I just spent a year in Greece as a volunteer on refugee camps. While I was there we realised that it'd be good for the residents to have somewhere to sit, eat, socialise...so I drew up some designs to build our own benches - they cost us around 150€ per bench (excluding my time of course!), and they're a damn sight better than anything you'd buy around that price.

Thought I'd share my design with measurements hopefully it helps someone who'd like to build their own as it took me a little while to get the measurements nice, and having the confidence that someone can show it was used as a design always helps.

Drawn by hand and scanned in, so excuse the sketchiness, the measurements are sound, we built 9 benches on that camp and I built another 2 elsewhere.

Built from Pine, you can use any wood however Pine is cheap and not too heavy. You can also play around with the amount of beams you use for the table top, change the spacing so the tabletop is solid, make the whole thing smaller...whatever you want!

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How to:

We made multiple units, so I found it much easier to build a jig (or template) so we could quickly and easily mass produce the legs and the tabletops.

What you'll need:

• Ideally a tablesaw, failing that handsaw and a mitre or some way to measure angles
• Decent drill
• Wood drill pieces
• Torx head drill bits
• T25x80 screws
• T25x100 screws
• M8x120 Coach Bolts and Nuts (Full Thread)
• Socket to tighten the coach bolts

First you make the Tabletop

• Cut wood down to the sizes stated, for Tabletop only.
• Cut the beams for the table top, including the rafters that hold it together (1-5).
• You're gonna need some spacers for the tabletop so you can have that 1cm gap, so, cut 10-15 chunks of wood at 1cm.
• Screw down a baton of wood onto a flat surface - you're going to lay down your beams one the flat surface and push the ends against the baton so you have a nice ending edge with the beams in line.
• Use your spacers to give you a consistent 1cm gap between each beam for the table top
• Screw in number 5s - there are 3 of these - one on each end and one bang in the middle. The ones on each end need to be 20cm from the edge. I used 2 screws per tabletop beam and countersunk them. Make sure the tabletop beams screw in nice and flush.

You've just made a tabletop. Marvel at your skills!

Next is time to make the Legs.

• Cut wood down to the sizes stated, for Legs only.
• You need to build the legs at this point. This can be a bit tricky. The legs need to be flush with the top edge of 12, and 15cm from the end if that makes sense(??). Attach with the coach bolts.
• Use 17 & 19 measurements to figure how low dow you need to attach 13. It won't look like it's tall enough, but trust me, it is! Attach with the coach bolts.
• Now repeat that process! You need to make it twice...
• Next it's time to attach the legs to the table top. Easy, just screw them together!!

Seats

• It's as simple as building the table top, just less beams. Do your measurements first as always! Especially when attaching 18, you need to make sure it'll fit, should be a little tight.

Cross Braces

• As simple as in the drawing really, cut them to size and attach. I found that I needed a little extra piece to make the middle look nice and tidy.

I've explained in a way that assumes you have a basic command of tools and some common sense to boot so you can fill any gaps I've left. Please get in touch if you want anything explaining more, I'll be happy to supply to help!

In build and finished - http://www.bridge2.gg/projects/greece/picnic-benches