This springtime garden bench is easy to make with basic power tools

PATREON ►► https://www.patreon.com/wwmm
Bench Plans ► https://shopwwmm.com/products/springtime-garden-bench
Set up your own workshop in any space ► https://theweekendworkshop.com
Creative Culture Podcast: Conversations with creative people► https://www.creativeculturepod.com/
Sign up for my free monthly newsletter► http://notesfromsteve.com/

In this YouTube video, I’m showing the process of building a vibrant and durable garden bench perfect for springtime, using just seven 2×4 studs.

Key learning points from the video:

— Selection of Materials: Emphasizes the importance of choosing kiln-dried, heat-treated 2x4s for durability and minimal moisture content.
— Attention to Detail: Highlights the need to select the best boards and edges for the seat to ensure comfort and aesthetic appeal.
— Measurements and Cutting: Demonstrates how to measure, cut, and drill with accuracy to ensure all parts fit together perfectly.
— Protective Painting: Stresses the significance of painting each piece before assembly to protect the wood from weathering and to add vibrant color to your garden.
— Assembly Tips: Offers practical advice on threading dowels, spacing slats, and securing the structure, including alternative methods for those with limited tools.

PATREON ►► https://www.patreon.com/wwmm
TOOLS I USE► https://amzn.to/2F3hxQc
FACEBOOK► https://www.facebook.com/WoodworkingForMereMortals
INSTAGRAM► http://instagram.com/steveramsey_wwmm

MAILING ADDRESS:

WWMM
448 Ignacio Blvd. # 237
Novato CA 94949
—————-
Woodworking for Mere Mortals® is a registered trademark of ZRAM Media, LLC.
#woodworking

This colorful Springtime garden bench is easy  to make it’s super sturdy and it only requires   7 2x4s to make if you’d like to make one of your  own I’ve got planes available on a pay what you  

Want basis see the link down in the description  all right I’ve got seven 2×4 studs here when   you’re picking out 2x4s for this project make sure  that it’s labeled kdht Kil dried heat treated and  

That means that this is much drier than the green  2×4 studs that you would use for framing out a   house the most important part of this project is  going to be the seat the part that you sit on so  

I’m going to start with that what I want to do  is look through these boards and find the best   looking boards for that and then within those  boards I want to pick out which Edge looks the  

Best so that that can be up the kind of the butt  friendly side of the board what I’m looking for   are boards that are straight have nice looking  grain that aren’t uh that don’t have any knot  

Holes on them like this one here it’s got a  knot right here so I would just want to make   sure that that’s going to be on the underside of  the seat and this is the side that you want to sit

On by the way if you’d like to make this  miter station I’ve got plans available as   part of my weekend Workshop course actually  almost everything you see in my shop here is   part of the weekend Workshop check  it out over at the weekend workor

Docomo far enough for me to set up a stop block  so what I’ve done is I’m just going to use this   scrap of plywood and make an extension Pence  now I can measure the length of these seat  

Slats in this case I’m going to go 44 Ines and  I can set up a stop block right here before I   cut these slats to their exact length what I  want to do is just cut a little bit off of the  

Ends of these 2x4s the ends are usually kind of  mangled a little bit and this will clean those   up now I can just slide it down to where it’s  touching that stop block and cut it to its final length

Over here at my drill press I need to drill a  hole in the end of each of these boards and I   want those to all be consistent so that I  can thread a dowel through those so what  

I’ve done is I’ve set up a stop block over  here against this fence on my drill press   table so that I can just line each of these up  and then drill the hole in the same location  

I’ve got the best Edge the part that’s going  to be the top of the seat marked on each of   these boards so I’ll make sure that that edge  is always facing the fence that way in case  

It’s a little off center this way they’ll still  line up as long as they’re oriented the same direction also if you don’t have a drill press  you could still make these reasonably accurate   with a handheld drill just by drilling those  first two holes and then taking your next board  

And clamping clamping both of these together  and then use that hole as kind of a template   to drill all the way through and into the next  one what I’m doing here is just putting a small  

Piece of masking tape on the opposite side of that  good Edge so that I can keep these oriented once   I paint them now what I want to do is sand all  of the top edges nice and smooth using 12 grit  

Medium sandpaper this is a rare occasion where  those rounded edges of 2x4s actually comes in   handy all I need to do is kind of smooth them  out and round them out a little bit more one   of the most important things about building  this project is to paint it as you go because  

It’s would be very difficult to paint this all  once it’s assembled and although the kind of the   whole conceit of this project that is that it’s  a brightly colored project for spring the paint   also holds a more important purpose and that’s  to protect the wood from the elements from the  

Harsh sunlight and from rain snow or whatever  else you’ve got I really believe that probably   the best protection you can provide wood Outdoors  is going to be an exterior latex house paint the   last one of these benches I made made was about  10 years ago and I have never had to repaint it  

