reclaimed mahogany entrance hall bench

[mickthetree]

I was invited to take this mahogany out of a skip some years back and it has been sat around waiting for the right project ever since.

These were the frames of four internal doors from a school. There we another 12 doors but this is all I could fit in my car at the time. I had planned to go back for the rest but hit a rediculous pot hole on the way home and never made it.

The science room work benches had been burnt the week before.

Anyway...

Here it is before

and planned up

It doesnt really show how beautiful the wood underneath is. I'll try and take some better shots this weekend.

90mm wide, 40mm thick. The bench will be slatted with 10mm spaces between, 1150mm wide and 490mm deep in an alcove in our entrance hall.

I bandsawed a shorter piece in half then thicknessed it to make some tenons which will be used to keep the alignment of each slat and as 10mm spacers. I am going to make up a jig and rout 10mm deep mortice in each piece then make the tenons 30mm long.

Tenon stock

There are a couple of brass screws that have reared their not so ugly heads when planning but they dont seem to have affected the blades. Some carefully positioning means you wont see any holes once assembled. Only beautiful new mahogany that was destined for the skip.

I plan on putting a small roundover on all of the edges that will show.

It will be resting across at each end screwed to the wall, trimmed at 45 degrees and painted the same colour so hopefully they wont show.

I have also planned up another piece for a coat rack which will be going on the wall behind. We spotted some antique double coat hooks which I'm hoping will still be in the shop on Saturday.

I also got some massive lumps of cast brass from the doors which I have tucked away somewhere (goodness knows where!)

More to follow...

 

[AndyT]

I do love the transformation effect going from a bit of old junk to valuable treasure! I'll be watching this project with interest and a touch of envy (only a touch, mind - I've done quite well out of skips and similar over the years.)

 

[adidat]

I'm currently making a gun box from travis perkins padington branch's old mahogany doors.

What part of the door had the brass bits on?

Adidat

 

[mickthetree]

I didnt get any time on these tonight as I'm also making a pair of beds for my boys. No WIP for those I'm afraid.

I had the bronze door handles, they were lovely but went on ebay. Some brass hand panels. You can see where these were on the first shot.

The top and bottoms of the doors had large brass castings on, which from memory of school, fitted into brass castings in the floor and door frames. One I took off looks like a prime candidate for a brass infill!

A good kilo of brass each per door. More money in the bin.

 

[mickthetree]

Change of plan!

I'm glad I planed up the extra length. I'm now going to add a rail to each end. I can then scribe each end in as the walls are slightly narrower at the back than front.

I'm going to create tenons on each rail which will fit into a mating groove on the two end rails.

Should look something like this:

It also means the supports on the wall will be less likely to be seen.

a bit more grain:

I plan on rounding the front two corners and putting a small roundover on all of the rails.

 

[mickthetree]

Rather than cut seperate mortices for each tenon I routed a stopped groove down the end rails and cleaned up with some chisels. This wood is lovely to work with hand tools. I had to take a swipe or two with my clifton plane. Hard not to take a few extra swipes it behaves so well :lol:

Marked where to cut the tenons

Cut the tenons on my rutlands tenon jig. Works like a charm.

I aim for a tight push fit then trim to perfect with a shoulder plane. Mainly because I love using it.
I trimmed the front tenons with a hand saw to fit inside the stopped groove.

8 swipes on each of the long rail top corners with the block plane

Dry fit before glue up

I decided to make it a bit deeper in the alcove so cut 8 x 15mm spacers

I put a dab of glue in the middle of each tenon only, to hold them in place but allow for expansion / contraction.

All glued up and ready to cut to fit. Matches well with the parquet I installed recently. I have a plan for install to give a really tight fit :wink:

I didnt use much glue at all but the tight fit meant I got some squeeze out which got on the clamps so I got some black marks on the surface. I planned to sand it anyway so hopefully this will get these out.

 

[mickthetree]

I pinched this idea from Pinch on another forum:

I cut some battens to length and scribed these to the walls. I then hot glued them together and added a reinforcing bar. I laid this on the bench and traced the outline.

There was a fair amount to remove but wll with the grain so a heavy set wooden jack made short work of it

And here it is in situ:

The wall battens are set back a couple of inces and you have to bend right down to see them.

My can of osmo polyx was a bit cold last night so I brought it indoors and i'll coat it tonight.

I also have a coat rack that I'm making out of the same wood which I'll install this weekend hopefully.

 

[cusimar9]

Nice! Good work

 

[AndyT]

I like that!
And a good method of getting an accurate fit.

 

[billybuntus]

Nice work. I love seeing easy method of carrying out a potentially troublesome job.

I've banked that one for future use.

I'll use mitre mate though. Quicker than a hot glue gun

 

[Water-Mark]

Looking good, glad it was saved from the skip.

 

[Fromey]

That's a beautify storage area for all that junk Have you thought of putting some doors on it? :twisted:

 

[mickthetree]

:lol: :lol:
Hopefully that will be cleared this weekend. Those are all the tiles I shall be tiling the bathroom with tomorrow.

I did think about making a built in, but I like the open look here. There is a vent to the side underneath too which I cant block.

We're going to put a matt down underneath and that will be the shoe storage. The seat is so we can all sit down and change boots / shoes when we go out / come home.

I hope to take some photos of the whole thing when it is finished with the coat rack (and cleaned out ;-)

Thanks for looking