More Cooperstown Woodworking Projects

Monday was a non-working day for me due to a severe cold that zapped all the energy out of me. I spent the majority of the morning and afternoon sleeping in my trailer recliner. I started feeling crummy on Saturday evening and took it easy on Father's Day hoping to bounce back before the beginning of the work week. On Tuesday I started feeling better but still wasn't 100%. I thought: let's try to get out and pace myself.

Adam, the Camp Director, but together a "punch list" of projects to work on which included some more woodworking. Karen spent all day Monday and part of Tuesday sanding and sealing some wooden wainscoating in the Ludvig Lodge while I was laid up. Moving slowly, I started on my next woodworking project. The camp has a shortage of portable seating and with the remaining wood from the bunk bed railing project, he was hoping I could build some additional benches.

While Karen was working in Ludvig Lodge I put one of the previously built benches in the back of my truck and drove to the maintenance shop to use it as a model for the new benches. I disassembled part of the bench to use the component parts as an exemplar and template for the new bench parts. The design is simple but very stout. Four feet wide, these benches can hold 3 youth or two adults. They are built with a moderate reclining back rail and are remarkably comfortable. They each require about three and a half 2x6x8' boards to complete and are light enough to be moved by one adult.

Because of some complex angle cuts, I decided to just use my skill saw and skip using the shop's table saw and chop saw. After tracing out the parts I started cutting and assembling the parts together. I was able to build three benches by the end of the day. Karen joined me in the afternoon and started sanding them down.

Wednesday morning we continued building, sanding and sealing the new benches. We only have enough remaining materials for two more completed benches. Adam was so happy with the results he will be driving into Jamestown over the weekend to secure some more materials so we can keep up the production into next week.

I'm loving working with wood and power tools...augh...augh...augh...augh! The goal is to build enough benches for the shooting range, archery range and ropes course. If we get enough built while we're here, they will add additional seating around some of the other campfire rings by the cabin complexes.