Storage Bench
  • Difficulty
    Hard

Introduction

As the weather heats up, add extra outdoor seating which doubles as a storage unit! Before you get started, download the Storage Bench Blueprint.

You need
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Step 1

Cutting the pieces needed

You need:

Get started by cutting the frame for your bench. We chose 1x3 cedar for our frame. As outlined on the cut list, you'll need eight 17" lengths of the 1x3 cedar for the legs and four 30" lengths of the 1x3 for the cross pieces. Additionally you'll need four 12" pieces for the sides. Measure and mark your cuts. Mount the SM500 Wood and Plastic wheel in your Saw-Max tool. With the panel clamped to your workbench, turn on your tool and cut along the marked lines. You'll notice how easy it is to follow your marked line through the notch at the front of the tool.

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Step 2

Assemble the base of the chest

You need:

To give your bench a finished look, you may want to consider the 8 leg pieces an angled cut. On all 8 legs, draw a mark 3" from a bottom corner and 2" from the side. Connect the marks with a straight line. This will be your line of cut for the angle cut. With your material clamped, use your Saw-Max tool with the same SM500 blade to cut along your marked line.

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Step 3

Create the two short sides of the chest

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Use wood glue to attach the frame pieces together for each of the four sides. If you made angle cuts as we did in step 2, be sure to keep all of the angled edges facing the inside of the frame.

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Step 4

Put short sides together with a hammer & finishing nails

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After glue sets, glue and screw together the 4 frame pieces with the shorter side frames inside of the longer front and back frames. Tip: Check the label on your glue for drying time. Our glue cured in about 6 hours.

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Step 5

Attach the bottom to the chest

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Next, you'll need to cut six 1/4" plywood panels to fit inside all four frames and one 1/4" plywood panel for the bench top. - Cut two smaller panels for the side frames at 15" H x 16" W - Cut two larger panels for the front and back frames at 15" x 33.5" - Cut large panel for the bench top at 18" x 36" - Cut large panel for the bench bottom at 15.5" x 33.5" With your plywood clamped, use your Saw-Max tool with the same SM500 blade to cut along your marked line. You may need to cut along one edge of your panel at a time, stopping to re-position your plywood before moving on to your next cut. We wrapped all of our panels in fabric for a decorative touch. If you choose to do this as well, you'll need to cut a piece of fabric to cover the top of the plywood, leaving plenty of overhang. Lay your plywood panel on top of your fabric. Fold and staple your fabric along each edge of your plywood panels.

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Step 6

Attach the final boards to the sides

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Secure your two front and back panels and two side panels of plywood inside of your frame using a drill and wood screws.

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Step 7

Assemble the lid and secure the pieces together

You need:

Next you'll need to create a base for the bottom to be secured to. Here we used the same angled cutting technique from step 2 to cut four cleats to fit inside each of the four bottom corners. We cut our cleats about 3" long. Secure your cleats into each corner at one inch from the bottom using your drill and wood screws.

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Step 8

Measure the sides of the chest

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With your cleat base now in place, fasten your bottom plywood panel piece by drilling the corners of the panel into each cleat.

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Step 9

Make passes across the new chest using the Dremel Multi-Max tool

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Before finally installing the bench top, we added foam underneath our fabric for extra comfort. Cut a piece of fabric to cover the top of the plywood, leaving plenty of overhang. Stack first your foam on top of your piece of fabric then lay your plywood panel on top of it. Fold and staple your fabric along each edge of your plywood panel.

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Step 10

Attach the ropes to the sides

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With your bench top now fully assembled, secure it to the top of your bench using hinges. We used a total of three hinges; two for each end and one for the middle for added support.