A couple of years ago, I had built a bench that sits at the foot of a bed. The bench has a small step for small dogs to jump onto the bench and then the bed. Recently, I was asked to create something similar with different dimensions. So here we go

YOUTUBE VIDEO

If you want to skip all the reading and pictures

Materials and Plan

The bench starts out as plywood and poplar. The plywood is sized and joints are cut according the plan

The legs have a rabbet and dado to fit the top and shelf section. The shelf section also acts as a stiffener for the bench. The top and shelf get dadoes for the dividers. Everything is dry fit and the dividers are cut to exact size

Face Frames

Once the bench is dry fit, the face frames (yes plural) are made. The bench can face either direction and is really rigid with a face frame on the front and the rear. If I wanted to swap the steps, there would be visible holes and I don’t like that. So two face frames it is.

I wasn’t paying attention to my spacing between the upper and lower rails, so I had to scrap one of my face frames and re-make it. I used loose tenons for strength and couldn’t reuse the pieces.

Paint and Glue Up

After getting everything dry fit a few times, I decided to prime/paint the internal surfaces of the bench. It is a pretty short space to get a hand/roller in there later. So, I primed, sanded, painted, sanded, painted. Then I glued up the bench carcass in two sections. After the carcass came out of the clamps, I sanded the joints flush and attached the face frames. I used a few pin nails to hold everything in place and then every clamp I own. Also note that I primed or painted both sides of each plywood board. I didn’t want moisture to wick in and deform the plywood panels. Before adding paint or primer I had to mask the joints with blue painters tape.

Clean Up, Flush, Sand, Paint Again

After the face cabinet with face frames came out of the clamps, I had to do some cleanup. I had a bit of glue squeeze out where I didn’t want it. So, I had to scrape and chisel away from dried glue which ended up screwing up my paint job on the internals. I also had to fill some small gaps between the face frame and carcass with filler. Then sand that flush, which screwed up my paint again. I am not sure if it was worthwhile painting the internals since I had to repaint about 50% of it. I also routed/sanded the face frame flush with the top and sides and filled any small gaps. Below, you can see I went overboard with the wood filler, but it was seamless after sanding.

STEP (Single Stair?)

The step was up next and it is a unique construction of rabbets and dadoes. First I cut some rabbets in the long “stringers” for the plywood panel to sit into. Then, cut the dado that would hold the step. I actually cut three of these since I kept making the dado too large. The stair angle I was shooting for was 30 degrees. I should have also mentioned that prior to this, I added hardwood edging to piece of plywood that would be the backer and laminated some poplar for the step itself. So, the step gets inserted and the plywood pieces butt up against the top/bottom of the step.

The step gets attached to the bench with a simple piano hinge. It cannot hold an enormous amount of weight, but it can handle plenty with the lower edge of the stair on the ground. The hinge leaf gets mortised on the stair, but sits proud on the bench.

Painting

It was time to move onto painting the entire bench and step. I rolled (and tipped off) a coat of primer on everything, including the internal surfaces I had to sand or flush up. Then, I sanded everything with 320 and brushed/rolled paint to the internal surfaces that I had to prime. After that dried I masked off the internals, so I wouldn’t get any rough overspary into them since I wanted to spray the paint with my HVLP. So, I masked everything and then added plastic to my masked area and sprayed two coats of BM Advanced with sand in between coats.

After removing the masking there were some very small touchups, but it looked pretty good.

Making a Shipping Crate

So, this bad boy was heading out to Portland, WA. I needed to build a crate to keep it safe while it made its journey. The materials were a couple sheets of sheathing and some 1X4s. I started by estimating how much gap I needed between the crate and bench, so I wrapped the bench in bubble wrap and measured. The internal dimensions were critical to keep the bench from bouncing around during transport. The construction of the crate was pretty fun after I got a good plan written down and sketched. The crate would be a number of nesting rabbets: The front and sides would overhang the bottom, the sides would nest into the front/back and the top would nest into the sides and front/back. I started by making the bottom and creating the risers and skids. Using a combination of glue, staples, and screws.

Strapping the stairs down underneath the bench. I also added plastic sheets just in case the crate got wet, which it didn’t.

So, this crate was overkill for the bench. The crate weighed 100 lbs and the bench weighed like 25 lbs, but it arrived in one piece with a very small scratch due to a staple (for the plastic wrap) that rubbed on the bottom.

Shipping

Shipping from Chicago (ish) to Portland (ish) is pretty expensive. After a number of quotes and inquiries, my best option was UShip. The bench was loaded up on a Friday and arrived the following Saturday (I think)

The shipper was great and everything worked out. I hope to update this post with the finished pictures of the room.

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