Geritt Rietveld walked into a garden...

[clark_fork]

Gerritt Rietveld liep een tuin

Mijn goede tuinman, ik ontwerp een tuinbank voor uw tuin.

This garden bench (tuinbank) was an easy weekend project with plans straight out of a book on Rietveld Furniture. The book, “How to construct Rietveld Furniture”  has some exceptional plans, photos and background information on Gerrtit Rietveld. The book includes plans on the famous Blue and Red chair.

Breaking down the planks was an easy task with a pair of TSO GRS-16 guide rail squares.
After two to three weeks in the sun, I will finish with 7-8 coats of Epifanes High Gloss Varnish.

The bench is comfortable and the plans need no modification; the armrests easily accepting a drinking glass or bottle.  The red wood planks were milled down to the 30 mm size shown  in the plans. This was a first project from metric plans. The plans, of course, can be modified down to a two or one seater.

One suggestion to pass along is that the slant cut is 80.5 °, so this cut is easily done with a miter gauge.


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Breaking down the planks

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[bertv]

Nicely done! I have been looking into building a shorter version of this bench (and I own the book too). Perhaps of interest is the fact that the Estate of Mr Rietveld has allowed a re-issue of this bench and other designs by the Spectrum firm under the 'RIETVELD Originals' label. Your Hillebrandt has a starting price of EURO 2240 :http://www.rietveldoriginals.com/en/portfolio/hillebrandt-garden-bench/

 

[festoolgolfer]

Could you give some info on those tracksaw clamps? They look interesting.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Could you give some info on those tracksaw clamps? They look interesting.

They're squares, not clamps. Much more unique and valuable.

TSO Products GRS-16

 

[Cheese]

Nice job... [thumbs up]

I like the style, its so simple and clean.  [cool]

A couple of questions:
Are you going to put anything on the bottom of the legs to prevent them from sucking up water?
How did the 2 TSO squares work out when using them together? I only purchased the 45 degree version.

 

[clark_fork]

Nice job... [thumbs up]

I like the style, its so simple and clean.  [cool]

A couple of questions:
Are you going to put anything on the bottom of the legs to prevent them from sucking up water?
How did the 2 TSO squares work out when using them together? I only purchased the 45 degree version.

Notes in the book on building the bench indicate, the legs were painted black.  I recommend setting them on 12 X 12 ceramic tiles. Ours is going to our cabin lakeside and we will set them on flat rocks. I agree the legs do need protection.

Using the two guides is mostly a belt and suspender operation. For the bench, I used 2x stock and therefore I found using both guides stabilized the rail during the cross-cut. I used it to trim off the ends and reduce each plank to near final length. The pleasant surprise was that the guides are so good, I did not have to square up the trim-cut ends. After milling to 30mm, I made one final length cut. Yesterday, I had to cut to length some 18 inch  1/2 inch plywood pieces for some temporary shelving. I used one guide and each time the cut was dead on square.  Conclusion: Unless you are a belt and suspender type, one guide will serve you well for almost all cuts.  For 8/4 or 2X cuts  either get the new T55 and angle rail or invest in two TSO guides. You can also just use a piece of wood to stabilize the end of the rail if you are not cutting on a MFT/3. I just found it awkward to break down the planks on the my MFT/3.