I built a garden bench

Check it out. I found a nice chunk of wood down the beach, and figured it would make a perfect top for a slightly unusual garden bench, so I carried it home (well, across the dunes, past the naked man, and back to the car anyway).

Got to work on it this morning. This is the result (not that lad, I made him too, but that was about 5 years ago).

 

Cool Well done for getting it past the naked man

 

Very nice clue! Naked man you say?........... Sorry about that, but it'd be rude to have tan lines this weather, I'll put a thong on next time

 

Brilliant Clue

 

Great Clueless - you'd pay a few £s for that in a shop!

 

I just need to figure out how to keep its sun/sea bleached tone now. I found with another piece of drift wood I fetched home, that once its away from the harsh environment of salty air and total absence of shade, it discolours quite quickly.

 

Will a couple of coats of either clear wax or clear boat varnish help keep the colour clue?

 

Very nice. But, and I hate to add some constructive criticism, you should add a brace at the bottom of the legs between to make the legs a lot stronger.

I wish I had a beach so I could find driftwood and naked men.

 

Never be afraid to offer constructive criticism. Its always appreciated by me, and as far as I can tell most people appreciate it.

The legs are secured to the driftwood with shelf brackets (2 per leg) and rather beefy screws. I cut the tops of the legs to roughly match the contours of the driftwood too, so as to get a much more snug fit, and in addition to the brackets, I've sent a few 3 inch screws in at 45 degrees through the sides of the legs near the top, into the driftwood.

 

That does sound quite intensive. But my point was that if you had a brace at the bottom, between the two legs, then you would be keeping the legs perfectly straight. I'm just imagining over time, with a constant weight the legs will want to flare outwards a bit. A brace fixed to both legs at the bottom would stop this from happening.

 

I don't really expect it to last that long really. Its kind of a prototype to see if I like it, and to see how it weathers. It might be fire wood next spring, or it might prove so popular that it warrants some better legs and maybe even a coat of varnish

 

Totally love it!!

Well done to you (not always easy to find a good piece of driftwood near me and I doubt anything I made would stand up to human weight anyway )

 

We get loads of driftwood, but most of it is either no good for anything, or is so big it would need a couple of big horses to shift it, so when you see the perfect bit, you can't ponder and deliberate, you have to snaffle it there and then

 

There are plenty of naked men on the beach near me.....they're made of iron though!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Place