Rustic spindle bench

Rustic spindle bench
Difficulty
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I recently lengthened the legs to an art table for my daughter. I decided to reuse the original legs in another capacity. While my wife was on pinterest she came across a large solid piece of wood with spindle legs attached to it to make a bench. I had recently picked up some large pieces of wood from the burn pile at a nearby sawmill. I cut one of the pieces in half after bringing it home and here is how to easily make a unique bench.

Local sawmills are a great resource. This piece was about 12 ft long and I literally climbed atop the burn pile to fish this out. I grabbed a few more that I will be using in some projects soon.

60 inches long, width varies due to wood 16-19 inches wide, 1 inch thick

Preparation

Shopping List

Spindle legs (thrift store or garage sale, or reuse from something you already own)
Wood Stain
Poly

Common Materials
1 1/2 inch screws
120 grit sandpaper
paint
paint brush
Cut List

Spindles- 17 in
Wood top- 60 in

Cutting Instructions

*Cut spindle legs to height desired. For my bench, I cut the legs to 17 inches each.
*Cut solid wood to length desired for table. I am making a 7ft table soon, so I wanted my bench about 1ft short on each end 84-24= 60 inches

Tools
Tape Measure
Safety Glasses
Hearing Protection
Kreg Jig
Drill
Circular Saw
Power Sander

Instructions

Step 1

Once pieces were cut, I first drilled my jig holes in the spindles. I used a clamp and my pocket Kreg jig to drill one hole on each side that I used to attach the legs to the bench top. You could always drill from the top as well and then fill with wood filler.

Step 2

After the holes were made, I painted each leg a different color. One red, one teal, one red & teal that I then covered with black, and one black.

Step 3

I used some 100 grit sandpaper to rough up the legs and antique them a bit.

Step 4

Attach the legs to the outside edges of the bench bottom using wood glue and screws.

Finishing Instructions
Preparation Instructions
After glue has set, it's time to finish the wood. I already sanded my piece using a belt sander with 40, 80, then 120 grit. I bought Rustoleum wood stain and poly. Their products say that you only need one coat of stain and three coats of poly with no sanding in between coats. I was skeptical but gave it a try and I am very happy with my results.
Finish Used
Rustoleum Early American Wood Stain
Rustoleum poly

Comments

dmcarwin

Mon, 10/03/2011 - 09:26

I LOVE this! It is so great that you can make something beautiful from left over wood. Thanks for the inspiration!