Hey guys,
We’ve been discussing in the halls the prospect of building a bench independently and collaboratively. @ashleyrlee said that there were several people who expressed interest in tackling a larger project similar to this - so I figured why not make it in a meetup setting and everyone can make (or watch others make) a bench together.
The Bench
I’m a huge fan of Jens Risom, and as such I’m making a Jens Risom bench/coffee table. I’ve already made a monitor stand in this vein before, and I don’t anticipate this project being very difficult at all. Maybe only slightly expensive depending on the wood species one chooses. I may throw in some American of Martinsville features, depending on how the base bench build goes.
Jens Risom:
American of Martinsville:
We’ll meet Tuesdays after work (7:00ish?). I hope it doesn’t take any longer than 4-5 weeks, a few hours a week (famous last words). If you want to build along make sure to book space in the woodshop. Otherwise, I’m going to try and post on this thread with steps and progress as the project unfolds. Hopefully, we can get everyone else who’s involved in this experiment to contribute advice and updates as well.
You don’t need to buy exactly these ones. You can get all this at Woodcraft or Rockler. These are the exact items I have, but you may find better options for you:
Tuesday @7:00pm. I suppose if you want to follow along? But you can also wait if that makes more sense till after we all met and you get an idea of the project and how it’s going to go. I got some wood that I need to do a little milling left to do.
I’m hoping to:
Talk about the bench and its design/parts
Finish milling the lumber
Make a sled for the parts
So perhaps there won’t be so strong of a need to have the wood on hand (unless you want to get a jump start on milling as well). We get the new bandsaw in today, Maybe we can do some resawing and save some money.
I’ll bring in my monitor stand so everyone can see the design/component parts.
Your booking says 7-9:30 and your post says 8:30-10:30. I added a booking that matches yours, though I don’t expect to mill anything. If 8:30 is the start I may move back my booking and show up closer to that time.
It’s 7:00. The post was based on Wednesday’s collision with wood-shop safety. I struggled with what to edit and what to leave historically accurate. I’ll edit the post, as it’s obvious I was wrong.
Here’s a jig I made today between meetings that we should be able to use for the taper/angle cuts. I’m still working on fixing some of the bad wood that I’m using, so I may just ahead a little as I trim away the broken pieces looking for the the Good Parts™
I’m going to make that trapezoidal piece (which I want to call the yoke) out of 1" wood milled from 6/4
I plan to mill the pieces* tomorrow once I’ve better locked down my dimensions.
