I'm making a Shaker-style bench to sit outdoors under an oak tree next to my shop. The finished bench will measure 9" x 16" x 86" and is white oak for weather resistance.
There are seven parts: the (plank) seat (not shown), two upright legs and four braces.
The legs are dadoed into the seat, then braced with lapped-dovetail braces. All the lapped dovetail sockets in the seat are stopped 1/8" shy of breaking through the surface so that the end-grain of the brace and the joint itself is not exposed to the weather. Socket shown below (the seat is upside down in the pic below). This required hand-sawing to define the edges, then wasting most of the socket with power-tool, then finishing with chisels (notice the 45 degree undercut)
The dovetail sockets in the seat were much fussier than the joints in the legs which could simply be cut in three passes with the RAS as shown here. Careful clamping was required because that cut is happening 8" above the worksurface of the RAS table.
Here the entire bench glued-up in clamps, upside down - which reminds me I have a messy shop. You may not be able to make out much under the mess of clamps.
For weather resistance, the bench is glued with epoxy and the ends of the legs are coated with epoxy to minimize moisture wicking into the joints and end-grain. I am planning to coat the bench with untinted deep-tint base oil paint - that's a bit of an experiment.
Ought to be done this weekend.
-Mark
There are seven parts: the (plank) seat (not shown), two upright legs and four braces.
The legs are dadoed into the seat, then braced with lapped-dovetail braces. All the lapped dovetail sockets in the seat are stopped 1/8" shy of breaking through the surface so that the end-grain of the brace and the joint itself is not exposed to the weather. Socket shown below (the seat is upside down in the pic below). This required hand-sawing to define the edges, then wasting most of the socket with power-tool, then finishing with chisels (notice the 45 degree undercut)
The dovetail sockets in the seat were much fussier than the joints in the legs which could simply be cut in three passes with the RAS as shown here. Careful clamping was required because that cut is happening 8" above the worksurface of the RAS table.
Here the entire bench glued-up in clamps, upside down - which reminds me I have a messy shop. You may not be able to make out much under the mess of clamps.
For weather resistance, the bench is glued with epoxy and the ends of the legs are coated with epoxy to minimize moisture wicking into the joints and end-grain. I am planning to coat the bench with untinted deep-tint base oil paint - that's a bit of an experiment.
Ought to be done this weekend.
-Mark
