WIP - Outdoor pool storage seat build

**deldridg** · 7th January 2017, 08:25 AM

For some time I have been wanting to make a useful storage space next to our pool – outside but under a balcony. A few pencil sketches, some time on Sketchup and a cutlist in Excel later and off I went to the local outdoor pine supplier and the project started. Note: I had previously sought advice on this build here Outdoor pool storage seat unit - treated pine joinery question

(I hope I'm putting this in the right place!)

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My wife had previously uttered those dreaded words – “let’s look at Ikea or Gumtree and save you tons of time” (ie. there are other ‘more important’ things for you to do…). I lied and said there were great savings to be had by building it at home, so the treated pine route was somewhat locked in.

Originally I had intended a fast build with lots of screws, little joinery and sufficient accuracy to get the job done quickly. Who was I fooling, despite it being in pine?

Anyway - here are some pics of the job underway.

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After cutting the base frame pieces, I decided to tackle the slats. I figured it would be fast to use my Festool domino machine.

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The glue-up was terrifying - lining up 18 slats on the front/back pieces was a nightmare. Thankfully Titebond 3 has some play time (10 mins I think??). Here you can see how I've tried clamp the slats between a couple of 70x45 pieces so as to align the dominoes. Not fun!

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Time to cut some mortise/tenons. So far I have done 30 - so much for the quick build. Seems such a waste to be doing this in treated pine... *sigh*

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I always score the edges - makes routing/chiselling much cleaner for me. That Japanese knife is incredible - super hard and very sharp after many years of use.

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For some mortises I used the router, marking off stop points so I can eyeball it (distance from edge of router base to edge of router piece away from the mortise). You can see the 3 lines leading up to the line on the right - makes it easy to know when to stop routing as the router approaches the hidden line moving left to right (if that makes sense).

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Another 12 mortises done - took about 15 mins - bit quicker than chiselling, but I am left feeling cheap and dirty...

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Time to square off the mortises, remembering to chamfer the edges a little for glue squeeze. You may be able to see by the nasty end grain cuts that this chisel needs some love. Time to stop mortise squaring and do some chisel sharpening!

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I've been putting this job off so now to drag out and resurrect my Veritas Stone Pond (and re-read the destructions). After sharpening my beloved Pfeil chisels, there is always a sense of satisfaction and I'm left wondering why I keep putting this job off.

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The newly edged chisels are beautiful to use and make short work of the rest of the mortises - 30 in total. Took a bit of effort but saved me on screws/bolts and other such nasty items!

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Time to cut some tenons. Stay tuned!

**Lappa** · 7th January 2017, 09:38 AM

Great work but it begs the question re time spent - why mortise and tenon if you have a Domino?

**deldridg** · 7th January 2017, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by Lappa

Great work but it begs the question re time spent - why mortise and tenon if you have a Domino?

Excellent question and thanks for asking...

Even though it's that nasty treated pine, I'm treating this as a bit of a dry run for a 'proper' piece built with 'proper' timber. Also - I quite enjoy being in my shed so therein lies some of the answer. Really, I prefer 'proper' M&Ts for the larger pieces, especially as I plan on making it modular and putting stainless steel screws into the ends of a few unglued joints for take-down purposes.

Actually - some years ago I made a cot for our son out of Aussie Red Cedar. For that I hand-cut 88 mortise and tenon joints (with crappy tools and half a clue). My wife bought me a Leigh Neilson tenon saw and a Veritas shoulder plane to speed things up - what beautiful things they are too. These certainly sped things up but I was still taking 'too much time' so my wife bought me the Festool domino system. What a woman! That damned fancy thing allowed me to churn out the goods but it also sucked up most of the satisfaction.

I then made a change table with 2 drawers and decided to have a go at hand cutting dovetail joints - through and half blind. Turned out great but not in a satisfactory timescale. My next gift was a 24" Leigh dovetail jig. More fast churning for a set of drawers but again, minimal satisfaction.

For my next trick, I'm trying to figure out what I can build s-l-o-w-l-y so my good wife will buy me the necessary items to speed things up (ie. a helical thicknesser, drum sander, 24" bandsaw.... etc etc.).

