[ Power saw whirring ] [ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪♪ One of my kids' favorite bedtime stories was called "The Park Bench" and it told the story of a park bench and all the things that it became during the day.

It was a meeting place, a place where kids could play and turned into a pirate ship or a house or a fort, who knows?

So, on today's episode of "The Woodsmith Shop," we're going to do our own version of the park bench by building this bench.

Now, the one that you see here is made from cypress, a lightweight, outdoor-resistant wood that's perfect for a project like this.

The bench also has some really great decorative hardware and features the kind of joinery that's going to help you become a better woodworker.

Now, as the story goes, the park bench can become almost anything and, in this episode, our version is going to be made from several different materials.

We're also going to play around with a couple of different finishes.

If you'd like to make your own, the plans are at our website...

It's time to build.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glues -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Construction of the porch bench consists, basically, of four parts.

We're going to begin with the legs and the stretchers, then we're going to make the top, we'll assemble the top and the legs, and, finally, we'll add the super cool hardware that really sets this project off.

But we start with the legs.

To make the legs, we're going to begin by cutting a tenon on the end.

Once we've done that, we can bandsaw a nice tapered leg and make it appear to be splayed, but our tenon will be perpendicular to the top, and that's gonna make things a lot easier for us down the line.

After smoothing the faces, I then marked out the location of the mortise for each of our stretchers.

Now, up until now, the legs are all the same, but as soon as we put the mortise in, we do have to match them up in pairs.

So, now, they're different.

I've got a 1/2-inch Forstner bit in the drill press.

I'm going to go ahead and hog out the waste here and we'll start cutting some mortises.

Well, after drilling out for our stretcher mortises, I cleaned them up using a 1.5-inch chisel.

With that done, it was a trip to the router table to put a nice, smooth edge on all the corners and I also routed the bottom of each leg, too, because, otherwise, this is going to chip every time the bench gets dragged on the floor.

After that, I went ahead and made two stretchers.

And so this was very much the same as we did before with the legs.

I went to the table saw and I used a dado blade to cut the tenons.

From there, to the router table, to round over the edge.

So, we're all ready to glue up our stretchers and our leg sets together.

Go ahead and use a little glue here.

I am using an exterior-rated glue, since this is going to be out on the porch.

Well, with the legs done, it's time to start on the top.

So, the first thing I'm going to do is go ahead and glue together these three boards of cypress.

Once they're glued together, we will then proceed to work on the breadboard ends, get some tenons on here, some mortises for the legs, and we'll be ready to assemble.

For right now, let's spread some glue.

♪♪ ♪♪ There are two steps in making the breadboard ends.

The first one is going to be to cut a very deep mortise on the inside edge.

It's 1-inch wide and 1.5 inches deep, so, I have 1-inch Forstner bit in the drill press and it's just going to be a matter of slowly working my way down the line, drilling deeply into the wood.

When that's done, I'll clean it up with a chisel, just like I did with the other mortises.

After we're done with that, the next step is going to be to drill a counterbore and a through hole in two locations on the end, and those are for a lag bolt and that lag bolt is a really great aesthetic detail that works with the turnbuckle in this project and it's really going to hold those breadboard ends on.

Well, since we glued up the top, I went ahead and ran it through the planer, so, it's now 1.5 inches thick.

It's 16 inches wide.

I also trimmed it to the final length, of 45 inches.

To start cutting the tenons, I have a dado stack on the table saw.

We're going to begin by cutting 1/4 inch of depth and I'm going to work my way from the end to a 1.5-inch end on both ends, both faces.

We'll then go through the same procedure again to make our shoulder cut, which is 3/4 inch in.

Well, it's time to put the breadboard ends on the top.

Now, one thing I have done is I went ahead and added a 1/8-inch roundover on all the edges of the breadboard end, to soften it.

That includes the edge which will fit onto the center portion of our top.

The center portion of the top, I've added a groove every 4 inches as a little accent, a detail, and I took that 1/8-inch bit and rounded over all the exposed edges.

Then I took a block plane and some sandpaper and I rounded this edge over as well and, that way, when the breadboard end goes on, the two edges will dive down and it'll really look sharp and nice and we'll get a good-fitting joint that way.

My next task to complete the top is to cut the mortises for the legs.

I've got three of them done and I've got one more to do.

Now, there's a lot of ways you can cut mortises.

If you want to use a router, go for it, but I'm using nice, soft cypress and you know what?

It's just a joy to do some chiselwork on it.

So, that's what I'm up to.

First thing I'm going to do is just outline the perimeter.

And with that done, we'll just start lifting the chips out.

And then you just go down, layer by layer, reoutlining the perimeter, lifting the chips, and I'll stop when I'm a little bit over 1 inch deep.

Alright, looks like we are there.

So, now, it's time to glue our legs into the top.

[ Blowing ] There we go.

Those bolts look good and that breadboard end is never coming off.

So, let's go ahead and flip the bench over... ...and we'll get with the turnbuckle.

