swedgemon

I agree with Mr. Powers, altho I did not consider the turnbuckle a point of "style" when I was putting these benches and a previous 8' bench together. When several people sat in the middle of the previous bench (pictured below) the center of the oak would deflect down, causing the legs to scrape outward on the floor. Steel feet on the legs, even with patches of leather glued to the bottoms, will scratch a customer's floor - the turnbuckle completely eliminated the flex. The fellow for whom I made the 8' bench, and especially his wife, were so thrilled with the how the iron complimented the wood and the wood carried its own message...well, you get the idea. Including the turnbuckle on these two smaller benches, altho not needed structurally, just seemed "right". You are welcome to incorporate this idea into your work; I know I used a previous poster's use of a bridge turnbuckle in his work...swedge

Das, I see you are using old CV joints for your bits and pieces...that black grease they use in those things is just nasty !!

Thanks, guys...us older fellas need encouragement...

I've been busy rebuilding a rusty 1980 Jeep CJ7 since last fall...needed a few graduation presents so I pounded out a pair of oak and iron benches/end tables/small coffee tables/firewood. The oak is 2" thick, legs are textured 1 1/4" steel tube, leg wraps are 1/4" round, tapered both ends. The legs set out at 5 degrees...the concrete is wet

I have used scrap conveyor belt from local crushed stone operations for a 100-lb LG and later for my present 88-lb Striker. Every crushed stone quarry will have various lengths of conveyor belt somewhere in their "inventory" and will likely tell you to "help yourself". You might ask whether they have scrap screen deck, as well...I use it for shelving - shop grit and dust filters down through the screen deck. Use multiple passes of a razor knife to cut the conveyor belting...see Hans' note above...

Be sure to use the "correct" gauge of wire to run your power. My 88-lb Striker (5HP single-phase, 19.5 amps) and a 5HP compressor (17.5 amps) run on 6-3 wire, running from a 20 KW diesel genset, with almost no heat. However, when running the genset to charge my battery bank (off-grid solar power for 120v and smaller 220v) at 36-38 amps (10.5 kw) the breaker gets warm and I would like to be running 4-3 wire...maybe next paycheck...

Elegant railing !!!

In 1969 I was stationed at Ft Richardson, AK...one weekend, shortly after payday, my wife, another Lt and his wife decided to go see some local nightlife, so we drove a few miles north to a place called the Red Barn. It was kinda dimly lit and full of loggers and oil well types - almost no wimmen. We ordered beers and very shortly these two really large dudes walk over and said "We're dancing with your ladies", then literally lifted them out of their chairs and proceeded to dance...we got our wives back about 6 tunes later - they had danced, almost properly, with almost every man in the place by then...we did not stick around to make lasting friendships...

Speaking of goats...DW and I just got back from 6,400+ miles on the Goldwing, from IA, up thru SD, ND, MT, into Canada, then out to the Pacific. The Rockies are incred...while staying at Radium Hot Springs in BC, CAN, I came out of my motel room to clean the bugs off the windshield and just behind the motel parking area stood 2 Big Horn sheep. A local fella said they walked thru town most mornings, on their way to a neighbors back yard...they then head-buttted the apple tree to knock some breakfast down. Impressive !!

I use a Striker 40kg (88 lb) hammer...5 HP, 220 v motor.

The dining room table is finally finished. It is 4 X 8 and started out as 2" thick, but after all the planing and sanding it is finally 1 1/2" thick. The frame is 1 1/2" square tube, the legs are 2" square tube, distressed under the power hammer and the quarter braces are 3/4" square bar, forged to octagonal and twisted. The leg wrappings are 42" of 1/4" round rod, tapered on both ends. One 3" HF planer died, plus quite a few sanding belts and sheets. The metal finish is wire-brushed, then sprayed with Rustoleum Clear Satin enamel. The wood finish is Minwax Golden Oak stain and 2 coats of water-based polyurethane. The old guy on the table is NOT Burt Reynolds !!

WOW !! That's some really good work !!

Gergely, My power hammer, a Striker 40 kg, starts to hit BAM, bam, BAM, bam, BAM when it gets hot...the photo below shows the result. I'll still use this as a coffee table leg or a bench leg some day - I'll just have to generate 3 more that look similar. Good luck with your efforts !!

Alexandr, what country/region is the chalet with "New windvane" located? That is one fine windvane !!

Made some progress on the table today...temps in the shop were more reasonable - Fri, Sat and Sunday were too hot to work after about 10 AM. Discovered the thermal limit switch in my power hammer magnetic starter will shut the hammer down when it decides it is too hot - had to direct a fan on it to keep the hammer running - the switch was obviously smarter than I was !! A shower and two beers (New Belgium VooDoo Ranger) restored my fluids level...

Started building a large dining room table to go with the 8-foot oak bench described previously. Two of the legs welded on at nice right angles, but the other two pulled in far enough to need correction. About twice a year I find a use for my HF port-a-power. Assembled the needed tubes and end fittings, applied some rosebud, pumped a few strokes, held it there while the leg(s) cooled, and all is well - now on to making quarter-braces, leg spreaders and wrestling with the 2" oak slabs. The customer wants to use the table for his Thanksgiving clan gathering...we'll see...

