Garden Bench Restoration

I had been on the lookout for a decent garden bench but they are very expensive so I decided to restore one. I was inspired by a friend, Mark, who has a whole collection of Facebook marketplace finds that he has restored.

The Donor

My friend Steve had an old garden bench and he gave it to me - thanks Steve!

It was in a bad way with multiple layers of paint (and some places with no paint) and rotted slats.

We had to cut off the wooden slats to transport it. The wood was ruined anyway as you can see.

Preparation

I decided I would strip the existing paint completely before re-painting. To do this the remaining wood and fasteners needed to come off. The fasteners were fully rusted and had to be cut off and scrapped.

All that is left

Stripping

I used Paint Panther and Screwfix brand paint stripper. The Paint Panther was marginally better.

It was hard and messy work. I used a drill with a wire brush attachment to get into the intricate casting.

I also used a grinder with a flappy disk and some picks.

On the left a completely stripped end. One more to go!

Painting

I hung the stripped ends up and on a calm day gave them a coat of etch primer

This was followed by two coats of gloss black - I think it was automotive paint

Slats

I had to buy new slats. I chose Sapele - an African hardwood. This came from Whitmore’s Timber

I needed to drill them to accept the barrel nut and bolt used to fasten them to the frame. For this I made a 3D printed jig - designed in Fusion and printed using a Prusa Mk4S.

The jig accepts a forstner bit to drill the hole for the barrel nut. I fitted a collar to the shaft to set the depth of the hole. I added a shim to the jig to get the depth correct. I set the bolt hole depth manually.