Green Timber structures- Any experts in the house?

Looks great, but I think the metal bands detract from the overall concept
I know it’s to hold the split wood, but looks a bit bodged, that’s only in my untrained opinion of course 😕

Hey Kayak

I saw this and thought of you…

Hey Kayak

I saw this and thought of you…

That’s great! Like it.

Bit of an update.
This Wednesday we finally moved to site!

Making good progress so far. Have basically installed the bench, and now we have the job of shaping/sculpting the top surface to contend with. It’s going to be difficult as frankly we don’t have the ideal tools.
We could do with a big, powerful arbotech cutter, but are trying to make do with a small chainsaw, chisels and an angle grinder with an abrasive disc.

Here are some photos of it so far…

Loaded up.

The bare site. Coombe Abbey country Park. Gravel base laid.

Starting to lay it out.

Drilling for the anchor bolts

Getting the Gopro on for a timelapse of the build.

More drilling

Packing some dirt underneath for a little support as the ground drops away from the gravel base quite a bit.

Drillage

Sign of the Times

Main body together now

Ends squared off

College news article on the project.

Really great to have seen this project from the start – with all it’s ups and downs.
Final install looks superb – the bands in sets of three don’t look too bad in the end.

Great work!

Doing some chainsaw shaping for the wavy scalloped parts in the top.

Chainsaw and grinder shaping

The shape starting to come together

ooh – I didn’t know there was fancy stuff going on at the top.

Has the designer seen it in situ yet?

Yeah the designer is the guy in the Brown jacket above there and in the three pictures below. He’s a second year student and is continuing to degree level after this.
Brilliant project to have in your portfolio.

Carving the end groove that ties in with the top wavy ridge thingy…

Loving the ‘texturing’ detail to the top 🙂

It looks to have impact within it’s setting, which is admirable.

that does look superb. I might make my way over there one day to check it out, it’s not too far away.

Just praying that some oik doesnt jump up and down on one of the tentacles and break them off.

I found a flappy disk on an angle grinder to be a very aggressive abrasive for shaping in the past.

A great week to be working outdoors in the woods!

It looks to have impact within it’s setting, which is admirable

Yeah, amazing how tiny it now looks in its setting, after having it at college. It looked mahoosive in the carpark!
It still makes an impact though. Many positive comments and kids calling it the ‘Squid Bench’… 🙂

It looks to have impact within it’s setting, which is admirable

Yeah, amazing how tiny it now looks in its setting, after having it at college. It looked mahoosive in the carpark!
It still makes an impact though. Many positive comments and kids calling it the ‘Squid Bench’… 🙂

Just praying that some oik doesnt jump up and down on one of the tentacles and break them off.

To be honest, I don’t see that as probable, I see it as inevitable!
There are hordes of kids running around the place this week getting lairy and so I think they will certainly try and break them. It’s a real shame, but kind of inevitable.
Mind you, we have both stood on the weaker-looking ones and bounced about a bit to no ill-effect. We piled some earth under the section too, to support the bottom ones.

We’ll see, but yes, It’s bound to be snapped soon sadly… 🙁

Practise relief carving I did.
Glued paper to the wood from Word, did the outlines freehand with a router, then crisped them up a bit with chisels and gouges, leaving gouge marks in to look a bit more ‘handmade’…

The text on the section of bench, ready to carve. (In Memory of George and Madge Sealey)
I hope to god we got the names spelled correctly!

did the outlines freehand with a router

Blimey – that’s pretty impressive!

The section of the bench we ‘carved’…
Freehand routing the outlines, and then crisping up with chisels and gouges.

It’s a shame that Singletrack makes old thread updates hard for people to see, because there are lots who would be inspired by this.
Great effort – love the carving and the effect you’ve produced around the lettering.

Any more sculptures planned?

It’s a shame that Singletrack makes old thread updates hard for people to see

How so?

Any more sculptures planned?

God no! 🙂
Yeah not for a bit. This was a bit of a special project for us. It’s been very hard work physically and mentally, balancing this with the needs of all the others in the workshop but it’s turned out great and I think it’s really put a fire in the belly of Jan who designed it which is brilliant.

I bet he didn’t foresee all the challenges you’ve encountered along the way 🙂
Good for a student to see a project through to completion. I didn’t have any ‘live’ projects during my degree.

Re: Old threads. Firtly, there’s no email notification. Then, unless someone’s posted to it recently (last 18 they posted to), they fall off the bottom of the recent threads list.

Threads have a shorter live on here than on most forums I visit.

How so?

I think he means in the Forum History section of your profile. If you post to a thread it gets added to the list but disappears off the bottom pretty quickly. Easy to miss things re-appearing on the main forum.

Great bench tho, bookmarked for inspiration when i eventually get round to doing garden DIY.

Add it as a favourite..
Fantastic project and a really great outcome
Congratulations to all involved, it must make you very proud

Slight hijack but I think you’re going to love this
How to Build a Log Cabin

Thanks for that Beaker2135. Pretty cool 😀

For anyone interested, here is a little timelapse video that I put together for the building of the bench. Mainly showing the installation at Coombe Park but also some of the carving etc…
Turned out pretty well. Have a look(10 mins long)
Click the link to Vimeo rather than the video embed itself if you fancy watching a better quality, larger version… 😀

https://vimeo.com/69080549

Hope you enjoy!

Nice promo
I have to say it looks a lot bigger than I expected, I bet it was a bigger job than you thought as well
I’ve really enjoyed following this project, thanks for sharing. Congratulations again for a great effort

Nice promo
I have to say it looks a lot bigger than I expected, I bet it was a bigger job than you thought as well
I’ve really enjoyed following this project, thanks for sharing. Congratulations again for a great effort

Yes, I’ve really enjoyed watching it too.
I’ve learned a lot and been inspired.

Great video!

Cheers!

Thanks for the comments folks..
I put the link on a woodworking forum and all some of them have done is bitch about my music choice… 😆

Never going to please everyone with music…

To be fair – if you put a bike video up, you’d get that here too 🙂

True dat! 😀

6 Months since the installation and it’s weathering very well.
Even more surprising is that it actually hasn’t been broken in any way by crazy kids or general vandals! 😀