Alright, first off, there are brackets on either end that have a pen.

The pen, of course, is going to fit into this hole here, one on either end.

So, I've got a centering mark on the inside of my stretchers and I'm just going to line up... ...the bracket... ...and mark the screw holes.

Alright, with the brackets in place, what I need to do now is take out this pen and there's a snap ring in the end of each one.

So, I have a pair of snap-ring pliers here, which will make that a lot easier.

There we go.

Start with one end and then what I'll need to do is just rotate the turnbuckle... ...until this eye lines up with my pen.

Tighten this up just a little bit.

And there we go.

The porch bench.

This one is all out of cypress.

You can make it out of a lot of different woods.

It's a pretty bench.

It'll look great on your porch and I love that turnbuckle.

I think that's just super cool.

To finish the cypress bench, I'm just going to use a clear exterior sealer.

It's super easy to use.

We'll start at the bottom here, move to the top.

I'm going to let things dry for 15 minutes or so and we're going to repeat the process three times.

The only secret to this is use a lot because you want it to soak in really well.

♪♪ ♪♪ And that completes the first coat.

So, 15 minutes, another coat; 15 minutes, another coat after that; and then we'll set it outside and let it cure.

[ Blows ] Another great option to finish an outdoor project is going to be paint.

There's a couple of reasons why I like paint on outdoor projects.

First, it adds a lot of water resistance.

You can kind of seal the end grain in and you won't get any water wicking up in there.

It also helps protect from bugs and UV rays.

Those are really the things that are going to damage an outdoor project.

So, I'm going to go ahead and paint the base on this bench and we'll stain the top.

I think painting the entire thing is going to be a lot of color and I'd like to add a little warmth with a stain.

And we'll go ahead and distress it, so it has an interesting look.

But before I paint these legs, I'm going to go ahead and seal the end grain.

This bench is made out of poplar.

Poplar's not the best wood to put outside, so, I'm going to do everything I can to help protect it.

Like I said, the paint's going to seal it, but, by adding a thin layer of CA glue over the end grain, we're going to seal those fibers.

Those fibers are going to be like straws, so, they're going to want to suck water and anything up.

And you can see, as I add the glue, it really wicks that in to the end grain fibers and once this is cured, it's going to add a lot of water resistance to this end grain.

So, I'll do that to all four feet.

Then I'm going to add a layer of paint and we're going to do a two-layer system.

I'm going to add a dark layer, first.

We'll come back and add a lighter layer over top.

That way, we can kind of sand around the edges and distress it a little bit and you'll get hints of that base layer coming through.

♪♪ ♪♪ So, with the paint drying on the legs, we can go ahead and turn our attention to the top and, as I mentioned, I'm going to stain this, but before we stain it, I want to add a little bit of fake wear to this thing.

And to do that, really, we just reached into the hardware bin and found some random, different-shaped stuff.

So, I got a carriage bolt, a leg screw, I've got a couple awls to do some pokey stuff, and then I also have a bench grinder with a wire wheel in it and I'm going to use this to kind of wear down some of these front edges, as if somebody had sat down on this bench for years and kind of worn off that front roundover.

Now, the trick with aging something like this is that you want to be pretty random.

It's hard to be random when you're trying to be, but best we can do?

Just whacking in different areas, poke some holes, wear it down, and then we'll apply some stain.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ After that gel stain's had a couple of minutes to soak in.

you can come back and wipe off all the excess.

One of the things I like about gel stain is it gives you a good, even color, but I feel like you can kind of work on the color a little bit with a secondary rag.

The more you wipe, the more comes up, so you can really work it down to a color that you're happy with.

And you can see, now, everything that we kind of artificially aged really pops out.

It's grabbed a little bit extra stain and, once I topcoat this and add that glaze effect, it'll pop out even more.

So, I'm going to go ahead and let this dry, I'll add a topcoat, and by then, those legs should be ready for another coat.

Now, in the time that we were staining the top, the Milk Paint on these legs has dried.

Now, it's important to note that any sort of water-based paint that you apply to a wood project is going to raise the grain.

So, after that first coat, you're going to notice it's pretty rough, but you'll just want to come in with a little bit of sandpaper -- this is 180; 220 works as well -- and you just want to kind of hit it quickly to knock down any of that fuzz.

That's going to give you a good base to build up subsequent coats.

So, now that I've smoothed both of these out, I'm going to add one more layer of this gray paint.

Then once that's dry, I'll top it with a lighter coat.

I think I'm going to go white on top of this.

After that white coat's dry, we'll go ahead and hit some of the edges with some sandpaper, let the gray pop through.

I think it's going to look great.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Blows ] Once the paint on the legs have dried, we can go ahead and start adding a little bit of age to them.

I'm just doing this with some sandpaper and I'm kind of hitting the high spots, where it would be a wear spot that somebody may brush their leg up against and, over the years, wear the paint through.