Gergely, Be sure to send photos of your shade when you get it built !!

Gergely, I did not answer your question about "distressing" steel tubing. My process is to heat a section of steel tube in the forge then run it back and forth under the power hammer, using many light hits on the diamond (corners), slowly bringing the tube to almost flat. Then I rotate the now almost flat tube 90 degrees and bring it back to square, then almost flatten it again. As you flatten, then restore to square several times, hollows and bulges wilI appear. I use a 1/2" ball bearing, welded to a piece of 1/4" X 1" flat stock, to put large dents in the tube at random points. One must pay close attention as one heavy hit will completely collapse the tube, turning it into scrap. I would suggest you practice on a piece or two before starting on a "paying" project...at least have enough tube on hand to be able to cut a 5th or 6th leg in the event you collapse one of your tubes... When heating steel tube in the forge be aware that some pretty hot gasses come out of the tube while it in the fire...I'm waiting for the hair to grow back on the back of my right wrist...it got my attention pretty quickly !!

Gergely, The "drying-of-wood" topic was beaten to death in my post "Oak and Steel Bench", dated July 20, 2016. I am still learning about drying large pieces of wood in my solar wood kiln. Yes, I have seen some minor warping...most of the time it is in pieces with large knots. Straight-grained pieces, properly "stickered" (stickers are the small sticks of wood keeping the planks apart) and weighted in the kiln have been drying flat - areas around the knots dry "wavy", no matter how heavy the weights are in the kiln. In pic 182, notice the three pieces on the right - one is 19" wide, one is 17" wide and the center piece is about 11". The center piece has some good knots and grain, but you can see it dried warped. I tried to plane out the warp, but it will not work for me, so I'll have to find a "flat" piece in the stack in my shop. Those 3 pieces will eventually become a 4' X 8' table, as soon as I figure out how to handle the 19" and 17" planks. For reference, the planks in the stack all started out at 35% moisture, went into the kiln for a month and came out at less than 7%. Stacked in my shop, as you see below, they have absorbed some moisture and are now at 10-11% moisture, according to my handy little meter. You'll notice that I said the planks "went into the kiln" and "came out of the kiln" as though one lightly tosses them around...it is a back-breaking and almost dangerous process and if loading/unloading the kiln on a sunny day the temp in the kiln is at least 130F, even with the doors open. Yes, Frosty, the bench is a heavy piece...about 100 pounds, according to my badly calibrated back, but when lifted one end at a time, one person can move it around, as long as the "4 large persons" are not sitting on it. Thanks, all of you, for your kind comments !!

A minor correction in the first sentence of the OP...the wood finish is Minwax Golden Oak Stain and 2 coats of clear satin water-base polyurethane...sorry about that. Yes, this is one heavy bench...when working with heavy oak slabs like these one would do well to wear heavy metatarsal-protected boots (aka steel mill boots). When I need to move a piece that is 2" X 19" X 8', I use a fork lift or get a neighbor's teen-aged son involved. My DW does not like heavy manual labor (lifting one end of a large oak slab), but she sure can cook !! As mentioned before, doing leg wraps with two people goes a bit faster but is very dangerous (it can easily become a contact sport where one person is armed with a rosebud torch and the other with a small hammer and a pair of pliers!). Wrapping solo is slower and a bit awkward at times, but is very much safer !!!

I didn't think seat belts were needed...it's low to the ground and goes 0 mph...should be safe enough...

The customer and most of his friends are "larger-than-life", deeply involved in hunting, fishing, construction, driving large, modified diesel trucks, competitive shotgunning, etc., etc. Oh, did I mention maybe having a beer or two ??

I was asked to build an 8 X 4 oak dining room table and an 8-foot oak bench. Attached photos show I opted to make the bench first...large 2" oak slabs, 8 feet long are hard to handle...more on the table later...much later. The bench is 17" tall X 8 feet long - it's a piece of 2" oak with some good knots and grain. The finish is Minwax Golden Oak stain and 2 coats of clear satin Rustoleum enamel. The legs are 1 1/2" steel tube, deeply distressed under the power hammer, the spreaders are 3/4" square, twisted, then tapered under the power hammer. Leg wrappings are 1/4" round rod, tapered on both ends. The original structure did not have the turnbuckle brace...I put the bench together, then did a "2-large-men-load-test" and noticed that the deflection of the oak caused the legs to push out, with much heavy scraping on the floor. Since this will be a dining room table and knowing that the customer had just installed new oak floors (Golden Oak stained), I immediately thought of David Kailey's turnbuckle feature. The turnbuckle brace is a 1/2" galvanized piece...I burned it in a charcoal fire (outside) for a few hours to get rid of the galvanized shine. The tension rods are twisted 3/8" square rod. All surfaces were wire-brushed with a 4 1/2" HF angle grinder and coated with Rustoleum clear satin enamel. Final assembly passed a 4-large-man-load-test with almost no deflecttion and no outward spread of the legs. A gender-neutral "Maximum Load" label was attached...customer's kids will have something to read when they play under the bench...

Thanks, Frosty...I'm delighted you like it (them) !!

Here's a photo of the finished bench, along with the previously-built oak table...