Entryway Bench

Well, my first “fine furniture” (can I use that terminology as a beginner?) project is finished!  This is a entryway bench designed for relaxing or to change one’s footware.  It is made entirely of solid cherry wood, using traditional joinery and finished with Watco Danish Oil (Cherry and Natural color).

Genesis

Quite often ideas for projects are inspired by designs we see during our daily travels.  In this case, my wife and I came across an entryway bench in a retail store that we liked.  There were only three problems: it was very pricey; the construction consisted of MDF, poplar, and birch veneers; and we didn’t like the “painted veneer” look of that specific design.  So for a beginning woodworker, these factors all came together to create the perfect storm.  Thus the idea grew into my first major “fine furniture” project.

Challenges

For the new woodworker that I am, this bench raised some interesting challenges.  The most significant of these revolved around concerns regarding seasonal contraction and expansion of the wood.  As a relatively mobile family, having lived in quite a few different locations throughout the U.S., accounting for varying humidity levels in our design is an important factor.  I’ll explain how I dealt with these issues later.

The second significant challenge was finding a finish that enhanced the grain, provided a natural “cherry” look, and permitted relatively maintenance-free care.  We struggled through numerous types of finishes, including several brands of gels and stains, before stumbling upon Danish Oil.  Once we discovered the Danish Oil we knew our search was over.  This look provides precisely what we were seeking to obtain.

Designing the Bench

Ahhh… 3D drawings are difficult to do on paper.  In preparation for this design, I discovered Google SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com), a superb freeware program that helped tremendously in refining the look, dimensions, and proportions of the bench.  You can download a copy of my drawing here: http://www.morsel.info/download_files/Entryway_bench.skp.  Note that I drew the basic sketch of the bench but did not specify the joinery in this model.

There are some nuances regarding the joinery that are important to discuss.  Wood movement, so I’ve been told, can become problematic.  Constrict wide panels from expanding and contracting and you’ll set yourself up for splits or failed joints.  There were three areas where I needed to account for movement in this bench: (1) mounting the side rails to the seat, (2) attaching the rear panel, and (3) setting the carcase in the base assembly.  To resolve these concerns, I mounted the front portion of the side rails using a sliding dovetail configuration; rear sections of the rails are glued.  The rear panel is glued at the top but screwed into the vertical partitions toward the bottom through slotted screw holes.  The base is glued to the carcase near the front but is held to the carcase via wooden buttons at the sides and rear of the base.

Building the Bench

My construction process follows, in chronological order:

