We made this oaken beauty as a gift to say thank you to our neighbours, who were kind enough to let us chainsaw mill wood from a massive poplar tree that fell on their house in a storm (see here for that story).

As usual the start to finish build video has more details, but lets look at the basics of construction.

Chainsaw Milling Oak

It’s nice to already have a rough idea in mind when milling up logs, especially if your planning to use the wood green, or to make something a bit unusual, like this bench.

Here we are using the mill to cut a curved log, that will make some nice arching shapes for the back, and a snuggly, inclusive sort of seat shape. If you are curious about the DIY chainsaw mill, comprehensive plans and use instructions are freely available in this instructable we wrote.

The two side uprights are made with a short fat log in which the tree made a fork. A ‘crotch piece’ as its known. This is a perfect shape for holding the seat and accepting the angled back rest.

Once the Oak is milled with the chainsaw, cleaned up and lugged back to the workshop, the head scratching begins as we consider angles and aesthetics…

After a while we mark up and start to cut into the side pieces…

We are using the old circular saw, then chisel method, which works very well for making rough mortises quickly.

Once that’s done, it’s time for fitting up, testing etc.

It is clamped with ratchet straps, drilled and bolted together.

Finally, it’s sanded a bit and placed in next doors garden. Done :D

A big thanks to Robin Higgins for being brave enough to come meet us and learn some chainsaw milling and for all his help with this project! Do check out the garden bench making video – it’s one of my favourites.

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Posted: 02|29|20 at 11:52 pm. Categorically squeezed into: Invent.

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