Deck benches
My occasional assistant, Adam, is helping with the photography as well as the project today. My in-laws put in a request for some deck benches, so I picked up some pressure treated wood. The benches are going to serve two purposes. They need to be low enough to sit on, but deep enough for planter boxes to sit on as well. A standard seat is about 18″ tall, so I cut my 4×4 posts down to 17″ long.
Cutting the legs
I then cut down some 2″x6″ boards for a frame. (2) at 17″ for the ends and (2) at 69″ for the front and rear.
Cutting the rest…
Adam pre-drilled the ends for me with a drill/countersink bit I have for decking. It has a spinning collar that stops spinning when you reach the correct depth.
Adam helps pre-drill ends
With those drilled, I screwed them to the ends of the longer 2″x6″ boards with 3″ exterior screws. Next, I placed a leg in each corner and put two screws through the frame into the leg on each side.
Screwing together the legs to the frame
With the legs assembled, I evenly spaced two 14″ center supports.
Adding center supports
With Adam helping by prying the bent boards straight, I screwed down (3) 72″ long 5/4″ decking boards. Two screws every two feet holds them firmly in place.
Screwing down the seat boards
Adam decided that he needed a break from being the photographer, so we took a few minutes before starting the second bench.
Adam taking a break
The second one went a little faster, so we knocked both benches out in a couple of hours.
Assembling the second bench
The last board had some ugly black marks so I put Adam to work sanding them down with his sanding block.
Adam sanding off the black marks
After a little load testing we called it a night. It being 2 hours past Adam’s bedtime and all…
Adam taking all of the credit
Midnight Woodworking 