Almost fifty years ago, I constructed a
garden seat based on a design in The
Woodworker by Charles Haywood. It
was made in Japanese oak and has given
good service over the years, but it's now
sadly beyond any further patching up, as the
photograph below left shows. This seat
which forms the subject of this project is a
replacement made with European oak. It's
4ft 3in wide and stands almost 3ft high at
the back (see fig 1).
Stock sizes
I've been using some fairly thick sections of
timber recently to construct a bed and a
large table, so I was able to use timber left
over from these projects for this seat. The
legs and arms were made from 3in thick
sawn timber, and the seat supports and
lower stretchers were taken from 2½in sawn
stock. The long rails were from 1½in thick
sawn timber and the seat and back slats
were from 1in sawn stock.
Preparing the seat ends
The components that make up the seat ends
are all shown on a 1in square grid in fi g 2
overleaf. If you have access to a commercial
photocopier or computer, you can enlarge
these up to full size (by 200 per cent) to use
as patterns. Cut all the patterns out, leaving
an extra ¼in around the outline. Use them
to make the most economical use of the
timber available,
photo 1. Then remove the
sapwood on the bandsaw,
photo 2.
When you are satisfi ed with your
positioning, draw around the patterns. Then
plane and thickness the timber to 2¾in for
the legs and arms, and to 1½in for the
centre and side seat supports. Fix your
paper patterns to the planed timber using
drafting tape; then transfer the outline to
the timber using carbon paper, photo 3.
Use a bandsaw to cut out all the blanks,
photo 4, sawing a fraction outside the line.
Make sure you leave suffi cient at the ends
for the tenons. Use a planer to smooth the
fl at parts of the legs, photo 5, and a
combination of spokeshave, belt sander,
plane and scraper to smooth the rest.
Photo 1. Use paper patterns to position the components for the most economical use of the timber
Photo 2. Remove the sapwood with a bandsaw before planing and thicknessing the wood
Photo 3. Transfer the outlines of the components to the planed timber using a pencil and carbon paper
Assembling the seat ends
When you have all the parts ready, position
the front and rear legs the correct distance
apart and then place the arms, side seat rails
and stretchers on top of them in their
correct positions,
photo 6.
It is now a simple matter to draw a line at
each side of the cross pieces so that the
mortise positions can be determined, also the
angle of the mortises relevant to the face.
Use a pencil point resting against the legs to
draw the shape and position of the shoulders,
ready for when you cut the tenons.
Note that the stretchers are positioned
in the centre of the leg thickness, but the
side seat rails are positioned so the side
facing the seat centre is fl ush with the
inner face of the legs. This makes it easier
to fix the side seat supports on the inside
of the rails.
Cutting the mortises
I removed most of the waste from the
mortises with a router guided by a fence,
photo 7. If you use this method, you'll
need to clamp a straight edge to the side of
the curved section to provide a bearing
surface for the router fence. Similarly,
clamp a straightedge to the side of the back
legs to guide the router,
photo 8, so the
mortise is sunk at the correct angle.
To complete the mortises, trim their ends
square by hand. Of course, if you have a
mortising machine you can cut all your
mortises in one operation.
Photo 4. Cut the parts to the
outline on the bandsaw, cutting
just outside the marked lines
Photo 5. Plane the fl at parts
as far as possible on a planer
Photo 6. Place the cross pieces on top
of the legs and mark their positions.
Also mark the shoulders on the
underside of the cross pieces
Photo 7. Use a router to remove most
of the waste from the mortises,
ready for trimming by hand
Photo 8. On the back legs you'll
also need to provide a straight
edge for the router to bear against
Cutting the tenons
Form the tenons on the ends of the stretchers
and the side seat rails. I cut all the shoulders
by hand, but cut the tenons to thickness using
the bandsaw guided by a fence. Some of the
shoulders are curved slightly, so I shaped
these with a paring chisel.
Gluing up: the first stage
Glue each pair of legs together with a
stretcher and a side seat rail, but leave
fi tting the arms until later. Hold each
assembly squarely and securely in cramps
until it's set hard,
photo 9.
I used Cascamite glue because the seat
has to endure outdoor conditions. I've tried
polyurethane glue in the past, but I prefer
Cascamite because I find it less messy. Use
plenty of glue in each joint so that there are
no capillary paths to allow rainwater to
penetrate. This does involve more cleaning
away of surplus glue, but unlike a piece of
indoor furniture any remains will not
become obvious with staining and polishing.
Adding the arms
When the cramps have been removed, lay
the arms across the legs and mark the
shoulder at the top of the front leg and at
the end of the arm where it joins the back
leg,
photo 10.
The arms have to fi t into the mortises on
the rear legs, so you need to form a slight
chamfer at the end of the tenon to enable
the arm to fi t over the tenon at the top of
the front leg. The arm will be quite secure,
especially when the joints are pegged. Glue
and cramp the arms in place, photo 11,
againchecking that everything is square, and
set the assemblies aside to dry.