Cheers,
Dave

**Lappa** · 7th January 2017, 11:55 AM

Great reply!

There certainly is satisfaction doing it all by hand but unfortunately I'm time poor so the Power tools tend to get a work out.

Which Leigh dovetail jig did your good wife purchase?

**Christos** · 7th January 2017, 01:06 PM

Pulling up a chair to watch the work in progress.

**deldridg** · 7th January 2017, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by Lappa

Great reply!

There certainly is satisfaction doing it all by hand but unfortunately I'm time poor so the Power tools tend to get a work out.

Which Leigh dovetail jig did your good wife purchase?

Yes, it's true. I've just used my dado set to cut another 12 tenons - bit of time saved there!

She bought me the 24" Super Jig with vacuum recovery. A real snap to use and she even watched the tutorial DVD with me!! (Nice for the SO to be a bit involved but I didn't really want her to know just how fast these things were... could build up some inconvenient expectations!)

**deldridg** · 7th January 2017, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by Christos

Pulling up a chair to watch the work in progress.

Hi Christos - thanks for the thought and I'm about to post this morning's work...

Cheers, Dave

**deldridg** · 7th January 2017, 02:14 PM

The first activity of the day (after an early run in the bush with the family) was to cut the tenons for the seat and back. So here goes - hot off the press...

The bench as it is at this stage - a dry fit.

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Earlier I hand cut a couple of tenons - these were offset to avoid a domino. Pleasurable, though not much chop in pine. Had to do at least a couple in this project.

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The rest (the other 28 so far) have been done with the dado setup. Much faster. I usually get down to ~1 to 1.5mm thicker than the mortise and...

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...then attack with my (t)rusty *ahem* shoulder plane (care of my wife). These are fabulous tools and now I don't know how I lived without it!

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I always chamfer a little of the edges of the tenon - glue squeeze room.

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So this lot of 12 joints was for the back and the seat. Joints are all tight and square, thankfully. Pretty simple in treated pine but it's not kind on the tools (or the lungs).

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About to test their fit on the base.

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So far so good. Almost looks like a storage seat!

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Next - slats across the back and the seat, a bit of horizontal diag bracing, sanding, glue-up and a few coats of Organoil Outdoor Furniture Oil. Voila!!

Sounds so easy but it's making me tired to think about it.

On with the job...

**deldridg** · 22nd January 2017, 12:53 PM

School holidays have a habit of absorbing lots of quality woodworking time - but finally I have managed to make some progress and here is an up-to-the-minute update...

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Ready to cheat (ie. use the domino machine) and join the slats to the seat back.

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Rounding the edges off the slats - again cheating with the orbital. Festool have a lot to answer for!

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Finally, some hand-work. This time with my beloved little Lie Nielson block plane. Such sacrilege to use on treated pine!

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Next, time to mount the stainless steel hinges. The tiny Dremel makes short work of it. More cheating!!

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A bit rough but this was meant to be a quick throw-together. The seat now opens and shuts nicely - yaay!

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Ensuring the armrests are horizontal - shaving off the 12deg r.h. end to fit. Can't have drinks sliding off!

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Now for another nasty glue-up. A few dominos to line up on this one. Nothing like the front/rear slats with 18 of them though!

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Finally in and square.

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There will be a few big screws to hold this together so it can be taken down. A 15mm Forstner bit is the right size.

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One final glue-up. This is the side panel which will screw into the front/rear panels - straight into their tenons.

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Now to the part I like the least - watching nasty treated pine drink expensive oil like it was going out of fashion!

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I've chosen Organoil Furniture Oil for this one. I love Organoil products - a few more $$ but made for the Oz climate. This coat drank about 1/2 of this 2 litre tin.

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Finally - all parts oiled and lined up to dry. One more coat and it will be assembled and ready for use.

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So there is the latest. If I had my time again, it most certainly would've been made with decent timbers. What was I thinking??

Please forgive the low quality shots taken with my phone.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. Will post the finished result in 2024 when I'm motivated to put on the 2nd coat and complete the thing!!

Cheers,
Dave

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