• Buy the wood.   This may be harder than it sounds.  Initially, I naively believed I could purchase most of my wood at home centers.  This may be okay for construction work involving basic oak and pine, but when working with furniture-grade hardwood, a visit to a specialty lumber yard is required.  Exotic Lumber, Inc. (http://www.exoticlumberinc.com) became my lumberyard of choice for this project due to their location, the quality of their wood, and pricing.  I bought approximately 40 board-feet (bf) of 4/4 rough-cut cherry “shorts” (all 5 to 6 feet in length) at $4.25 per bf.  There was no reason to buy longer, more expensive lengths of cherry boards since the maximum dimension (length) is around 50 inches.
• Face-join, plane, dimension, and edge-join the wood.  First, I examined each board along its length to determine if there was any cupping or twisting.  If there was, and it was significant, I ripped the board in half (lengthwise) to ensure I could get maximum thickness out of it.  I then face-joined each board and ran all boards through the thickness planer to get between 3/4 and 7/8-inch thickness.  Although my target stock was 3/4″, it’s important to account for losses from sanding the final product.  Next, I edge-joined one side of each board, and trimmed the other on a table saw to ensure parallel edges.  I then joined the trimmed edges.
• Arrange boards.  Before gluing up panels, I arranged the boards for appearance and fit, and cross-cut each to a length several inches longer than required.  When arranging the boards, I looked at the end grain and attempted to alternate direction of the grain by making the “u” shapes point up and down alternatingly; this helps to compensate for possible wood movement and associated cupping across the panel.  I also arranged the boards so that the “u” shapes pointed in the SAME direction on the face of each panel, for purely aesthetic reasons.
• Glue up panels.  I’ve learned through numerous sources that standard wood glue provides plenty of strength for long-grain joints.  Biscuits could be used to help with alignment, but are not needed for structural integrity.  Therefore, I spread glue across each edge, rubbed edges together, laid them on waxed pipe clamps, placed additional clamps above the board (between bottom clamps), and slowly tightened them.  You may need to use a rubber or dead-blow mallet (NOT a steel hammer!) to force the boards flush with each other.  After 20 minutes or so you can scrape the squeeze-out (without moving the clamps) from the face of all accessible joints using a cabinet scraper (my preference).  It works best when the glue is still a little tacky.  I let the panels dry for 24 hours, then ran them through a wide belt sander to remove any remaining glue squeeze-out and even out any misalignment between joints.
• Rip and cross-cut panels to final dimensions.  I used the sliding mitre table (SMT) on my Craftsman table saw to cross-cut.  I ran into some problems with the table not being perfectly parallel (shame on me!), and had to trim a couple panels with a straight router bit to clean up some of the edges.  Lesson learned: Always verify alignment of your equipment before cutting; measure twice; and cut once!  I also cut notches in the center vertical panels using a band saw.
• Cut stopped tongue-and-groove joints in panels.  I clamped a straight-edge to the panel and used a straight router bit to cut each groove.  Why stopped joints?  Simple: I didn’t want the joinery to be visible, and wanted to avoid corner gapping in the event my dados weren’t perfect.  Forming the tongue on each panel (both sides) was accomplished with a straight bit and router mounted in my table saw.  I spent a lot of time sneaking up on the thickness to make sure the fit in each groove was nice and tight.  The tongues and grooves on the left and right side panels were offset closer to the inside of the bench to allow a thicker lip on the top and bottom panels.  Tongues and grooves were centered on the two center vertical panels.
• Build rear panel.  Since the rear panel didn’t need to be the full 3/4″ thick, I cut grooves on both sides of the lumber with a table saw, then resawed the boards with a 21″ band saw.  After planing and joining I did the panel glueup as before, followed by sanding and dimensioning.
• Sand all flat surfaces.  I used a random orbital sander (ROS) starting with 100-grit, and moved through 150- and 220-grit paper.  This sure took a lot of time, but a good sanding job is critical to obtaining a nice finish.  Wow–I discovered that connecting the ROS to a shop vac was extremely effective for removing the sawdust!
• Assemble and glue the carcase together.  This involved a lot of nervous sweating since it’s easy to ruin a lot of hard work if things don’t glue together properly.  First, I protected visible edges from glue squeeze-out and drips with blue painter’s tape and waxed paper.  With some assistance, I did a dry-run assembly and set the length of my pipe clamps.  Then we spread glue throughout each groove and quickly assembled the bench.  use of a dead-blow mallet helped to push things together properly.  We checked the corners for 90-degree joints with a couple of squares, then clamped everything down.  After about 20 minutes I removed tape and waxed paper, then removed residual squeeze-out with the corner of a cabinet scraper.
• Cut and glue cross-braces between vertical separators.  I sneaked up on the fit with a disc sander on my table saw to make sure these were snug, then glued them to the underside of the bench top between each separator (back of bench).  The front cross-brace fitted within the notches and fits against the inside of the outer sides; it was also glued in place.
• Build the base.  I cross-cut the base members to length and mitred the corners with a mitre saw, then built square supports (2″ blocks) for the insides of the base frame.  These add structural integrity to the mitre joints, but also support the full weight of the bench.  Everything was then glued together and clamped together.  A band clamp helped to keep the mitres from slipping.   I then routed a rabbet on the back inside of the base, and chiseled the ends of the rabbet square.  Slots were cut on the inside left, right, and back of the base to hold shop-made wooden buttons to allow for wood movement.  I tapered the corners with the ROS, then hand-sanded everything.  I made buttons using the band saw and router, and
• Countersink rear-panel screw holes.  A slotted router bit worked great for this, designed for 3/4″ long #8 tapered-head wood screws.  I designed the rear panel to fasten it with glue right under the top rail and to allow for wood movement by screwing it to the vertical supports about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom.  The countersunk slotted screw holes allow for movement.
• Glue the base in place.  I checked to make sure everything was level first, then glued the front edge and the front support blocks to the bottom panel.  I left the rear to float but glued and screwed wooden buttons to the bottom panel on the sides and back, with the lip inserted into slots within the base.
• Cut and shape top rails (side and rear).  A band saw, mitre saw, and belt sander were used to create these pieces.
• Cut sliding dovetail joints for side rails.  This was the most challenging part of the project.  Since the seat of the bench may expand and contract front-to-back, across the grain, the side rails have potential to constrict that movement.  I don’t know if this was the best possible solution, but I routed a stopped sliding dovetail groove from the back of each side rail to about 2″ from the front.  Then I cut 3″ long tails to fit into the front portion of each rail and glued these in place to the bench top.  Since this is a long-grain to end-grain joint, which is not as strong as a long-grain to long-grain joint, I thinned the glue with water first and let it soak in for about 5 minutes before applying full-strength glue and attaching the tail.  Caution: Alignment of the tail was critical; if slightly off, the mitre won’t meet the rear rail mitre properly.  I also cut tail blanks to insert into the rear of each rail once installed.  These blanks will be glued to both the rail and to the rear of the bench seat.
• Glue top rails in place.  First I glued the rear rail in place.  Next, I slid the rails over the dovetails (approaching from the front), inserted the blank tail into the rear of the groove, and glued the blank to both the bench seat and to the rail.  Side and rear rail mitres were glued together and the entire assembly was held together with pipe and band clamps.
• Do final sanding.  I used 220-grit sandpaper over the entire bench, including the rear panel (not yet attached).  I examined each surface very carefully since imperfections become blatantly obvious once any stain or finish is applied.
• Finish with Danish Oil.  The rear panel will be glued to the rear cross-braces immediately underneath the rear rail.  Therefore, I protected this section with blue painter’s tape before finishing.  I then applied two coats of cherry-tinted Watco Danish Oil and one of Natural Watco Danish Oil per instructions on the can.  I rubbed it in well with a cloth about 45 minutes after each application to obtain a semi-glossy appearance.  I allowed 8-12 hours dry time between applications and lightly rubbed with #0000 steel wool before applying subsequent coats.  Note that the rear panel was finished separately since that made it easier to reach into the carcase.
• Mount rear panel.  I glued the top edge, drilled pilot holes into the vertical supports, and drove #8 wood screws to hold it in place.

And that’s it!  Whew, this took a lot more time and effort than I anticipated when I first began this project.  I suspect my procedures will become much more efficient over time as technique and skill level advance.

Closing Thoughts

I love the way this bench looks, and am very pleased with the solid feel.  If I decide to build another one in the future, I may revisit how the side rails are mounted to the seat.  The sliding dovetail joinery was difficult to accomplish accurately, and I’m not completely sure how it will hold up over the long-term–especially since the tails are glued to end-grain wood.

But without a doubt, we’re very happy with the end result and expect to enjoy using it for many years to come.

Special Thanks

As a newbie, it was very helpful to have considerable expertise available at BT3CENTRAL (http://www.bt3central.com) to provide recommendations on joinery, finishing, 3D sketching, and equipment.  Thanks to all who provided their insight.