Gardner Boat Shop Bench aka Carpenter's Trestle

 22 Feb 21:

Here's a repost from April 2018. We have been using these trestles for 3 years now and they are very good additions to a boat shop. And to a back porch. Very useful for additional seating too. I have made close to a dozen from lumber that washes up onto the beach, usually 2x6 pressure treated. Read on...

18 Apr 18: 

I started fiddling with building a carpenter's trestle. I had seen a nice looking bench at the John Gardner workshop in Mystic Seaport and came across the term "trestle" while looking for information on tools in the 1918 book Farm Mechanics. Sounded like just the thing I need to steady pieces while I worked on them. We had some hunks of cedar, beams from our covered porch in Texas, that were being used as benches and plant stands, so I decided to use those. They'll get to be benches or plant stand when not being trestles, but now have new legs. Here is my adaptation so far.

Here is a similar bench in the John Gardner Boat Shop at Mystic, versatile, used to support boats during storage or maintenance. Upright or flipped.

I cut an angled notch for the 2x6 so it sits flush at the top, trimmed the 2x6 flush. The leg sits at a nice angle so I'll cut three more.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

I used a reciprocating saw first to cut the notch, then found I could cut them faster with a hand saw. A variation of this that I came up with later was to cut the notches all the way to the end of the seat with 10 degree bevel set on a circular saw, a time saver.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

Chiseled the bevel.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

Cut a brace for the legs.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

Turned out nice.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

We can also use it as a plant stand and regular bench.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

One tip was to cut a V shaped notch into one end of the seat, about 2 inches wide across the top of the V. The notch can be used to help hold a board, wedge the end of the board into the ground and steady it with one hand and the V. Later benches have the legs and cross brace set in about an inch. this allows clamps to be used on the end. Don't set them in too far, or the bench could become unstable.

Here's a variation of the bench we made with some 2x8 lumber that washed up on our beach. 2x6s work great as well.

Log of Gardner Bench.

Maybe We Should Change Our Name To Small Marine Construction and Landscaping...

 11 Oct 20:

Hurricane Sally did a number on our pier, seawall and our yard. In the whole scheme of things, non-essential but as property owners we like to protect our investment by keeping things in order. We spent about 2 weeks cleaning things up, vegetative debris, broken pier and dock parts from across the bay and starting to reassemble the seawall and pier. 

Skipper lost her beer keg burn barrel to storm surge, so we sourced a new fire pit from Lowes. Felt good to burn a little of the yard debris.

Here's a shot of some of the damage to PHOENIX.  Boat repairs will be slow in coming, but we are beginning to gather parts and materials.

All repairs suspended as we were in the cone for Hurricane Delta for a few days. We expected some storm surge and tropical storm winds, so we loaded as many boats as we could into the Carriage House, still room for the canoe and kayaks if Delta gets closer.

Lowered the mast on the Catfish SMEDLEY and mover her into the front yard, WILLOW got moved also, so it's Boatapalooza up front now. WAVE and PHOENIX on the Wheel Deck.

We put a small slatted cap on top of the seawall to help dissipate wave energy, it was tested out this morning with 2 feet of surge from Delta on top of high tide, with 18 mph wind driven waves from the West. The splash zone on the yard side of the seawall filled up but there were no waves crashing down to redistribute yard bits.

Our anole buddy Henry helps us with pier work, he hung out in the cone for a few days.

Finished the seawall cap, realigned the border stones and put in fence posts and new fence panels. Sand, dirt and sod are on the list now to replace some divots.

Skipper salvaged some bay lumber and we made carpenter's trestles out of some of the pieces. They come in handy as boat stands, benches and plant stands.

Planked out 64 feet now, 186 to go.

Carpenter's Trestle

18 Apr 18:

I started fiddling with building a carpenter's trestle. I had seen a nice looking bench at the John Gardner workshop in Mystic Seaport and came across the term "trestle" while looking for information on tools in the 1918 book Farm Mechanics. Sounded like just the thing I need to steady pieces while I worked on them. We had some hunks of cedar, beams from our covered porch in Texas, that were being used as benches and plant stands, so I decided to use those. They'll get to be benches or plant stand when not being trestles, but now have new legs. Here is my adaptation so far.

Here is a similar bench in the John Gardner Boat Shop at Mystic, versatile, used to support boats during storage or maintenance. Upright or flipped.

I cut an angled notch for the 2x6 so it sits flush at the top, trimmed the 2x6 flush. The leg sits at a nice angle so I'll cut three more.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

I used a reciprocating saw first to cut the notch, then found I could cut them faster with a hand saw. A variation of this that I came up with later was to cut the notches all the way to the end of the seat with 10 degree bevel set on a circular saw, a time saver.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

Chiseled the bevel.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

Cut a brace for the legs.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

Turned out nice.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

We can also use it as a plant stand and regular bench.

From SBR 3: Jan 2014-

One tip was to cut a V shaped notch into one end of the seat, about 2 inches wide across the top of the V. The notch can be used to help hold a board, wedge the end of the board into the ground and steady it with one hand and the V. Later benches have the legs and cross brace set in about an inch. this allows clamps to be used on the end. Don't set them in too far, or the bench could become unstable.

Here's a variation of the bench we made with some 2x8 lumber that washed up on our beach. 2x6s work great as well.