Ultimate Slat Bench and Chairs | FREE PLANS

hey guys welcome back to Bear Mountain build and today I'm going to show you how to build a rock solid bench and chairs that you can sit on like this or use it as a table like this and it's even strong enough to sit like this now let's get started [Music] so for most of my projects I like to use construction Lumber because it's really inexpensive and once you clean it down it looks pretty good so for this I have a lot of planning ahead of me this isn't even all my two by fours but I got the planer all set up let's run these through and let's get started I want to preface this video with saying that you do not need to plan your boards I do it because it creates tight joints and provides a more modern look and you can just as easily use a table saw to achieve pretty much the same thing you can also just skip this step entirely it will save time and will make it look a little bit more rustic for those of you that don't know a 2x4 is actually three and a half by one and a half inches and for this first stage I'm taking these down to be three and a quarter by one and a quarter [Music] all right so I've gone through the first round of planing and I've gone ahead and separated out my board so what I've done is these boards are my best boards they look the best there's not very many knot holes in there super straight there hasn't been any warping going on these are kind of my middle boards there's some knot holes but they got pretty clean edges and overall they're very straight so these two boards or piles right here are going to make up the structure of the bench and they're going to be the most visible now these boards these are the ugly boards they're actually not that ugly they all look still pretty good and they're overall pretty straight these are going to be my spacers they're going to get plain down a little bit more and they're going to get stained so it covers up a lot of the stuff that I didn't like such as the knot holes or the heavy green that's on here so these are going to be set aside and we're going to run these through the planer one more time let's keep going [Music] all right it was a lot of two by fours but the planing is finally done and they're all looking super good I'm still amazed at how good your everyday construction Lumber can look after some planing now we're moving on to our spacers we're going to get these cut to length and we're going to stain them let's keep going this build has a lot of repetitive cuts that all need to be the same length so I highly recommend using a miter saw with a bench stop [Music] [Music] I told you a lot of cuts alrighty there is a lot of cutting in this project but luckily it's really repetitive and it goes pretty fast so I've got all my spacers cut out ready to go I just need to do some sanding to clean off the Burrs and then we'll stain them and then we're moving on to the rest of the structure let's keep going [Music] if you want to stay in softer Woods like Pine you need to apply wood conditioner first this relaxes the wood fibers and allows for more uniform penetration of the stain [Music] I'm only applying the wood conditioner and stain to the sides and ends of the boards because that's all that will be exposed foreign [Music] a lot of contrast between the spacer boards and the structure boards so I'm using a black walnut water-based stain I'm rubbing the stain in with a cloth and after two minutes I wipe off the excess [Music] alright so I got all my spacers cut conditioned and stained it takes some time but it really is super easy now this section is going to be my bench this is going to be a chair this is going to be a chair and this is going to be a chair now you might be thinking that's a lot of cutting that's a lot of Dimensions well that's true but I have plans for this whole build the link Down Below in the description so please go check those out now we have even more cutting ahead of us because we have a lot of boards left so let's keep going foreign [Music] ERS tape on any boards that look good and could be used as the front pieces [Music] all right we got all our pieces cut out there is a ton here but it's going to go together super fast so right here these are our pieces for our bench and then everything up here is going to be our chairs now before we do assembly though I just want to ask you guys to please hit the Subscribe button we are on the road to a hundred thousand subscribers by the end of the year and I know we can do it with your guys's help also leave a comment letting me know where you guys are from if you do subscribe some of you guys have done in the past and I think it's so cool that people are watching my videos that I film here in my garage building woodworking projects from around the world both in like New Zealand here in the states in Canada in Mexico and Germany and Ireland I've seen people all over the place it's so cool so thank you for watching now let's keep going [Music] for the first face piece I'm pocket screwing the boards together to ensure I'm starting from a perfectly snug and square base thank you [Music] [Music] I'm gluing and Brad nailing the spacer layer in place for this whole assembly process you want to really make sure that the outside edge of each layer is in line with the previous if you get out of alignment it's very difficult to recover so just take your time and keep things Square every so often I use a speed square to check my progress thank you really want a brad nailer for this step I'm using 18 gauge inch and three quarters brad nails if you don't have a compressor I recommend getting an electric brad nailer like my DeWalt that I have but if you already have a compressor and want to save some money you can use a Pneumatic nailer which is lighter but you'll have to deal with the connected hose I cut a spacer that's wider than it needed to be but it does its job and positions the centerpiece [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] back [Music] you want to make sure the leg piece is snug against the horizontal cross piece so it can transfer the load to the floor [Music] [Music] from here it's a rinse and repeat [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] a few boards that didn't want to sit fully flat but luckily clamps can be very persuasive [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] for the final face layer I didn't want to have any visible Brad nail holes so I just glued and clamped it in place [Music] [Music] with the bench done I moved on to putting the chairs together [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] with everything put together I ran the bottom of the legs through the table saw to level them out [Music] thank you all right we've got the bench and the chairs all put together they look super good and they are absolutely Rock Solid now we just have a few more finishing details and these things will be done let's keep going I'm using an eighth inch round over bit to break all the edges [Music] [Music] I went over pretty much every Edge because it looks good and the plane boards can get pretty sharp and are very uncomfortable to sit on thank you [Music] don't forget to round the underside of the first board where you pick it up [Music] I touch up the stain at the corners then applied Crystal Clear matte finish poly [Music] with that this project is done [Music] all right the bench and chairs are done they look amazing and they are absolutely Rock Solid now I built this for indoor use which is why I use construction Lumber but if you're going to build this for outdoor use I highly recommend you use pressure treated lumber of course and as always hit the Subscribe button so you can stay up to date on all my future videos and if you enjoyed this video at all please hit that like button I really appreciate it and it helps me out a ton and as always leave a comment I love reading you guys comment let me know what you think of this whole build thanks for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: Bear Mountain Builds

Views: 28,100

Keywords: bench, how to, slat, slat bench, modern, build, wood, lumber, make, modern bench, chair, set, outdoor

Id: UVVBH1h9i4M

Length: 16min 41sec (1001 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 13 2023