Easy, Elegant DIY Bench | Free Woodworking Project Plan

[Music] now that you have your new Craig pocket hole jig you're probably anxious to get started building but you may be wondering where to start what kind of project to choose well this bench is a great place to start it's a great looking practical project that's actually very easy to put together even with basic skills you can see that it's built from a couple kinds of wood it's painted and stained and it all goes together really easily with pocket hole joints and standard dimensional lumber that you can buy at any Home Center we will take you through the whole process step-by-step if you're new to building projects picking out lumber can be kind of confusing but it doesn't have to be this bench is built with boards you can find in any home center they're dimensional boards which means they're cut to standard widths and standard thicknesses so no matter where you shop you'll find the right boards the bench just has five boards total two one by fours 2 1 by 3s and a wider one by 8 that's used to make the slats now how do you know what species or kind of wood to choose and that kind of varies by tastes and what you want we wanted the base to have a smooth painted look so for it we went with premium pine it's smooth and free of knots and it paints up really nice now if you prefer a more rustic look you can get common pine it has knots and more imperfections it's all just a matter of taste we also wanted that classic hardwood look so I went with oak for the slats and just applied a clear finish if you're gonna paint the whole bench though instead of an oak 1x8 you can just get a pine 1 by 8 doesn't make a difference the size is the same and you know with this project you can change it up a lot you can paint it to be different colors you can use different wood species you can use stain whatever you like you'll build it the same way with standard dimensional boards one of the first steps in any project is to start cutting the parts to size now in the case of the bench I'm going to start with the legs and they're 18 inches long so hook the over the end pull it nice and tight and then make a mark at the 18 now you're ready to cut the leg to size now you can cut the other three legs to the same size and when I say same there there's a reason yes they're supposed to be 18 inches but what if I cut this a little bit too short it's one of the reasons that when you're building projects it's a good idea not to just go down the list and cut everything to size all at once instead cut the parts that you need as you need them there will be more back and forth but it gives you some options in this case consistency is more important than accuracy if I'd made the leg a little bit too short that would be fine as long as I make the other three that same measurement you know maybe my bench is 1/4 inch lower than it's supposed to be but nobody's gonna know that but me so take your time when you're marking take your time when you're cutting and you'll get good accurate results so I'm gonna cut the other three legs to size and then I can make the two side rails with the four legs and the two side rails cut to length you can get ready for some bench assembly and a quick easy way to build a bench like this is with pocket whole joints they're easy and they're very strong and the first step in creating them is setting up your pocket hole jig I'm using the pocket hole jig 320 and setting it up is really simple everything is based on the thickness of your material and even though these boards are called one by fours they're actually 3/4 of an inch thick you always want to use this actual thickness rather than the stated or nominal thickness when you're setting up the jig so just slide the material thickness stops until they click in to the 3/4 inch range setting and then set the stop collar on the EZ set drill bit the same way slide the stop collar until the 3/4 inch mark on the bit shows through the window and then tighten it down that's all it takes for jig setup couldn't be a whole lot easier now the pocket holes are gonna go in the ends of the side rails to join to the legs so take the jig and make sure that the material thickness stops are tight against the end of the board width to drill guides and a spacer in between the hole spacing is just right for this 1 by 4 so you can clamp the jig down and you're ready to drill pocket holes make sure you have your drill on it's high speed setting and your clutch set for drilling and you're ready to go all you need to do is drill until the stop collar contacts the drill guide to make a perfect pocket hole you can see it's a quick easy process with the jig in the drill bit set the holes are located right where they should be so now you can go to the other end and then create the holes in the other side rail with pocket holes drilled it's tempting to grab some pocket hole screws and start assembly but before you do it's a good idea to take time out and sand the parts before assembly you can get to a lot of the surfaces more easily on most projects plus you know that when you're ready for final project assembly all your pieces are sanded and ready to go now a random orbit sander makes the process very fast and easy I've installed 120 grit sandpaper discs on the sander and because these premium pine boards are nice and smooth that's all I'll need and I don't need to go to finer grits for these because they're going to be painted so just sand away as you sand a lot of times you'll see little lines across the board they're called mil marks they're where the board is playing down and it leaves marks and as you sand you'll see those lines start to disappear and know that you're down to a nice smooth surface they also want to sand the edges but on a narrow piece or a thin piece like this 3/4 it's hard to get the sander to balance up there so a good trick is to take two pieces three pieces four pieces whatever it is and stack them side by side now you've got enough surface area to support the sander plus you're sanding two pieces in this case at the same time it's a good idea to sand both faces and both edges of your boards even the inside edges that may not show or the inside faces that may not show you'll get better results and you'll have a nicer project if you take time to sand them and the random orbit