What we're doing here is we're just getting through that top layer of paint and getting down into that darker base that we put down.

[ Blows ] So, it doesn't take a whole lot and, even if your topcoat isn't a completely even coverage and you don't have a good, solid top layer, that's okay.

It's going to look natural.

So, we'll just wear through some of those areas... [ Blows ] ...and I might even come back and add a little bit of extra glaze to this when I'm all done.

We can set that off to the side for now... ...and turn our attention back to the top.

Now, I've went ahead and applied a topcoat here, so, this is nice and smooth and it's ready for our glaze effect.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to use a water-based glaze and I'm going to apply it really concentrating on a couple of particular areas.

Really, all those dings that we added, I'm going to concentrate on getting the glaze down into those and probably some of these V grooves as well.

Just going to add a little bit of dirt and dinge to this and I'll wipe that off kind of like you would a stain.

Once the water-based glaze has had a good, you know, 6 or 8 hours to dry, I'll come back and apply one more topcoat to really seal it in.

Alright, one of the cool things about a bench design, like the one that Chris made, is that you can change up the look of it in several different ways.

You can change the finish or the materials.

In this case, we're doing both.

So, we have a bench here that's made out of red oak and, otherwise, the construction is identical.

Now, what I want to do is apply a finish that's going to add age to it.

You know, most woods, the longer they're left outside, will get this nice, silvery gray color.

The only problem is that you'll have a couple of years in there of kind of a harsh middle when it just kind of looks a little ragged.

So, this is going to accelerate that process and go from shiny, brand-new red oak into an aged, gray silver look to it.

So, I'm going to start by flipping the bench over and applying our accelerant on the bottom side.

The color of this product is really clear, so, all you really want to do is use a foam brush and apply it liberally to your surface.

This works by a chemical reaction, so, all you really need to do is just keep it wet for a while.

Now, since this works by a chemical reaction, it's reacting with the tannins that are in the wood.

So, if you want to use this product, you want to do it with wood species that have a high tannin content.

Oak, ash, even walnut, will work really well with this.

Alright, here's the first coat of our accelerator.

It's mostly dry at this point.

I put a fan on it to help it along.

You can see, down by the bottom of the legs, still a little wet.

I'm not too worried about that at this point.

And you'll notice quite a bit of difference from the freshly sanded red oak.

It's a lot more gray.

There's still some of that kind of reddish brown color coming through.

So, what I'm going to do is apply another coat of the accelerator, same process that I did before, just on the visible surfaces.

I won't do the bottom side of the top because nobody but the dog is going to see that one at this point.

So, once that one is dry, we can talk about what the options are to wrap up this project.

Alright, here's our bench after two coats of the aging accelerator solution that we put on there and you can see it's picking up a really nice, gray faded look, kind of weather-worn, like it's been sitting outside for a good long time.

Now, you have a couple of options here.

The first thing you want to do is use an abrasive pad and just rub down the surface of the project because that's going to take care of any dust nibs that were raised by the moisture in the accelerator.

Then wipe it down, so you get rid of any of the remaining dust here.

Then, frankly, what I'm going to do is just leave the bench as-is.

I really like how this looks.

If this bench is going to live its life outside, it's just going to keep getting more and more silvery gray.

If it's going to be inside, this is the color that I want it to stay.

If you add a finish to it, a topcoat, it's going to change the color slightly.

If you add an oil-based topcoat, it's going to make it a little yellower and a little more black in color, whereas... ...if you use like a water-based finish or a lacquer, the color is going to be more like this, but it's still going to shift subtly.

So, you might want to do some test pieces, figure out what you want for your project.

Now, if you're interested in building one of these, you can find plans for this bench at our website... On today's episode of "The Woodsmith Shop," we started with a bench design that's pretty simple in its construction.

It works with mortise-and-tenon joints to give us these great breadboard ends and attaching the legs to the top.

Along with the decorative hardware, this project is sure to stand out, but there's more to it here.

This project is also ripe for customization and personalization.

So, you could see the first one, that Chris built, we finished with an outdoor oil that really sets off the look of the cypress.

Now, on the one that I was working on, this one is out of red oak and features an aged look that gives it the appearance of a project that's been sitting outside and weathering to a beautiful, silvery gray.

Logan's version of the bench is all about distressing.

Now, we stained the top and then added some distress marks as well, and then a two-tone paint job that gives it the look of a farmhouse antique.

If this is the kind of project that you're interested in, you can find the plans.

They're at our website...

It's also the place to find other project ideas, inspiration, and great woodworking tips to help you become a better woodworker.

And then we can come right back here for another great project in the Woodsmith Shop.

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Everything in today's show comes from the newly expanded Woodsmith Guild Edition with shop projects, plans, tips, and techniques.

To get a free preview issue of the Woodsmith Guild Edition and a free Woodsmith book, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

In addition, past seasons of "The Woodsmith Shop" are available on DVD, or you can watch them online from your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

For more information, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glues -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