It's A Bench. For Working On.

Welcome to April; a month that's traditional been pretty hit or miss with me.  It starts on a day dedicated to fools, has a birthday for me and my father in the middle, and ends with the promise of great outdoor weather.  Unless you live in New England; in which case you might get rain, sun, wind, or snow.  Pick two.

This April is starting off as annoying as most others.  I'm pretty antsy and eager for warm weather, having been cooped up inside since November.  It's compounded by the fact that my home is really small compared to where I was living this time last year.  I have no real place in the house currently to do much of anything for construction or costuming.  Not that I have the cash for much in the way of "advanced costuming".  No kits of ABS coming to my place any time soon, or experiments with resin molds.  See my comment above about "my new home" and you can guess where all my money's gone.  But I digress...

As I look at my yard out my library window (read as "room where all my nerd-crap and books are stored'), see a large yard.  The wife has plans for the yard, good plans involving pergolas and garden beds and the like.  I'd just like a broad surface around three-and-a-half feet off the ground to work on projects at.  Smelly projects that likely will end with me fumigating the house and my wife wanting to kill me.  Plus, having such a work bench would make it easier for making pergolas and cutting lumber for garden beds.

I need a work bench.  An outdoor one that can handle rain and New England snow for at least a few years.

This has some potential...

Browsing around the internet I've come across some interesting designs.  I found this one where a woodworker chopped down and reinforced an existing workbench.  Seems pretty simple, and something I could likely construct pretty cheaply.  Well, cheaply until I start adding in the cost of a miter chop-saw I'd want, and a new reciprocating saw because the one I got on the cheap from Harbor Freight died on it's second use.  Hey, at least it was cheap.



The clothesline in the background
really ties the yard together.



This one's an even simpler design, without any additional braces or supports.  Not sure I like it, tho.  The first one has a sort of aesthetically pleasing form.  The braces make it more sturdy, and even with 10 deck screws holding the 4x4 legs, I'd be worried about the legs getting loose.

Here's an interesting take on a bench that's outdoors all day long in Florida.  A little bit different on the construction, and a little more involved in the creation process.  Nice looking work, tho...

I guess the biggest think I need to think about, after cost, is figuring out when I'm going to put this all together.  Theoretically since the days are getting longer I could put in an hour or so during the week on this project.  I'd rather bang it out on a Saturday or Sunday, but who knows how many of those I have in the coming weeks. 

Then again, a quick check of my calendar shows that Sunday is open both this weekend and next weekend.  Maybe I'll swing by The Orange Despot and start pricing parts.  I'll try and have pictures of my progress, because watching me with a miter saw might be fun.  I'm sure my insurance company will appreciate the evidence too.

This wasn't much of a Star Wars post, that's for sure, but it is something that will allow me to get some more work done on my Star Wars projects.  I know a Jedi belt that needs some dyeing done to it, and I'm sure my wife would appreciate it if I didn't use the coffee table in the living room to do it.