Picnic Bench Project

Another gift Liam received for his birthday was a little picnic table for the backyard. He has seen little picnic tables before and always been very excited to sit at them. I think he is just so happy to have something in the correct scale...

Anyway, like so many other things, a new gift for Liam means some assembly work for me.

I prepared myself for the job by gathering all the tools I would need from my extensive workshop. As luck would have it, I could get the job done with just this screwdriver.
I brought all of the components and my screwdriver into the spare room, where I would have more than enough space to build the bench. The room opens directly onto the patio where this creation would live, making it an ideal location for the project.

things started out fine as I skillfully screwed the bench piece onto the support, followed by the same action on the other side. Screwdriver served me well as we attached all components without incident. Thanks screwdriver.
The next phase in the operation was to attach the legs of the table, but it was not a job for my pal the screwdriver... the table had come with this interesting little Allen key tool. Rather than feeling pressure from the Allen Manufacturing Corportation of Hartford, I decided to call this tool Steve.
despite my great sadness at the loss of my screwdriving companion, I persevered and my new friend Steve worked out quite well as we attached all the legs.
In fact, things went so well with the legs, we proceeded to attach the table top as well.
The table was almost done, it just lacked stability, any lateral pressure would wobble the whole thing.... if only there were some way to stabilize it. Then I saw there were two more pieces of wood left over. But they had no hex bolts... At once I realized that my old friend screwdriver would need to be called into action once again.
Of course good old screwdriver got the job done and I brought the bench out to the patio to see how it looked. Next step will be painting/staining the wood as it is unprotected at the moment.
I should have known, the project began with screwdriver and it will end with screwdriver... ahhh screwdriver, you are truly a king among tools.