Bench Duty complete!!

Before my latest work trip I managed to get the bench roughed out and now that I am home and settled for a few weeks, I went back to work to finish the bench so it could be delivered.

All but two of the legs were turned so this was the first step and it was good to be back at the lathe. 

My preference is to turn the legs and stretchers and glue them in place before final shaping of the seat. This way everything can be worked in together for the final look. The final step before installing the legs is to finish sand the bottom, tape off the holes as this are is hard to get at after the glueup.

Test-fitting the legs to ensure they fit the mortises and to get the grain orientation correct.

Making sure the legs all line up, the stretchers fit and no surprises before gluing up - always the stressful part!

Legs and stretchers glued and wedged in place, ready for final shaping.

Its a real challenge keeping the painted and the stained parts separate. This was my solution for this.

A coat of stain on the seat brought out some of the curl from the birch, adding a nice effect.

With a few spray coats of satin poly, rubbed out and ready for use.

Shot of the end of the bench showing my detail to transition the front to the back, I sketched this many times
before deciding how I wanted it to work - I am very pleased with this effect.

Another beauty shot.

Hopefully this will see many years of use under the table.