I am wondering if the opposite corners with the least amount of side support will suffer from outward, spreading pressures. I am trying to imagine if all legs were setup with the same sideboard support, how would it work.
You’re onto something though. What about similar arched pieces that cross and interlock through the center. Keepin’ the grain oriented properly would help a lot.
Looks fun either way! Thx for doing to sketches.

I’m calling it Asymmetrical Symmetry.

Here’s some info I typed up about it:

This is a design for the Charles Neil 5 board bench contest in the summer of 2010. The 5 boards are the top, 2 legs, and 2 aprons. Glue ups are permitted and only count as 1 board once glued.

I had this design in mind, at least as far as the general layout is concerned. Then I went to the box store to see what wood was available. Turns out the only wood wide enough to do in 1 board at the box store was pine. And not the “high grade” pine either.

Since it looked like I was going to have to glue up boards to get one wide enough anyhow, I started looking at alternatives. My choices, without going a further distance or to a specialty store were oak, poplar, aspen, and alder.

I understand that the alder is going to be a challenge when it comes to finishing due to the blotch issues, but I like the clear whiteness of it. I thought of using the oak as the contrasting wood, but there was too much texture contrast for what I was visualizing. Aspen is a very fine grained wood and oak is much coarser. Just not what I was feeling for this project, so I chose the alder.

The decision to have the center stripe be smaller was done on purpose (that is, not dictated by the available wood.) I played with it in the store with wider aspen and narrower alder, but I liked this combination the best.

One idea that I sketched up and decided against was to have the top and legs in one color and the aprons in a contrasting color. It might still be a good alternative, but I liked this striped theme a bit better.

One idea I’ve considered but, at least for the moment, have decided against was to have the wide side of the apron dovetailed into the leg. I’m not sure how it would look and, perhaps more importantly, I’m not sure I quite have the skill to pull it off. It’s probably better that I get at least somewhat comfortable with normal dovetails before getting fancy.

A couple of detail notes:

the short end of the apron will form a 90° angle with the leg
the short ends of the bench will be at the same angle as the opposite leg (same angle as the short end of the apron.
glue blocks will be used to fasten the top to the aprons and where the aprons join the legs
epoxy will be used to seal the bottom of the legs
General Finishes clear exterior finish
if I thought I could drill a 3” hole straight through, I’d consider adding a dowel just above where the leg cutout will end when gluing up those pieces to help prevent a split there.

I can see this being done with other contrasting woods (maple/walnut, etc) and with the contrast being done with the opposite field.

I’ll also have to look closer at the size and measure on my jig to be sure I have room to run the T-track on the top, but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be an issue.

Thanks for the suggestion.

For the sander I’d be able to glue up the center well at one height and then tune the end pieces to match the top of the sander table – so it shouldn’t be as difficult as it might seem at first.

Doesn’t mean it will be easy for me, but it might not be as big a deal as it initially seems.

I would imagine the building a table for the sander would be difficult, mostly trying to get the infeed/outfeed level with the table. Maybe having some kind of adjustment capability in those benches would help with that issue.

Thankfully, one of my favorite local hardwood dealers posts his prices on the web, so I can get good comps when evaluating any “deals” I come across.