Making a table using a chainsaw and a sledgehammer

Having seen someone make a wooden bench using only a chainsaw and a sledgehammer, with no nails or screw, I thought I'd have a go, but making a table for use at the camp in the woods rather than a bench. As it was my first attempt I decided to use an old piece of sweet chestnut I'd had sitting around for a few years.

First I raised it up off the ground:


Then used the chainsaw to rip it down the middle, cross-cutting when I had a long enough section:


Then I put the two pieces side by side on some bearers. I flipped one of them round though, so that the combined width of the two of them is about the same all the way along.


To get them to fit together nicely, I then used the chainsaw to rip along the gap between them, then push them together. Having repeated this a few times I got a nice fit:

The next step was to make a 'dovetail joint'. I made two cuts with the chainsaw like this:


Then used a bore (or plunge) cut, followed by a bit more fiddling around with the saw to get it looking like this. You can see I've also used the saw to roughly shape a wedge of wood to go into the gap as well:


Having inserted the wedge into the gap, I then used the chainsaw to carefully rip along both sides of the wedge, taking care to take wood off the wedge rather than the table top logs.


Having repeated that several times, the wedge now fitted nicely:




After using the sledgehammer bang it securely into place, I then used the chainsaw to trim off surplus wood, so it looked like this:


Then did it all over again at the other end:


For the legs, I used the chainsaw to rip another log in half, and made four pieces like this:


Then I used a bore cut with the chainsaw to make holes in the table top, trimmed the tops of the legs, and hammered them through the holes:


Here it is with four legs in place:


Of course, when I turned it over it was far from level!


But a bit of trimming on the ends of the legs got that sorted:


The final step was then to use the saw to cut off the bits of leg poking through the top, and tidy up any rough spots:






Next time I make one I'll video it...

Mike

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Spring in the woods and chainsaw sculpture

Sorry for the lack of blog posts recently, I've been busy with work, visiting these exciting organisations, and also making stuff like this:

Spring is fast approaching, with buds swelling on the Sweet Chestnut for a few weeks now:

Bluebell shoots are also pushing up:

And I got a nice picture of a bumble bee a couple of weeks ago, sunning itself on one of our log piles:

I'm pleased to see this pipe is in use again:

It may not be obvious, but once you look at the base of it, you can see that a bird has been busy filling it with moss to make a nest:

The exact same thing happened last year too, as you can see in this video:

I've also been trying a new way of making my chainsaw-carved wooden stools. First, you need a wooden board with some holes drilled in it:

Then, you put it on top of the log the log which will become the stool, and drill through the holes - only going in a short distance though!

Then, bolt the board to the log:

Turn it the other way up...

And start your chainsaw sculpture, as shown in this video I made a few years ago. Here's the end result:

All that needs doing then is to remove the stool from the board, and trim a slice off the end to get rid of the screw holes:

And there you have it, one piece of simple chainsaw sculpture!

All I need to do now is find a use for all the sawdust and offcuts...

Mike

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Chainsaw sculpture - making a bench in under 5 minutes

Here's a quick video to show a really simple way of making a log bench. We've been using these in the woods for years, and I needed to make a couple of new ones this weekend to accommodate groups of children on school visits to the woodland:

Here's the two finished products, which only took about 5 minutes each to make with the chainsaw. You can vary the height of them by using different size 'feet'.

Mike

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