sander can take care of the faces and the edges but there's one more thing the corners will be very sharp and there's nothing wrong with that but they can be a little bit sharp to the touch and that hard edge will have a harder time taking paint and stain as well so you just want to slightly ease or round off those edges and you can do that with a piece of sandpaper by hand just fold it over the edge and run it back and forth and really all it takes is a few passes you'll still have a corner that looks great but it's just got that little bit of sharpness taken off of it for a much nicer looking result with the pieces sanded now you can get out those pocket hole screws and attach the legs to the rails just like everything else with pocket hole joinery screw choice is based on the thickness of your material and for 3/4 inch thick boards you'll use an inch and a quarter long screw you'll also want to choose a coarse thread screw for pine which is a softwood coarse thread screws are aggressive and they'll bite well and hold well in these softwood it's all you need to do is bring the two pieces together because Paco all joints are so strong you don't even need glue you can use it if you want but it's not mandatory the screws had plenty of strength line the pieces up and then it's a good idea to clamp them down which prevents the pieces from moving as you drive in the screws make sure you have your drill set at its lowest speed setting and that it's set to drive screws with a clutch setting that won't let you over drive them then you can just drive the screws home you want to be sure to hold the drill at the proper angle but the pilot hole will help you feel what that is by setting the clutch I don't have to worry about overdriving the clutch just slips when the screws tight and that easily you've got a nice strong joint that's not going anywhere so now you can attach the other legs to the rails I've gone ahead and cut the next parts to size drilled the pocket holes and got them sanded and ready to install and those are the rails that will go between the two seat assemblies to join them together there's two kinds there's bottom rails that have pocket holes in each end they'll go down here on the legs then there's seat rails that have pocket holes in each end plus pocket holes along the edges that'll be used later to attach the seat slats and those will get positioned up here along the upper rail now you can see if I position this about where it's supposed to go that these rails are going to be located three-quarters of an inch down from the edge and at certain spacing along the length of the assembly so unlike this leg to side rail joint where you can just align the pieces at the end in the edge here you don't know exactly where they need to go because there's no edge to align to so it's worth taking time to do a little bit of layout and make some marks exactly where the pieces are gonna go that way you can install them where they need to be and it's not tough you just need the tape measure and pencil again and this is where the combination square comes in really handy I'll show you how now I know that the bottom rails and the outer seat rails are gonna be one and three-eighths inches in from the outer end so I'm just gonna make some marks at that point again take your time make sure you're not going to one in five-eighths instead of one and three-eighths or something like that there's another 1/16 and 1/8 in here I'll make the same marks at the other end quickly but not so quickly that I get in a hurry so now I know where those are gonna go and I know that the rails need to be 3/4 of an inch down from the upper edge here so I could measure 3/4 of an inch and make a mark at each point but there's an easier way and that's with the combination square I can set it so that the rule sticks out 3/4 of an inch from the head then just come along and make a mark across at each one of my seat rail locations super easy accurate and consistent now I'm going to slide the rule down and come in and make a line right where I measured that seat location so without a lot of hassle I'm getting super accurate layout marks a lot of times I like to even put a little X in the area where the piece will get placed because now I know when I put the seat rail in place if I align it with those marks it will be at the proper distance down from the edge and it would be square so everything will sit right when I put it together so I can finish up the marks for the lower rails and do the same thing to the other assembly and I'll be ready to start putting this base together it takes a few minutes to make these layout marks but it's well worth the time because now I know I can attach the rails exactly where they need to be with the seat rails before you screw them in make sure that these pocket holes on the upper edge are positioned properly so that you can drive in a screw to attach the seat slats later now the layout marks show me exactly where the rail will go but I need a way to clamp it you could throw a long bar clamp across here to hold it in place but if you've it build very many projects with pocket holes you'll want to check out a specialty clamp the right angle clamp it has a pin that slips into the pocket hole allows you to position the piece and then lock it in place exactly while you drive in the adjacent screw it's pretty slick because now that's in the exact right position didn't go anywhere and I can add this screw and then I'll just continue on adding the rest of the rails with all of the rails attached to one side assembly now I can attach it to the other side but it's not easy to put that piece up here and try to drive in the screws it's much easier to lay the second side assembly down and then flip this one on top of it now I don't have to worry about lining every joint up to get started if I just get it approximately in position use my right angle clamp again to lock down the first joint and move it back here now I can get the clamp to get a good grip and lock it down so again it's a huge advantage to have those layout lines because I'm going to drive this screw in and before adding the second one I'm just gonna jump down here and get this joint in place lock it down drive in the screw nowproceed the rest of the way along to get the bench bass put together after attaching the rails between