Garden Bench backrest stiles

[Mark Vernon]

I'm building an outdoor garden bench (2 if it goes well) like the one shown on diy.com. It has a number of vertical stiles between two horizontal rails as a back rest. In the plans it suggests using biscuits to attach the stiles to the rails. I don't own a biscuit jointer nor am I planning to buy one. I know some of you will have other good suggestions on another method to attach these. A little help will be much appreciated.

Mark

[Greg Hines, MD]

I would mill the slats oval, by rounding over the edges at the router table, and then routing mortises in the rails with a plunger router and mortising jig.

Doc