2x4 Dining table bench and chairs

Excellent job,inexpensive wood made to look gorgeous.

-- Ken from Ontario, Canada

That’s just glorious.

-- When questioned about using glue on a garbage bin I responded, "Wood working is about good technique and lots of glue........I have the glue part down."

Looks good, nice finish.

Wow looks great. I work with a lot of 2×4s but my finishes never turn out looking that great. Care to share your secrets?

-- No craft is very far from the line beyond which is magic. -- Lord Dunsany — Instagram @grailwoodworks

Thanks guys.
The finish was easy, I stained it maybe 3 or 4 times with a Cherry colour stain then let it sit for a few days for the stain to dry fully then the finish was some spar varnish I had from fixing up an old wooden boat.
The spar varnish was applied with a foam brush and sanded between coats I think I put on 3 coats.
The spar varnish is super tough and chemical resistant, you could spill a jug of gasoline on the table and wipe it off with no damage to the surface.

-- Belt sander racing champion

Wow, that looks incredible. Great work!

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Very Nice Work!!! Never seen 2×4’s look that nice on anything!

-- Dennie - Tennessee

Great work. I’ve been doing a lot of my painted projects with 2×4’s, but haven’t given a stained project with them a try yet. Now I’ll have to. My biggest problem with using them is it takes me half an hour or more to dig through the stacks to find decent boards. Thanks for sharing and the inspiration.

-- --Zach

Thanks guys for the positive reply’s
It was a surprise for my missus, I had been working on it quietly in the garage and when she was away on vacation with her friends I finished it off and had it done when she came home.

-- Belt sander racing champion

2×4s never looked so good! Did you let em dry for a few months? Our 2×4s are usually pretty wet straight from the big box store.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

Looks great! Did you mill the 2×4’s or use as-is?
How is it holding up to dents?

Yeah it took a while hunting through the stacks at Home Depot to find straight mostly clear lengths.
I had the wood for maybe a month before I used it, it seemed fairly dry.
I machined the lumber to size mainly to remove the paint and machine marks. The under side of the table top was left as is.
It’s holding up well for dents and scratches, the spar varnish is tough stuff.
And being made from a soft wood any dents and Knicks will just give it character, I was just going for a farm table that can be used and forgotten about, I’m not going to baby with it.
The thing is so solid it’s much stronger and rigid than the work bench I’m using at the moment.

-- Belt sander racing champion

Those are some nice looking 2×4s!

-- Joe | Spartanburg, SC | "To give anything less than your best is to sacrafice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine

are those really 2×4s they look more like 2×8s I cant even see the differences in grain

-- tools are only as good as the hands that hold them https://www.custommade.com/by/emeraldcrafts/

Nice work, I’ve never attempted to make a chair!

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