Building a Bench

In the past few months, I’ve built quite a few different things with some tools, some lumber, and my own two hands. I guess I’m becoming something of a casual woodworker. One quick and easy project that I definitely see myself completing again is this neat little Leopold bench that’s super quick, super cheap, and super sturdy.

The “Rogue Engineer” Jamison Rantz has some incredible woodworking plans with very detailed instructions and a cut list that you would have to actively try to mess up. You buy the lumber, mark it according to his diagrams, and cut it. It literally doesn’t get any easier. The one note that I would provide is that an 8’ board may not be EXACTLY the advertised length. Ours were something in the ballpark of 8’1” and I ended up shaving a little bit off the end of each to get exactly 48” for the seat and back. If you wanted to really maximize the size of the bench and minimize waste, you could measure the boards and cut them exactly in half (provided the two boards are identical in length). This would give you maybe up to an inch of additional length and save a cut or two.



The one step that I did struggle slightly with was getting the ends lined up perfectly. There’s some fiddling required to get the angles and lengths right. In the end, one leg on one side was just a hair shorter and resulted in a slight wobble. I added a shim to the bottom of that short leg and it’s now solid. Maybe this isn’t the industry standard best way to fix such a problem, but I never claimed to be great at this. Perhaps the next bench will be better.



I cannot recommend Rogue Engineer enough. His instructions and diagrams are amazing, his descriptions are very clear, and I really like what he stands for. There are a lot of projects that require some improvisation just because the instructions aren’t fully clear, but that is not the case with Rantz. Dude is fantastic.

When I made this bench, materials were right in line with his listed average of $30-50. The lumber itself was $43.12 and the amount of screws and sealant used for the project was certainly less than $10, so $50 sounds about right. Obviously, it’s a bigger investment to buy larger quantities of screws and sealant, but I’m going to eventually use them anyway and it’s cheaper to buy more.

2-8-8 TC TREATED #2 PRIME
$ 43.12
Item #: 278248
4 @ 10.78

DECK PLUS 2-1/2 IN EXT SC
$ 49.98
Item #: 3485581
1 @ 49.98

128-FL OZ THOMPSONS S/T H
$ 31.98
Item #: 773401
1 @ 31.98

I also decided to make a page with a quick summary and picture of all the woodworking projects I’ve completed. Rather than having to explicitly visit each of the posts for projects or search through my phone for the pictures, I figured a single page with a static URL would be convenient to have. If someone wanted to see what I was capable of when considering a commissioned project, that’s a lot easier and quicker. Individual posts are fine for extensive detail on a particular project, but I needed more of a portfolio summary.