The 909 Front Porch Bench

I made a similar garden bench years ago but one of the legs broke apart and we needed a replacement. There’s plenty of plans to choose from. The skeleton of this one is from a free set of plans you can find here woodworkingspecialist.com/garden-bench.pdf
I drew inspiration for a better way to construct the back legs using the bench from PLANS NOW https://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/redwood-garden-bench/ ($12.95) Also took some elements from the plans at woodstore https://www.woodstore.net/Comfy-Classic-Garden-Bench-p/gr-00512.htm ($9.95)

I chose to make mine from cedar (as opposed to treated lumber—which would be just as good but I didn’t want to wait for it to dry out enough to work) Mine is a bit shorter than what the plans diagram but the basic bones are the same. Mortise and tenon joinery throughout. The arms are secured with screws through the back legs and a 3/4 dowel through the center of the arm to the front leg. The back slats are 1/2” thick and are mortised into the back rails. If you look at my other projects, its the same process I used on some cribs I built. Of course there’s the age old dilemma about how to protect the wood. I did not want to do nothing and let it go grey so I chose to paint. Primer x 2 coats with sanding in-between due to raised grain. Then 2 coats of exterior latex house paint. If you’re not the painting type, I would suggest using this sealer https://onetimewood.com
Thanks for looking

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