the side assemblies added one more piece and that's this long stretcher that spans between the lower rails that adds a lot of strength to the bench with the rails connecting the side assemblies I don't have to worry about the bench pushing apart that way and with the stretcher in there that adds a lot of strength so it can't push apart lengthwise under the weight of people sitting on it so all the parts are in by taking time cutting them well measuring well and doing some layout I know that they're all exactly where they need to be everything sanded so this bench base is ready to paint to get a great quality paint finish on a project there's a few simple things you can do the first is to wipe the project down well that way you'll get all the sawdust off that could gum up your paint the second is to use good painting tools don't buy the cheapest paint buy decent paint use a good brush and for projects like this that have large flat areas you can save time and get a better finish by using a paint roller but not the kind of paint roller you'd use on your walls these small foam rollers don't have that nap that leaves an orange peel finish like you actually want on a wall instead as you roll on they leave a finish that's nice and smooth and will even out even more as the paint dries obviously the rollers can't reach everywhere so I like to use the brush to work in around those tight areas spread the paint out well so that you can come in and roll behind it now another thing that's nice with painted these pocket holes in the bottom rails they're really not going to show that much when the projects done but with just a little bit of paint you can fill those pocket holes in and make them pretty much disappear the last parts of this bench to make are also the simplest the seat slats they're just two pieces of one by eight Oak was one board cut it into two equal lengths and that's it no pocket holes no anything one difference with these is because I'm applying a clear finish I wanted them nice and smooth so they'd really shine and really be smooth to the touch so the boards were pretty smooth from the store and I started with 120 grit sandpaper just like on the base but on the base I stopped because I was gonna paint here I went one grit finer or less coarse smoother sandpaper and I went to 180 and then went over the board's again to get them ready for finish I decided not to stain because I liked the color of the oak as it is and I wanted something that would bring out that warm tone that still be really easy to apply for that I chose a gel polyurethane you can see that it's thick it's a gel it doesn't run off like a liquid wood that makes it really super easy to apply to you can wipe it on with a rag or I like to use a foam brush and it's pretty forgiving to apply it's not like a lacquer or something where you hear about you know how tough a finish is with this you just start out by wiping it on pretty generously you can already see that color start to pop out and with a little bit of wiping you can get that finish evenly distributed of course you'll want to do the edges too and the ends but once you've covered the whole surface you'll probably have some excess on there and it's a gel so it's not really going to soak in like a liquid would so now I'll use my foam brush almost like a squeegee and come in with some nice long strokes to take off the excess make sure you get anything that runs over the end and kind of globs up I'd of course come back and do the edges completely and that's it now you can let this dry and see how beautiful that's going to be I mean that's a great color and a classic look and it will contrast really nicely with the paint one thing though you'll probably find that when this first coat dries it may actually look a little bit dull that's okay just wipe on a second coat the same way if you want to build a little more luster you can even add a third coat after that one dries but usually two coats with this works great and you'll have a beautiful natural wood finish that's really easy to apply when the finish and the paint are dry you can bring the bench together by dropping on the slats and you can see a couple of things first you can see why I painted the base and finish the slats before putting them together obviously this would be really hard to do with the pieces both in place second you can see how cool it looks you know the natural finish and the bright paint contrasts really nicely and create a great look now the slats go in here with some spaces in between and you could try to measure that out but honestly this is a point where I trust my eye I can tell when those are in place evenly so now I can attach them I'm gonna pull this one off because I can recap it easily enough using those pocket holes in the edge of the seat rails the only difference here is that I'm going to use a different screw still an inch and a quarter long because I'm using 3/4 inch material but in this case it's a fine thread screw I used coarse threads for the soft wood pine base but oak is a hard wood it's a lot more dense and those coarse threads that are on the coarse thread screws could split the wood the fine threads are much less aggressive they still offer great holding power but they won't risk splitting the wood in hardwoods all you need to do is drive them in from underneath [Music] nothing wrong with double-checking your gaps as you go you'll actually be able to tell with hardwoods that the drill has to work a little harder to drive those screws in it shows you the difference in the wood density and the reason for using a different screw after final assembly it's worth taking a minute to really stand back and be proud of your work I mean look what you can do now you have what you need to create great projects some good advice some helpful tips and most of all your Craig pocket hole jig [Music]

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Keywords: diy bench, how to build a bench, easy diy bench tutorial, diy bench plans, easy diy bench, how to make a bench, diy outdoor bench, diy outdoor furniture, diy wooden bench, how to build a wooden bench, free bench plans, outdoor modern bench, how to build furniture, easy wooden bench, diy wooden outdoor bench

Id: bMAq1brAqzs

Length: 26min 6sec (1566 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 01 2019