This bench used to belong to my Grandparents. My brother and I rescued it from the weeds in an effort to bring it back to life.
When we got the parts for this, it was already disassembled. There were no wooden slats or hardware. Just the metal frame pieces. Since my brother is an auto body guy, the first obvious choice was to sandblast and paint the pieces. The sandblasting cleaned off all the old paint and left a nice clean surface to apply our basecoat/clearcoat finish to. Thats right, we didn’t opt for just a simple, single stage paint for this project. We went fancy with a nice gloss black. Once it was dry, we packed them up, and I hauled them across the country back to my shop.
Back at my shop, I started milling up some white oak, which also came from my Grandpas woods. I cut all new slats and frame pieces to make the new parts. The trickiest part was making the curved top piece for the back. I had to cut out a portion of the inside in order to make the back insert fit. Then I glued the waste piece to the outside and trimmed away what I didn’t need. This could have gone smoother, but I missed part of this in the planning process. In the end, it worked out well.
After rounding over all of the edges and sanding it smooth, I applied a couple coats of Spar Urethane. Spar Urethane works well for outdoor projects if you maintain it regularly. It typically needs a refresh coat every season or 2. After the finish was dry, it was on to the assembly. I installed the parts using all stainless steel fasteners to prevent corrosion. After everything was secured. The bench was ready for use again.
I’m so glad to have this bench back in use. It was a fun project. Not too difficult, but definitely a satisfying project. This will be getting a lot of use in our yard. Check out the build video below.
— Affiliate Links —
Ryobi Biscuit Jointer – https://amzn.to/2sVLDS5
Biscuits – https://amzn.to/2G8k0gM
More recommended products in my Amazon Store
— My Amazon Affiliate Store for recommended products —
https://www.amazon.com/shop/homebuiltshop
