Build a Bench Around a Tree

Описание: Add an interesting feature to your backyard with this custom built tree bench.
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Transcript:

You know I'm really going to enjoy that backyard pond, just sitting and looking at it and sitting and looking, is what my next project is all about. I'm headed out to Vista, California, to visit Barbara Niermann and Rich Newbauer. They have got a project they'd like a hand with.

Good morning.

How are you?

Good morning, how are you? Welcome to our little piece of the world.

Well, thank you very much,

BJ I guess?

I'm BJ.

I'm Rick.

Hey, Rick. How are you doing?

Good, good thanks.

And who is this?

This is Melody Blue and she has a pinecone for you,

Hey Melody!

Melody Blue and Mallory Sky, Rick and BJ's three year old twins, welcome me with a pair of pine cones, then we're off to the backyard to see the source of those cones.

Now, that's a tree waiting for a bench, if I ever saw one.

It is.

Do you guys spend a lot of time out here in the yard?

We do. We love to spend time in the backyard.

It's our favorite place.

OK, well ahhh, what I'm thinking of, probably is something that's circular that goes all the way around the tree, using the tree maybe as a back would that work for you?

That would be great.

Sounds good.

After drawing a sketch of the bench, I run it by BJ and Rick.

So this will be a six sided bench, a hexagon and self supporting, will have legs here at each joint like this.

To build a bench, we're going to first construct two sides of our six sided hexagon. Actually, we'll make a pair of these, then connect these two sections together with seat planks to form the complete bench. We'll start by cutting all the seat boards. Each end needs to be cut at a 30 degree angle.

All right. I've set up a power miter saw here, this is where we're going to do all of our angle cuts. Here's all of our wood, we will be using Redwood today. We're here in California, why not?

That's great wood.

We clamp the first board under the miter saw and set the angle for our cut. Hah, BJ can hardly wait to get started.

Wanna try?

No! Hahahaha

Well, not exactly.

This is intimidating for me.

Yeah?

Because this is why I'm married, so he does this stuff, he's always right.

Oh, oh it's all over now.

I know.

It's going to be different.

I am woman, hear me roar!

After a quick lesson, BJ not only roars, she makes the cut!

Awesome. hahaha, I did it.

You did it.

Yes, I did it!

And look at this.

I did it. That's great.

Look at this, a perfect 30 degree cut. Your first time!

That looks really good.

Nice, nice and clean.

Wow.

All right. So let's cut a few more of these.

OK.

Rick , you want to do the next one?

Sure.

With our first row of seat boards cut, we place them around the tree for a test.

Ok, that's great.

OK, good.

Alright.

Does it fit?

We've got enough room, which obviously we do. We're not going to have to worry about being too small. I also think this is probably a pretty good distance from the edge of the bench to the tree, you know, so you can lean back.

Our bench seat will be three planks wide, to cut the two remaining boards to the proper length we lay all three boards side by side with quarter inch spacers in between, then use a straight edge to extend the lines from the first board to the second two. After marking all our cuts, we lay the seat planks out on the patio to make sure we remembered enough of our high school geometry looks great.

Time now, to build the legs and that's going to be very simply just two, two by sixes like this and then across the top, we're going to put a couple of one by fours and we'll have six of these, yeah six. All right. So let's lay these down to start with and I want to place this on here.

BJ uses a nail gun to temporarily tack the one by fours to the legs.

Right here?

Next, Rick drills clearance holes through them.

Very nice. OK,

OK!

Great guys.

Good.

Alright, now what we're going to do is drop in, this is a carriage bolt, galvanized, so we're just going to plunk these right in the hole here.

OK.

And we'll give them a little tap, just to set them.

We turn the legs over and add a washer and nut to each carriage bolt. Rick and BJ tighten the nuts with a socket wrench making sure the washers compress the wood just slightly. With all the legs completed our next step is to attach them to the seat planks.