And it’s only just now starting to flake off which  is probably about what you would expect when you   if you painted your house but really I just like  having a really bright pop of color in the garden  

Like this and the most important part of this  is to make sure you paint this ingrain really   well and seal that up cuz that is is where most  of the water any water is going to get absorbed  

Through that ingrain I can paint the other side  when that’s dry of course there’s no reason why   you couldn’t use you know a fancier nicer wood you  could use like Redwood or cedar or some sort of  

Outdoor specific type of wood and you could finish  it with a clear coat or even like a a deck stain   or something would work the only drawback to that  is those are all going to be maintenance finishes  

In other words really every year you’re going  to have to reapply that finish if you want it to   provide any protection and let’s get real you’re  not going to do that are you I know every time I  

I finish something for the for an outdoor project  and I know that and I always tell myself well you   know every spring or maybe every other spring  I’ll just get out there and I refinish it never happens but hey maybe you’re more  diligent than I am plus look at that  

Blue I mean that’s awesome looking  I cut out a couple of 3/4 in dowels   to thread through these holes I  think what I’ll do is flip these over one thing I did was I  sanded these dowels down a   little bit so that they would slide in easier

So I think what I’m going to do is just kind of  thread them through like this then space them apart okay also I think I’m going to draw a line here  along that dowel something like that so ultimately  

These are going to be spaced about a quter inch  apart you know I could probably just eyeball it   but I’m going to use a couple of these boards  as spacers here so I’ll just start on one end  

And get these together and then what I’m going  to do is secure the slats to the dowels using a screw all right this is called a Japanese flush trim saw   if you don’t have one of these  a hacks saw blade works really

Well I set up another stop block so I can cut  the four legs all to the same length and then   the four- leg connectors I’ll attach these  incaps with 3-in deck screws right into that ingrain the leg assemblies are going to look like  this in order to do that what I’m doing is  

I’m taking the Cross piece and lying  it laying it this way with the paint   up and then let’s see I can use this piece  to just kind of rested on and I’ve got this  

Board which is 3/4 in thick just scrap that  I can use to line this up 3/4 of an inch in   from the end of that cross piece and I  can also use it to line it up with the

Top back over here at my drill press I need to  bore two holes towards the ends of each of the   remaining twole connector pieces each of these  holes is going to be just a little over halfway   deep these are the holes that are going to  attach the seat if you’re not familiar with  

Drill presses they have a depth stop on it so  in this case I set it to stop when it reaches   that point and I’ve got my stop block on my  fence set up over here here so that each of  

These will be in the same location these are  pretty important that these are in the right   location so that they line up with the slats  that they’re going to drive into and I need   to drill three holes along the edge of this  Center stretcher I also want to point out  

That an alternative method of attaching the  legs to the seat is to use pocket screws and   that’s originally how I was going to do this I’ll  leave that alternative in the plans but I wanted  

To show how to do it without a pocket hole jig  in case you don’t have that and if you already   have a drill and this procedure also you don’t  have to use a drill press just use a handheld  

Drill and get it reasonably straight in the plans  I’ll show both ways of attaching this both with   these holes or with the pocket screws now what I  can do is attach the stretcher to the leg cross  

Piece I’ve made a mark in the center there I’ll  just line this up this way and I’ll clamp it down now I can attach this stretcher  assembly to the leg assemblies and one   thing to point out is that those  screws are staggered so I want to  

Do the opposite of those on this  side so that these don’t run into those in case you had any doubts this thing  is really sturdy and by sturdy I mean heavy so if all goes according to plan  this Center stretcher here should line  

Up with that Center slat and by God it does  now I just need to center it this way I’ll   attach it using those 3-in deck screws and  now you can see that whole idea of drilling  

Those wide holes is just so that I don’t have  to have like 6in long screws this part isn’t   really completely necessary but if you want to  really finish this off nicely you can plug these holes before I apply a final coat of paint I’m going  to lightly sand everything down this will just  

Make the surfaces feel nice and smooth I wanted  to get this completely painted before I called   it quits for the day just so that it would have  time to dry completely overnight and of course   the problem here is that the surfaces that would  be touching this paper would get stuck to that  

So what I have are these little blocks like this  that I just have a screw driven through these and   so it’s just a tiny point of contact so that  after I painted all those Underside surfaces   including the bottoms of those legs that I  could just set these up on that and then I  

Can continue to paint the rest of the project hey  I want to put in a quick plug for my podcast if   you haven’t heard it in a while or if you’ve  never heard it it’s called creative culture   it’s all about creativity and creative people  and how they affect our culture I absolutely  

Love doing that podcast it’s so much fun  and it’s so interesting to talk to such   a wide range of creative people I’ll put a link  down in the description if you want to check it out I want to give a big heartfelt  thanks to all of you who support  

This show over on patreon it’s your  support that helps to keep my videos   sponsor free I really appreciate  all your help thanks for watching everybody for