While waiting for the paint to dry between coats on the Job Guide shelf project. I spotted an 8 foot pine board hiding under some rotting press board in my temporary neighbor's yard. I mentioned to him that I could take that one board and make a civil war replica bench out of it before the sun went down (about 2 hours). This is important since the work-shop is located mainly outside. He didn't think I could so I considered it a challenge. My only alterations were the use of a jig saw, cordless drill, and screws, which he was fine with. He took up my camera and followed best he could:
This are his pictures...(mostly).
Ah, board. Soon you will feel my hands all over you.
Lining up for the first cut.
I marked up all my cuts before hand....bad idea.
I used this clamp to guide the jig saw straight...another bad idea.
This will be one of the legs. (Eric has fun with the camera. I like to think that he was so exited that he forgot to take the pictures. I think he was doing the pee dance at this time and went running away for a time.)
To lay out the legs I measured the center and found a 45 degree combo that I liked.
Using the seat as a straight edge, I lay out the cut line for one of the skirts.
Another shot of one of the skirts.
Too fast for Eric.
I layed out 45 degree angles on the ends of the skirt boards.
Buzzzz...I cut.
I then used the discarded corner from the skirt to draw the notch on the legs.
Cutting out the legs.
Leg complete.
Cutting out leg number two.
I tried to explain how the pieces would fit together.
At this point, he finally got it.
Eric was called away to help family at this point. I clamped on of the skirts on and predrilled some countersunk holes.
Both skirts screwed into place.
I then measured in and squared up the legs and screwed them into place. (Eric's back)
He likes taking pictures. . . of non-action things.
Flipping the bench over, I layout the line where the screws will be placed.
This is me ABOUT to predrill.
Almost done.
Last screws.
Finished! I was actually sitting on the bench when he took this picture. This is the bench I replicated loosely.
Eric decided that he would like to keep this bench. Total time taken to make the bench = 45 minutes.
I had a great time doing it and I'm sure it's not the last one that I make.