Southern Yankee Workshop
Custom Handmade Benches
How I Hid The Screw Holes?
Preparing The Bench For Paint
Before painting the garden bench, it helps to make sure that the bench has been properly prepared. To do this, I usually sand all of the pieces before I assemble the bench. This is much easier than trying to do it after assembly because the sanding job will be more uniform. This does not mean that there is no sanding left to do after the bench is assembled, because you still need to hide all of those screw holes. To do this, I use a plug cutter that is the same size as the countersink that I used to dill the holes that the screws are in. I use Tightbond 2 wood glue from Franklin because it holds up great out in the weather. It also bonds well to pressure treated lumber. I will set all of the plugs and give them ample time to allow the glue to set before I move on. After all the glue is dry, I use a wood chisel to trim the excess plug off so that it is almost smooth. After this is done, I use a random orbital sander to sand off the rest and also to remove any excess glue. After this is done, I give the bench a final sanding by hand using 220 grit sand paper and I carefully remove any swirl marks that might have been left by the random orbital sander by sanding in line with the grain. This is a time consuming task, and it can cause blistering on the hands, but the time spent doing this will make the stain job look much better. Pay particular attention that you do not get oil all over the wood from your hands because this can cause the stain to appear darker in those spots that have hand prints.
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