Mother's Rustic Pergola
(Page 9 of 13)
February/March 1998
By the Mother Earth News staff
Seat and Workbench
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I had a hard time deciding how to support the pergola's furniture. The outer edges would be no problem: they'd hang off stretchers installed between the vertical posts at each side. But I mulled at length over the inner supports. Short legs would be easiest. Stronger would be floor-to-ceil ing posts, but they'd be have to be swung around to sit down and pulled on to get up and would have to be large-diameter logs that were rot-proofed and put into post holes. I'd already done that with the main posts. Maybe next time.
I decided to hinge the work top and support it with angled braces, and to build the sitting bench on stout but stubby legs.
For the latter I sought out a pair of ash trunks that had similarly shaped curves right at ground level-a characteristic of seedling trees that aren't able to grow straight up from their sprouting bed but must bend around a rock or other obstruction. The curve provides an attractive lower leg as well as a firm and stable foot.
I intended to set the legs atop flat rocks sunk to ground level to reduce contact with soil-borne decay organisms. Nonetheless, I cut out yard-lengths of curved-bottom trunks and soaked the bottom 12" in DAP/terpentine/linseed oil preservative for as long as I could.
The first step was to install stretchers between vertical posts to support the rear of the table and bench seat and to provide the bench's back. I selected lengths of 3" to 4" diameter ash slightly longer than 4' and installed the rear seat support 18" up on the south frame and the back another 18" above that. A rear table support was put in 34 inches up the other side. All were fitted inside and even with the vertical posts and fastened using milled butt joints secured with lag bolts. (See sidebar: Lag Joints).
To make the potting table, I fashioned an 18"x 42" rectangular frame of 2f" ash trunks, fastening corners with lap joints connected with 1 1/2" deck screws. For a top, I cut a dozen 20" lengths of 2" ash and notched out each end to overlap the frame, then fastened them through small pilot holes with clench nails, a small boat builder's favorite, made of soft enough metal that ends protruding through the other side of the frame can be hammered over to "clench" them in place.
I fastened the back of the frame to the pergola with eyehooks in the table that fitted into eyescrews in the stretcher. To support the table, I cut two forked saplings so the forks would fit snugly against a post at ground level and angle up so they crossed under the table, where they can be wired together for more stability. I whittled the tips to flat points that would fit up into the bottom of the front edge of the table.
The table can be a little springy. It is most stable if weighted at the back with rocks over the attachment points. I've never gotten the table so it will hinge properly and fold down flat. But it does lift off easily and both table and supports store out of the way up against the side frame, hanging on loops of wire from nails in the overhead. In retrospect, it would be better if fixed permanently in place or attached at the rear with proper brass hinges so it can be folded up. Next year. Or maybe I'll whittle pioneer-style wooden hinges from ironwood (hophornbeam) this winter.
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