How to Make a Bench

Table of Contents

Traditional seating in a simple, rustic style

Making furniture doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated and, with that in mind, we thought a traditional design inspired by the American five- board bench, with simple dowelled joints, would be perfect.

This construction method uses just glue and dowels, making it quick and simple. There are no complicated joints, and the bench components are first just glued together and clamped, then dowelled afterwards to provide the extra strength needed. Modern glues are so effective, they make this type of build possible.

After deciding on a rough design, the first job was to go down to the timber yard. I found three 20mm-thick boards of high quality planed pine with decent grain that would do the job nicely, so
it was decided that the bench would have 20mm-thick components throughout. The boards were PAR (prepared all round) so no further preparation work was needed – what
could be easier?

The finished bench has an elegance born of its simplicity

Five-board bench plan

Design

1. With the boards purchased, I set about drawing a pleasing design. Two ogee curves that meet at a point in the middle of the timber components were the design motif, replicated on both legs as well as the side boards, both of which are dowelled to the bench top
2. When marking up components, I checked for timber defects, marking around any that were found, such as knots or splits. One of the boards had a darker heartwood along the middle of it, so it was decided this board would be perfect for the sides, cut down the middle, so that the gradient of dark to light timber would become a part of the ‘look’ of the bench
3. Square ends were marked on the boards first, then the components measured and marked out
4. For cross-cutting boards a handsaw is quick and efficient
5. The end grain was planed to a perfectly square and smooth finish
6. The ripsawing was done outside where the circular sawdust didn’t matter…
7. …and square-up and smoothing of all the with-the-grain components was done with my jack plane
8. You can buy a set of French curves for drawing up designs like this, but it is easy to have a go freehand – 6mm MDF is ideal for making up jigs and templates

Template

9. For accuracy, only half the drawn shape was cut out to reduce final shaping errors so the curves would be identical
10-11. Marking out the other half of the shape prior to bandsawing the pine
12. There were plenty of relieving cuts made before following the drawn line, just a fraction inside it. If the bandsaw throat depth is limited and manoeuvring awkward, mark the shape on the other face to make the cut
13. The bench was placed upside down on the bench top to get an idea of proportion and decide where the legs should be positioned along the bench top and sides. They need to be near the ends to avoid any tendency to over balance
14. The sides were marked directly on to the legs as it cuts out measuring errors and allows for the timber’s eccentricities
15. The housings in the legs, which the side boards fit into, were cut with a Japanese saw
16. Pairing the housings for a perfect fit
17. The design on the bench sides was a flattened version of the bench ends. A bendy strip of ply or a flexi-curve can be used to mark out the correct shape
18-19. The same technique as with the legs. I cut out this shape on the bandsaw. You may need to have the design on both sides of the boards, to turn the board over to cut out both ends if your bandsaw table is too small
20. Once all shapes were cut out, all the component faces and edges were given a thorough sanding, easier to do as separate components

Glue up

21. Once everything was cut out and sanded, the sides were glued and clamped to the bench underside with the legs as spacers to keep the sides in the correct position while clamping. To help glue up, a line of biscuits along the underside and board edges will add extra strength to the construction
22. Once the glue had gone off, I removed the clamps and started cleaning up the profile of the side boards. The flats for the leg housing were a touch on the wide side after bandsawing, so I used a sharp chisel to trim these to size
23. A flat piece of ply with 80 grit abrasive glued around it was used to smooth off both the shape of the curves and to get rid of all sawing marks left by the bandsaw, if you have a fine rasp or spokeshave, even better
24. For the concave shapes, the same trick was used but with the abrasive glued around a dowel instead. A belt sander and any other powered device is doable, but it is too easy to round over edges with power tools – the slow way by hand is better
25. The face edge of the side boards and top edges were then planed flat and true, checking with a square
26. After dry-fitting to make any final adjustments to the housings, and ensuring all joint faces were fully in contact, the legs were put in place, in the correct position along the sides and square to the bench top. Then they were clamped in place, checking they didn’t slip around

Dowels

27. Once the glue had gone off, it was time to drill the dowel holes. I marked the centreline of the legs, across the sides and top of the bench, and then the dowel hole positions. I used standard 10mm dowels but you could use plain dowels sawing a glue relief kerf down the side of each dowel
28. The dowel sinking depth was marked on the brad point bit with tape at 40mm and the drill lined up with an engineer’s square before drilling the holes. Care was needed, only using a very sharp drill bit, to try to avoid breakout on the surface of the timber
29. Glue was applied to the holes and dowels, which were tapped home with a hammer
30. Once the glue had dried on the dowel ends I cut off the dowel tops with a Japanese flush-cut saw
31. A 4mm, 45° bevel was machined on all the outside edges with a small router and a bearing-guided bevel cutter. Great care had to be taken when doing the edges of the legs, working on edge running around from the bench sides. A board was clamped in place to give more support to the router base

Finishing

32. There were a few small shakes and other minor defects in the timber, so a colour-matched filler was used prior to sanding and finishing. However it needed to be kept to the repair areas only or it could have spoilt the look of the pine if it got in the grain
33. The bench was sanded down to 240 grit ready to apply three coats of water-based acrylic satin varnish, denibbing between coats. Acrylic varnish goes on easily, dries quickly and produces a lovely lustre, which is perfect for showing off pine to its best. It is also very easy to clean up the brush afterwards
34. For such a simple and easy-to- make design, it gives a really pleasing, strong and practical result, ideal in the kitchen or wherever you need some extra seating

Further reading

The Weekend Workbench

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