Wednesday, April 16, 2008

A nice day-off project


I had a day off today. Mid-week days off are sorta sweet...you're off everyone else's 9-to-5 Mon-Fri schedule, so you can have a little more freedom than a Saturday.

I was going to work on building shelves in the basement, but given the glorious weather today, it would have been a crime. I will do that when it's raining this fall. I decided instead to build some Leopold Benches.

Aldo Leopold designed these benches years ago, I have no idea when. They were made so that they could be build by almost anyone with a saw, drill, screwdriver and a crescent wrench. I cheated a little and used a power saw, power drill, and a palm sander to get the slivers off the wood. The outcome was satisfactory.

I recycled a bunch of wood from the shop, from racks were tore down to replace with Aquaracks. All I needed was three 10' 2x8s. Everything else was cut out of pieces left over. The rest will be turned into kindling for next year's fireplace.

I think if you had the right set-up and a few people, you could make these by the dozens. They're deceptively comfortable, simple, and authentically rustic.

2 comments:

eric said...

Hey - These are OUTSTANDING, and in my many years of looking through woodworking magazines, I don't recall running across them.

The construction of a couple Leopold benches for the fire ring in the back yard just made the top of the project list. :-)

Great post - thanks!

canoelover said...

Thanks, Eric. I made a few changes to them (I didn't use a 2x6 for the back, I used a 2x8 and 2x10 trimmed to taper to 5.5 inches. It looks better and is a bit more comfortable. I'm going to be building a bunch more...assembly line style...for the shop.