Woven Seat Bench

[Gordon Eyre]

Hi, I am new to this forum and already feel welcome. Someone asked me in a different thread to show something I have built. This is my latest project and I built it from plans in Woodsmith. Actually I just finished the second one since my son liked it so well I had to build him one.

There are 20 mortise and tenon joints in this bench and then the curved part of the seat (front and back) was difficult to make as well. The strapping is very sturdy and it makes a nice seat or a place to put your suitcase when you visit. This project was made out of hard maple but the second one I just finished yesterday was made out of Alder.

Woven Seat Bench:

http://www.pbase.com/greyflash/image/122805907/original.jpg

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Gordon,

When you joined, you sure hit the ground running!

Nice project. What did you use for a finish? Great photograph too!

[Stephen Ash]

Hi Gordon,

I'll second that -- that's a very nice looking bench, and a fantastic picture as well. I believe you mentioned in another post that you're also an advanced photographer -- how did you get your lighting so uniform in that shot?

Regards,
Steve

[John Keeton]

Gordon, that is some excellent work! I like the evenly 'eased' edges on the various components, and the finish is fantastic. Obviously, your photographic training comes in handy in showing off your woodworking - great pic.

I did notice that your pic is in an offsite database. It would be neat to have them uploaded to the SMC server so that they remain viewable in the future. If for some reason, you move this pic from its other web location, it will no longer be viewable here. Just a thought for you.

[Gordon Eyre]

Gordon,

When you joined, you sure hit the ground running!

Nice project. What did you use for a finish? Great photograph too!

Hi Ken and thanks for your kind words. It helps if you are familiar with the vb software as I have been on the management team at the Nikon Cafe for a number of years. As to the finish on my project, I sort of have this down to a science. No stain was used on this project so I just wiped on four coats of Minwax gloss Polyurethane 50/50 varnish/thinner, with a light buffing of 0000 steel wool between coats. After the last buffing to knock down the sheen I wax it with Minwax fine furniture wax and buff it out with a rag. This gives it a soft gleam without the shine.


Hi Gordon,

I'll second that -- that's a very nice looking bench, and a fantastic picture as well. I believe you mentioned in another post that you're also an advanced photographer -- how did you get your lighting so uniform in that shot?

Regards,
Steve

Photography is my first hobby and have been at it for many years. I used an off camera flash mounted with a shoot through umbrella. This was triggered with a infrared master controller. Hey, thanks for the nice compliments Steve.


Gordon, that is some excellent work! I like the evenly 'eased' edges on the various components, and the finish is fantastic. Obviously, your photographic training comes in handy in showing off your woodworking - great pic.

I did notice that your pic is in an offsite database. It would be neat to have them uploaded to the SMC server so that they remain viewable in the future. If for some reason, you move this pic from its other web location, it will no longer be viewable here. Just a thought for you.

Hi John, I will have to figure out how to store the image on site as you suggest. On the other forum I frequent we did not allow the storing of images on site and so had to have an off site host or our own website.

The edges were eased on the router table and the finish is explained above. Thank you very much for your comments and for taking the time to look at my project.

[gary Zimmel]

Nice way to make a splash in the Creek Gordon.
Excellent job and great photography. Doesn't really get any better than that..
Looking forward to seeing future projects.

[Gordon Eyre]

Nice way to make a splash in the Creek Gordon.
Excellent job and great photography. Doesn't really get any better than that..
Looking forward to seeing future projects.

Thanks Gary, I appreciate your kind words. I also got a kick out of your splash in the Creek. :)

[John Thompson]

Very nicely done Gordon... I like how you handled the front and rear strectchers laying flat.

[glenn bradley]

Very nice looking piece and being a horrible photographer myself, I am jealous of your skills in that arena. Great pic. As to storing them locally, I just use Photoshop or even a free-bee like PIX-resizer to shrink the max dimension to 800pix and the size generally ends up under the minimum required 107+k. The quality goes south but cetainly adequate for forum use. Once again, very nice piece and your finish protocol yields a nice warm glow. Thanks for sharing.

[Gordon Eyre]

Very nicely done Gordon... I like how you handled the front and rear strectchers laying flat.

Hey John, thanks a bunch.


Very nice looking piece and being a horrible photographer myself, I am jealous of your skills in that arena. Great pic. As to storing them locally, I just use Photoshop or even a free-bee like PIX-resizer to shrink the max dimension to 800pix and the size generally ends up under the minimum required 107+k. The quality goes south but cetainly adequate for forum use. Once again, very nice piece and your finish protocol yields a nice warm glow. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Glenn, I have figured out the image posting protocol here on this forum and in fact just posted a few images of my workshop on the appropriate forum. I do like the method I use for finishing my projects as it is fairly easy to apply and as you stated, gives a nice warm glow.

[Van Huskey]

I like it a lot, very clean and inviting.

[Gordon Eyre]

I like it a lot, very clean and inviting.

Thanks Van, so far everyone in my family that has seen this bench wants one. Not sure that I want to build that many but did complete a second one out of alder.