Below (hopefully) is what I want to build.  Does anyone have plans?  I know it is 5ft long.

For outdoor stuff I always fully radius all horizontal pieces.  So the stringers, Arm rest and back top and bottom may get radius and the bottom get a saw curf.

This is to keep the water off and to stop it from hanging on the bottom edges.

Any ideas on how to reverse engineer this would be appreciated.

 

not exact plans for that one, but some dimensions which are probably close to what you want to build.   that one in the picture seems to be all mortise and tenon...  

nicely done Pete...

Looks like a New Yankee project. They still sell the DVD and plans or just the plans.

 

New Yankee Workshop.

 

 

 

These appear pretty close too...

http://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/redwood-garden-bench/

 

http://www.familyhandyman.com/woodworking/projects/build-a-classic-garden-diy-bench-with-dowel-construction/view-all

Thanks all great sources.  For outdoor what is better M&T or screwed together?

 

M&T...

 

40 minutes ago, Michael Thuman said:

Thanks all great sources.  For outdoor what is better M&T or screwed together?

 

Gosh, you know, I waiver on this one, the answer seems obvious don't it? M&T of course!

But, just a thought, if you use M&T you're also using glue, glue in the outdoors, hot sun, cold weather, never really fairs too well, even the best glues. Also with expansion and contraction, how well are those M&T's going to fair over a year or more?

How about dado and screws only. No glue. You'll also be able to disassemble parts of it for maintenance if needed, or replace a broken or dryrot peice without having to knock the begeezits out of it to get it free.

 

Or a friendly compromise if you like the M&T a whole lot, use the M&T, no glue, and pin the M&T with stainless screws, you could still have the advantage of a solid joint, and if need be knock the parts down easy enough.

If you really want to "tighten" it up and think the M&T won't hold...  drill holes part way thru from the bottom of each M and glue in a wood peg.

 There are a couple of benches on this site, might give you size and assembly help. John posted this in the plans link.http://www.yellawood.com/projects/project-plans.aspx

I could build from that pic. So I saved it for later reference. 

Dab you are much better than I.  I still need a plan.

 

p-toad install wood pegs is a great idea and is insurance and can also be a design element.

 

One More option for plans is the Comfy Classic Garden Bench, It was featured in issue 170 June/July 2006 WOOD magazine.

 

Here is a link to the plans

 

54 minutes ago, Michael Thuman said:

Dab you are much better than I.  I still need a plan.

 

 

you have 2 identical sides, one bottom stringer, a seat, and a back.

 

i'd build it in that order.  layout and build the 2 sides, then build the seat, then the back and the bottom stringer.  one big clamp up and it's done.

 

break it down to manageable portions.  you can do this.

 

seat is 18" above ground.  seat is about 20" deep.  back is tilted 15 degrees from vertical.  back is about 24-30" high above the seat.  if unsure, go measure a comfy chair.  it's just a super wide chair.  the whole thing is about 48" wide (you can make it as wide as you want, figure 20-22" per person you want to be able to sit at the same time.  or if you want to able to lay down on it, make it as wide as you are tall.

 

very doable.

A few years ago we bought a Lutyens garden bench. It sits outside in our enclosed porch where it stays dry, but is exposed to extremely cold temps in the winter and warm days in the summer up here in North Dakota. This afternoon after reading this thread I looked at the construction of it, and the front and back frames are mortise and tenoned together with dowels going through them.