Dining Bench - WIP - Finished

[Lee J]

A 'potential' customer has been enquiring about me making a bench for their dining room for a little while now. Keep ringing me and asking various questions and emailing me various links to sites that have benchs on that they like the style of. Anyway, Wednesday (yep, 1 week before xmas day!) they decide on a design and send an official order in. Jobs a good 'un you'd think, however they want it to use Xmas day!
Now I have 3 choices here...

1. refuse the order as it's not possible to hit that deadline
2. Give it to Mailee who works at 3000mph and could knock this out in 25 minutes flat!
3. Get cracking and be ready to work well into the evenings.

So I opt for option 3 and got the design sorted, cut list drawn up, timber selected and we're off...

All timber nicely cut and planed square (always a good place to start)

Clamped the boards up for the bench top. I obviously used more clamps than 2 it's just I didn't take any more photos.

Ta-Daaaaaa next day started with a sanding session then I profiled the edge (slight round over) and ran some grooves down the joint lines.

We'd decided that I would try not to use any metal fixings (screws, bolts, nails etc) and the client doesn't like exposed tenons (even though she wants it slightly traditional looking ) so I opted for a wood dowel jointing system. All the joints would be doweled together and to satisfy her craving for traditional/rustic design I would leave some exposed.
So I started with the drill...

The design has legs that are not straight. they splay out, so I had to cut them at an angle with the chop saw. Then run the side rails through the tilted bandsaw to create the same angle along it's edge. I hope your following this!

The picture above is a dry run to test all cuts are spot on, and they were, more by accident really ha ha

Next I made the end pieces (see pic below) that will hold the cross member (ok I'm making names up for parts now!)

Look here... The pieces are in place and in the following pic you can spot the exposed dowel (design feature y'know)

and again for the cross member...

I got a real spurt on now so missed some stages out but here I am fixing the bench top to the frame...

So now I could see the finish line... I spent a while sanding and cleaning the bench up. removing glue, dings, scratches (I managed to hit the edge on the pillar drill as I turned it around once!) and once I'd got it sanded down to 320 grit I gave it 4 coats of Libron finishing oil until it looked like this...

After 3 coats of beeswax I'd finished it. These pics were taken last night around 11pm. There a bit grainy but you get the idea...

Delivering today!

Merry xmas

 

[rspsteve]

Very nice ...thanks for showing us.

Steve

 

[morfa]

I hope you're getting a nice xmas bonus from the customer for that!

Looks really nice I have to say. Odd that they didn't want any exposed tenons and still wants it's 'traditional' looking, I mean that's half the fun isn't it?

 

[hanser]

Very well done!

 

[RossJarvis]

Lovely rush job.

Can you tell me what wood was used, it looks like some kind of "pine" to me.

 

[Lee J]

It's cherry.

Thanks guys. I delivered it about 30 minutes ago, she was pleased with it and it fit nicely. No xmas bonus though, she paid what i'd quoted to the penny. typical, I postponed a family visit on sunday and a meal out with the wife on Friday night to finish that bench. tut

 

[RossJarvis]

I presume that if she can afford to have someone make her a table in cherry, she didn't get the money by being generous. :shock:

 

[Lee J]

she's not short of a bob like but tight as a ducks pineapple

She did order a bookcase though to be done in the new year.

oh and it's a bench not a table

 

[RossJarvis]

oh and it's a bench not a table

Aha, apologies. Somehow in my head I was seeing a "refectory table". Lovely bench , particularly in such rushed circumstances. Hopefully she'll adore the quality and keep putting work your way, even without a Christmas box for all the extra effort .

 

[Lee J]

wouldn't mind but I'd shut the workshop up for a month last weekend. I had to open up again and de-grease all the machines.

Yeah she put a bookcase my way.

 

[Charlie Woody]

Very nice looking bench and well done on meeting such a tight deadline.

 

[Alexam]

Beautiful work in such a short time. You are a very accomplished worker.

Alex

 

[jkljosh]

Very impressive work, particularly against such a tight deadline - top marks.

J

 

[rafezetter]

That's a great bench, and makes me feel a bit less worried about a table project whereby I was thinking of using exposed dowels and simpler joinery than M & T's, and how it might look.

May I be rude and also ask what price was quoted? I ask only as some sort of reference point for the future. PM if you'd rather not advertise.

 

[Lee J]

rafezetter - thanks for the comments, the exposed dowel idea is something I've used once or twice before and it always gets comments. I leave about 10mm sticking out and just slightly bevel the edge of the dowel.

This bench cost the customer £260 of that £120 was in timber/glue/finishing oil. I reckon it took around 11 hours of work time which equates to £12.72 per hour.

If I ever quote anything like this I normally base it on £10 per hour plus materials. But this was a rush job so I up'd the price a little.

hope this helps.

 

[Lee J]

After they used the bench for xmas dinner their daughter who was visiting now has ordered one of these for her house.

=D>

 

[rafezetter]

After they used the bench for xmas dinner their daughter who was visiting now has ordered one of these for her house.

=D>

With something of that quality crafted in so little time (to my eyes anyway ) you deserve extra business from it!