Hockey Pucks and wood restoration kit rescue a cedar garden bench

[Frank Pellow]

I built a garden bench out of construction grade cedar 2x4s a few years ago and left it outside winter and summer in direct contact with the ground.  I should have known better.  [embarassed]

When I examined the bench closely, I found that the feet were beginning to rot:

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I first cut about 1 centimetre off both feet:

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I decided to try this wood restoration kit:

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that I found at Lee Valley: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20075&cat=1,190,42997

The first step was to mix up the liquid wood stabilizer and pour it onto most of the bottom of the feet.  After allowing that to dry for a day, I mixed up the wood filler.  Just kneading it by hand worked best:

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I applied this "putty" by hand to fill the remaining holes:

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After drying for a couple of hours, I sanded it:

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The colour does not match, of course, but its just at the bottom of an outside bench and I don't think that it will be noticed.  I believe that I could have added dye when mixing the putty and I will probably try this the next time that I use this kit.

If I stopped at this point, the legs would just rot again in a few years.  I searched for appropriate feet but could not find any.  Then, it occurred to me that there was a very good and cheap solution to the problem.  Use hockey pucks (being Canadian, I should have thought of this sooner  [embarassed]).   So, that's what I did:

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[nclemmons]

He shoots!  He scores!

 

[AlexThePalex]

Clever idea to use hockey pucks. Did you paint/lacquer the repaired spots?

 

[Frank Pellow]

Clever idea to use hockey pucks. Did you paint/lacquer the repaired spots?

Thanks.  I covered the repaired spots with the same stain (Sikens) that Is on the rest of the bench

 

[leer]

Funny thing, I just put hockey pucks under my workbench legs tonight to elevate it up a bit for use as the outfeed table to my table saw.  And then I read the title of this thread.

I ordered mine from Lee Valley about a month ago to use for stabilizing material during hand routing.  I originally saw the Rockler bench cookies, but I order a lot from Lee Valley so I decided to try theirs.  I was amused that they were hockey pucks, and came with round discs of anti-slip material to stick on each side. 

I have not anchored them to the legs yet, but they sure seem to grip well on my concrete floor.

 

[PaulMarcel]

Awesome solution! Once the lake freezes up, you should take the bench out... should slide nicely!

 

[leer]

Awesome solution! Once the lake freezes up, you should take the bench out... should slide nicely!

Paul-Marcel,

You and Ron Paulk are responsible for me diving into this Festool addiction big time!  I've learned a lot from your videos  After watching your videos, I ordered some Qwas Dogs and Rail Dogs, and I didn't even own a single Festool!  (When you have the accessories, then you can justify buying the tool that uses them ...)

I've built my own "MFT-XL" using a homemade CNC-milled top (36" X 84").  I almost built the Paulk workbench, but since I didn't need portability, I decided to make it like a more traditional stationary workbench.  The hockey pucks are the under the 4X4 legs.  I did get my track saw yesterday.  Here is the link to the bench:

http://festoolownersgroup.com/member-projects/home-built-%27mft-xl%27-workbench/

 

[PaulMarcel]

Oh, nice write-up, Leer! At least I can say that you only admitted to maybe $50 directly from my videos then the rest was because, well, those accessories needed tools to go with them   (trying to not get killed by wives)

Ron's bench is really nice. If I didn't already have enough benches, I would have adapted one to my shop.

I should take my team's pucks and recommission them as bench risers; it's been probably 5 seasons since any of them were 'round'