Hey! It's April! And you know what they say: "April Showers bring"...
MicroJig, maker of the GRR-RIPPER. Work safer, Work smarter.
Want to a little bit of fun and whimsy to your garden?
You can build this popsicle stick bench, in a weekend.
I got the idea for this bench from Disney's California Adventure Theme Park.
It's in A Bug's Land, and of course it's meant to look as though this were built by, bugs.
I've tried to keep the design of this bench as simple as possible. If you don't have a lot of power tools you can build the entire bench using just a handheld jigsaw.
The only difference is that the back on that version will be vertical rather than tilted back a little bit.
I'll include those limited tool design options in the plans, which you can download in the description below.
To cut the curved ends of the popsicle sticks, I'm going to make a template using this scrap piece of hardboard.
I'm using a band-saw to cut out all of the curves, but you could also use the handheld jigsaw.
The template is the same width as my board, so I'll just line it up flush with the end and the sides.
You can round-over the sharp edges, either with a router or sandpaper.
I'll join a lot of this together using pocket screws and my pocket-hole jig.
For maximum holding power, I'll glue and screw these together.
The back of my bench and the rear legs are meant to look like one popsicle stick that's slightly bent.
I'm going to use my plans to carefully layout and measure where I need to make the cuts to achieve that 10 degree angle.
If I were to just join these two pieces together at an angle, it might not be sturdy enough when you lean back on it.
So I'm just going to do a kind of modified lap-joint.
I'll start with the leg, because it just has the one angled cut.
This isn't that long of a cut, you could also use a handsaw if you wanted to.
Now I can layout the back pieces the same way. I'll just be a little bit more careful with the cuts. Measuring and cutting as I go, until I get a good fit.
Well it looks like it's actually going to work. It kind of surprises me, this is one of those cases where it sounded good in theory,
but I wasn't sure if that was going to actually work out until I tried it
So for now I can glue and clamp these together.
Then once they're dry, I can sand everything smoother.
If you don't have any way of making these long rip-cuts, you can by two by two's at the home center.
And there, I have seven, very large popsicle sticks.
Now I can get back to assembling the bench.
Ok then. All that's left is seven popsicle sticks.
I'm finishing all the surfaces with spar urethane, to protect it from the weather.
This is a water-based urethane and it will dry clear.
I'm using a board to space these apart, evenly.
I painted the heads of these screws.
Gee it feels like it's been like a month since the last time we talked about Casper.
You know what's new? Sheets. In addition to their obsessively engineered, award-winning, latex/memory foam mattresses, Casper now sells sheets and pillows
MMmm, and they have that new sheet smell.
Now I know white goes with everything, but Casper, I'd like to offer a few suggestions for you to consider:
And finally:
What do you think Casper? I've got tons more ideas for you if you want them.
Until then, visit the Casper website and check out their sheets and stuff.
And don't forget Casper has a risk-free trial and return policy. Try sleeping on a Casper for 100 days with free delivery and painless returns.
And take 50 dollars off your first matress purchase, by going to Casper.com/Woodworking and using the promo code WOODWORKING at checkout.
Thank you for joining me this week on Woodworking For Mere Mortals. I hope you enjoyed the popsicle stick bench.
This was a lot of fun to make, and don't worry I still have the purple bench that was here. It's just been relocated for now.
Check out all the benches I've made in this playlist.
And don't forget you can download free plans for this bench down in the description.
Thanks for watching everybody, I'll see you next week.