Don’t worry, I’m not going all Samuel Taylor Coleridge on you, although I always did like “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” I am on vacation this week, and I had planned to skip Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I’m not skipping a bar, but I won’t be at the bar. Then Linda dropped this prompt on us:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “water.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Since I had that featured photo, taken during this miserable heat wave, I thought I’d jump in. But this will be a different post.
My plan for a Saturday post was to share some of the progress photos of the bench I’m making. Linda’s prompt is causing me to preface that post with a few words about the critters in our yard.
During the height of Covid (spring/summer 2020) you could not buy birdbths. We needed another one, so I bought faux terracotta planter bases. They work well, as we just put ours on the ground. Little birds like them because they’re shallow, and squirrels and chipmunks can reach in and drink. One thing that is clear, is that we are one of a very few houses in our neighborhood where water is available for wildlife. We fill these containers several times a day. Some of the birds—I’m looking at you Mr. Robin—will let us know when the water level is too low or the water is too dirty.
These guys need water, so please think about adding some to your yard if you don’t have water out there. If you do have water out there, Sammy, Smokey, Slow Joe Crow, Mr. Robin and all the little birds and all the other critters thank you!
OK, now for some woodworking. I was planning to share a bunch of in-progress pictures with captions, but I realized that a little backstory is necessary. I know, “Where have we heard that before?” But it’s up to you. You can skip the backstory, skip the woodworking slide show and jump into the water, as it were, in the gallery below. In any case, I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend.
Since my last update, I assembled the end pieces. These consist of the front and back leg, connected by a stretcher, a rail for the seat and an arm. The front leg has a tenon cut on the top that fits into a mortise in the underside of the arm. The arm has a tenon that fits into the back leg at an angle. This complicated the assembly, as all the front leg connections have to be made first and let into the back leg.
The other complicating factors were the shapes and angles. Clamps have to be placed so that they pull the joint together. Sloped and curved surfaces make this nearly impossible, so I had to cut shims and caps to sit between the bench parts and the clamp jaws. The captions include descriptions of some of the details.
The next step is to connect the sides. Again, the connecting element has to be assembled before the connections into the legs can be made. This center assembly consists of the front rail, back rail, and the crest rail. The front and back rail are connected by a center seat rail, and the back rail and crest rail are connected by the back slats.
The back panel (back rail, slats and crest rail) is a complicated item. The back rail is connected to the back legs while they are straight. The crest rail is connected to the angled section, so the mortises in the back rail have to be cut at a 16° angle. To do this, I had to make a jig for my mortising machine to hold the back rail in place.
The other complication stems from the fact that I’m not making a 5′ (152cm) long bench, I’m making a 4′ (122cm) version. That means the pattern for the slats is someone useless.
I think the rest can be figured out from the photos. As Linda would say, enjoy!
Sanding the crest rail. 
Cutting the tenon at the top of the front leg. 
Close up of wedge shaped shim at bottom of front leg. 
Clamping the side assembly. 
Clamping arm to leg 
Close up of wedge shaped shim on arm at top of front leg, and pocket around front edge of arm. 
Sides are glued and will sit in the clamps for several hours. 
Completed sides 
Cutting tenon (cheek cut) on back rail. 
Cutting tenon on back rail 
Checking how things line up before cutting mortises 
First dry fit attempt. A few joints need to be tweaked 
My bench will have 10 slats, not 12, so I had to calculate a good layout. The slats are 2 3/8″ wide, spaced 1 15/16″ apart, except the ones the ends. 
Mortising machine with 16° fence attached. 
Test mortise cut at 16° angle. 
Back front and crest rail bundled for storage for a week.
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