The front and rear rails
Cut the front and rear seat rails to length
and form the tenons to fit the mortises
already made in the legs. Shape the
underside of the front seat rail as shown in
fig 3. Mark out the shape of the top back
rail using the squared drawing in
fig 3 as a
guide. Cut both rails on the bandsaw, and
smooth the sawn edges. Then form the
tenons on their ends.
Drill and counterbore four holes up
through the underside of each seat rail
(shown in photo 15). The counterbores
should be deep enough to accept 2in No 8
brass screws, so that they will have about
½in of thread projecting to enter the
undersides of the front and rear seat slats.
Photo 9. For each end frame, glue the legs, stretcher and seat rail together and clamp them securely
Photo 10. Lay each arm across each end frame and mark the shoulders with a marking knife
Photo 11. Cut the mortise and tenon on each arm, fit it to its end frame and glue and clamp it in place
Photo 12. Sink the mortises in the back rails with a router and then trim them square by hand
Photo 13. Assemble the back panel and clamp it before trimming the rails to length and cutting the tenons
Photo 14. Cut notches in the front and rear seat rails for the centre seat support (inset), then assemble and cramp up the main carcase
The back panel
Before joining the seat ends together with
the front and rear rails, you need to
assemble the back panel. This model is a
two-seater, so there are fourteen evenly
spaced slats in the back panel. If you want
to build a three-seater, simply extend the
rails and add more slats.
The rear slats are 1¾in wide and ¾in
thick, so make the mortises in the upper
and lower back rails to this size, photo 12;
space them as shown in fig 3. Because
there are no shoulders, fitting the slats is
easy, and if one has to be replaced in the
future it will be simple to remove. Use a
router to cut the mortises to depth, and
square the ends to the 1¾in length by hand.
Then assemble the back panel and cramp it
up securely, photo 13.
Assembling the carcass
Before gluing the ends to the rails to form
the basic carcass,
photo 14, take out a
notch in the centre of the inside of both
front and rear seat rails (inset) to receive
the centre seat support. It's much easier to
do this at this stage of the assembly, before
the rails are glued to the ends.
After removing the cramps, shape the
side seat supports to the same profile as the
side seat rails, but with a projection on each
end (see fi g 4). Shape the centre seat
support in the same way, with a projection
at each end to fit the notches in the front
and rear seat rails.
Making the seat slats
Cut the seat slats from 1in
sawn material, and plane
and then thickness them
to 7⁄8in (or, if the material
allows, to 1in). Before fixing the slats, take
off the sharp edges by planing a 45°
chamfer on the top edges. Work a 3⁄8in
radius on the front edge of the front seat
slat using a self-guided router cutter. I also
used a 1⁄8in radius self-guided cutter to take
the sharp edges off the ends of all the rails
before joining everything
together.
Preparing the seat supports
The seat slats are
fixed in position by
2in No 8 brass
screws driven up
from below,
through clearance
holes drilled and
countersunk in the
seat supports and
through counterbored
holes in the front and rear
rails.
When you have prepared the seat slats,
fi t the centre seat support in place without
adhesive, and cramp the side seat supports
to the side seat rails. Space the eight seat
slats evenly one by one on top of the seat
supports and mark the centre of each slat
lightly on the sides of the seat supports.
Then remove the seat supports and drill the
eight clearance holes through each one
(shown in photo 15).
Fitting the seat slats
Glue and screw the side supports to the
side seat rails with four 2in No 8 brass
screws. Glue the centre seat support in
position and strengthen the joint by
inserting a 2in No 8 brass screw through
each end at an angle into the rail below,
photo 15.
Cramp the seat slats in place, photo 16,
using the offcuts from shaping the seat
supports to secure them, and drive screws
up into them from below through the
pre-drilled holes in the seat supports. Add
the wider front and rear slats, driving the
fixing screws up through the counterbored
holes in the front and rear rails.
Photo 15. Screw the side and centre seat supports to
the bench after drilling clearance holes through
them for the slat fi xing screws
Photo 16. Use cramps and the offcuts from the seat
rails to hold the slats in place. Then turn the
bench upside down and drive in the slat fi xing
screws from underneath
Photo 17. Use a dowel plate situated over a convenient
hole in the bench to make the oak pegs, then
use them to peg all the main joints
Pegging the tenons
All the tenons are pegged with ¼in
diameter oak dowels. Holes are first drilled
to a little over half the thickness of the legs
to ensure the hole goes through the tenon
and a short way beyond.
I haven't found a commercial source of
¼in diameter oak dowel, so I made my own
using a dowel plate. I fi rst shaped the pegs
roughly a little oversize from straightgrained
off cuts before driving them
through the dowel plate, which was
strategically placed over a hole in the
bench, photo 17. This results in a clean,
accurately-sized dowel.
Glue the dowels and drive them into
place, leaving their heads slightly proud of
the surface. When the glue has set, cut the
dowels off almost fl ush with the surface; I
used a special saw for this which is made
without any set so it doesn't mark the
background. Then pare them fl ush and
sand them smooth.
