I know it’s not perfect, this is “rough” green woodworking :)
Supports for the back being glued.
Layout of what the back will look like.
Assembling the back.
Attaching the back using long screws into the bench seat.
Finished! I made a laptop shelf / charging station in the middle for Becky Mathers (our local NNL official).
