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Every woodworker has a first project, and this bench is engineered to be a good one: two tools (a saw and a drill), four cut lengths, and a design where the only real skill is driving screws straight. The payoff is a genuinely useful 5-1/2-foot dining bench — the piece that seats three kids at a farm table.
The design hides a couple of teacher's tricks. The aprons sit 3/4" below the top of the legs, and the plan's method for getting that right is not measuring: rest the apron on a scrap of 1x or 3/4" plywood while you screw, and the offset sets itself. That's a jig, and realizing that scrap-as-spacer counts as a jig is the actual lesson of the build. The middle support does two jobs — it stops the long aprons from spreading, and it gives the seat boards a landing in the middle of their span.
The seat is the two halves of one 12-foot 2x6, side by side. Have the store cut it — a 12-footer doesn't fit in a car, and their saw is free. Building two benches? Buy five 2x4s instead of six; the cut list leaves enough spare.
| Item | Qty |
|---|---|
| 2x6, 12 ftThe seat — cut exactly in half at the store. | 1 each |
| 2x4, 8 ftLegs, aprons, stretchers. Two benches? Five boards covers both. | 3 each |
| Self-tapping wood screws, #9 x 2-3/4", star drive | 40 each |
| Wood glue | 4 oz |
Overall cost: $. Lumber prices vary by region, species, and season, so we give a band rather than a figure we would only be pretending to know.
| Part | Qty | T × W × L |
|---|---|---|
| Long aprons | 2 | 1 1/2" × 3 1/2" × 66" |
| Legs | 4 | 1 1/2" × 3 1/2" × 16 1/2" |
| End aprons and stretchers | 4 | 1 1/2" × 3 1/2" × 7 1/2" |
| Middle support | 1 | 1 1/2" × 3 1/2" × 4 1/2" |
| Seat boards2x6The two halves of the 12-footer. | 2 | 1 1/2" × 5 1/2" × 72" |
Buy 5 boards at 8 ft.
2 boards
3 boards
Assumes 8 ft stock, a 1/8" saw kerf, and buying each part at its own width. Change the board size or kerf on the full board plan →
Screw each pair of legs to an end apron and a stretcher with 2-3/4" screws and glue. The trick for the 3/4" offset: lay a piece of 1x scrap or 3/4" plywood under the apron as a spacer while you drive — the apron ends up exactly 3/4" down from the leg tops without measuring anything.
Congratulations, you just made your first jig.
Screw the 66" aprons to the tops of the leg sets, into that 3/4" recess. The bench frame now stands on its own — set it on the flattest floor you have and check for rock before the glue grabs.
Find the center of the span and screw the little 4-1/2" block between the aprons. Small part, two jobs: it stops the aprons spreading apart over time, and it gives the seat boards something to be screwed to at mid-span so they never develop a bounce.
Center the two 2x6 seat boards — about 1" of overhang past the ends, 1/4" past the sides — and screw them to the legs, aprons, and middle support.
Ease the top edges with sandpaper (this seat meets the backs of knees), finish to match your table, and slide it under. First project, done, and someone will sit on it tonight.
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