AusBonsai

I built a couple of benches with the help of a neighbour (the one who's crab apple I dug up). I tacked shadecloth along the back so I could bring it across the top and down the front during the hot weather and leave it off when not needed. I also added a spray watering system.
Penny.

Great work guys u must be pretty impressed with what u have created.
One thing i would say from a carpenters perspective i noticed with the hard wood you have laid it
with the grooves up... what ever you may have been told this timber is actually upside down
the grooves are there so when laid on your joists on a deck the water can escape and will not
rot you joists.

The reason i say this is that when your paying that much for hardwood decking id want to get the most out of it
esp asthetically and in my opinion it looks a lot better when used properly.
Merbau is a great hardwood that is commonly used also back butt looks great, if using black butt though
always pre drill and hand nail the timber as its harder then merbau and will split if using a nail gun.
and always use a twisted shank nail as it will bite harder and prevent the timber lifting over time.

apart from that great work guys, i may even have to build one myself now

runnabee wrote:One thing i would say from a carpenters perspective i noticed with the hard wood you have laid it
with the grooves up... what ever you may have been told this timber is actually upside down
the grooves are there so when laid on your joists on a deck the water can escape and will not
rot you joists.

G'day Runnabee,

Thanks for your thoughts mate. The reason Matt laid the boards that way was to let the water escape from under the pots.

Regards,
Steven

what are the overall finished dimensions?

Pat093 wrote:what are the overall finished dimensions?

bit over 2 metres long, bit over 1 metre high and around 1.2m deep

Yes...these benches are a great concept. I built my own that were similar to these. I also built a frame with a spray watering system attached. I agree with TJ though....we bought a Beagle a year or so ago and the blood and bone and dynamic lifter sent him him crazy.....I couldnt put any bonsai on the bottom two shelves as he would not so gently dig em up looking for the great smells....or eat all the dynamic lifter pellets. I have resorted to two large flat bed trestles with arc mesh on top a metre off the ground. He can't get up that high...and I can sleep soundly at night

What a great resource
I've only just seen this.

Thanks

Glad to see everyone so pleased with the bench I designed and built. I moved web provider and I also updated my plans with a load more assembly diagrams.

The plans are now available (for free, as before) here: http://cid-d128dfce35a0fd6e.office.live ... 101202.pdf

Coming back on using the decking - ridges up - I have never seen hardwood decking used any other way. We have lots of rain here (Amsterdam) and when used as flooring, the ridges normally provide additional grip. When use with the bonsai the ridges, indeed, remove water from under pots.

If anyone's interested in the actual bonsai - my trees are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/norbury/se ... 3717/show/

If only Id found this before I bought my pallet racking from the Big B. Still what a great thread!!

Looks like a great bench and just what I need for my small but growing collection.

Thanks for the info.

I plan to build one of these bad boys over the xmas break, but i need to incorporate some sort of drop down shade cloth for those extremely hot days and an automatic misting system, so any and all suggestions would be appreciated greatly.

great bonsai bench. Perhaps we could also add some sort of mist watering system!

Gday Steven,

Would you be able to say what the approximate cost was/is to build the bench to those dimesions...

Many Thanks

Did anyone end up building this?

I've just re-planned the whole thing as we don't seem to have 65*65mm timber readily available.

I've also re-done the plans around 2.4metres as this is a pretty standard length.

My only concern is around most of the joins and the size of the new wood.

I'm using 70*35mm wood and 70*45mm instead.

Thoughts welcome.

Great looking benches. Haven't been around long enough to have seen this post before. Like them but I'll need to scale them down a lot to fit my balcony.

Cheers