how to affix bench seat and back rest (for wood movement)

[Tom Bender]

Dwayne I like the way you are thinking. How about running the arch from the back leg just below the seat support joint up to the back rest and back down on the other side. It could be 1" x 3" and made as a glued lamination for better grain display. Probably need a regular tenon if only 1 x 3. The challenge of chopping angled mortices would be a new learning experience, at least for me.

[Bob Riefer]

An update... My first version (pictured above) has turned out to be the prototype, and I'm onto version 2 today.

Long story short, I made the bench too tall by accident, and any efforts to shorten are only going to cheapen the look I'm after. I'm reminded that progressing at just about anything in life entails a willingness to fail and try again. So, I plan to re-use these for something else (tbd) and rebuild. Thankfully only using poplar so price impact is not too bad.

(btw... the seat and backrest can be re-used for version 2)

What I did learn is that with minor adjustment, the design can accommodate a simple stretcher under the front of the seat. Basically, if I make that front leg joint slightly bigger, I will be able to fit a stretcher there.

To make the stretcher blend with the design, while adding the desired racking resistance, the plan is to start wide at the point where joined to the legs with an arc across. When I blend the joints (power carving) the front leg will essentially look like it has two tree branches growing from it... one connecting to the back leg, and the other connecting across.

Rudimentary drawing:
dining bench stretcher sketch.jpg

[Tom Bender]

Yeah, I've built a few chairs and the prototypes usually fail the sit test. One now serves as a plant stand.

[Bob Riefer]

:-) Glad I'm not the only one! The good news is that while the first time around (including prepping the rough lumber) took me about 5 hours, the second time only took me about 1.5 hours since I had it all figured out already.

This time I was able to plan the front leg joint to allow the stretcher connection noted above. I'll post pics soon

[Bob Riefer]

Here, I have it all mocked up and dry fit.

The goal with that front stretcher was to add a lot of strength laterally, so there are two 14 mm dominos making the connection on both sides - one from the stretcher into the seat rest, and another from the stretcher into the front leg.
dining bench 2.jpg

The other goal was for the stretcher to fit the design / look and essentially hide from the most-seen angle (the side view... because the front of the bench is hidden under the table it serves).

The final power carving to blend the joints is occurring today, but you can get the idea of the final look.

dining bench 3.jpg


Quite a beast to glue up!

dining bench 4.jpg