Shaker Inspired Bench - Part 3

With the bench all glued up and sanded I was able to now focus on finishing.  Since the customer (my wife) wanted this bench painted I wanted to use Milk Paint since I had used it before on the blanket chest.  

We originally planned on first painting the bench red and then black, sanding through the black to show some of the red, but we ultimately loved the red so we decided to leave it red.  I used General Finishes Brick Red Milk Paint and then a top-coat of General Finishes Polyacrylic.  I am very pleased with the results, and more importantly, so is my wife.

Shaker Inspired Bench - Part 2

With the basic plan in place I was ready to start cutting my joinery.  I started by cutting the dado on the bottom of the top the same width as the legs.  I then used the drill press to drill out the mortises in the top to accept the tenons on the legs.  Then squared up the mortises with a chisel.  I used my table-saw and dado blade to cut the tenons, slowly creeping up on the perfect fit.  

For Christmas I got a new 1/2" up-cut spiral bit, which is perfect for cutting the mortises on the legs.  Using my Festool OF1400 and the edge guide I was able to cut a perfect mortise very quickly.  This is my first spiral router bit, and I love it!

After all the mortises were squared up and multiple times dry-fitting everything I was ready for the final glue up, which went very smoothly.

 View of the through mortises with the split for the wedge.

Bench dry fit (no stretcher yet).

Cutting the mortises in the legs with my new 1/2" up-cut spiral bit, this thing is awesome!

Nice, clean mortise. 

Squared up the mortise with a chisel. 

Final glue up (can't have too many clamps).

Shaker-Inspired Bench - Part 1

Every-time I walk into our house I want a place to sit down and take my shoes off without having to walk on the carpet.  Our entry-way has tile floors and I wanted to build a bench.

At first, I was going to build this grand bench that included a coat-rack and storage, but determined that it would be too big.  I settled on a "Shaker-Inspired" bench that would be simple, yet sturdy to endure years of abuse.

After some research I came up with a very simple design, that I new would help me to learn some new woodworking techniques. The last few projects (including the magazine rack) I have been designing in my head, and then just building it.  This has been much tougher than I originally thought as I have been used to building from already designed plans, typically from someone else.

 I knew what I wanted the dimensions to be, and that there would be a top, two legs and a stretcher.  After buying the wood (Poplar since it would be painted), I milled everything up and continued the design process by setting it up on my workbench and visualizing how it would all come together.