Cast Iron Tree Bench

   
     Mike and I went into the woods on a friend's property and salvaged an old iron tree bench (or tree surround).  It wasn't a job for a dainty type, but I ain't no dainty type.  I would like to say the finished product was all my doing, but I had to cry "uncle" and call in the professionals.

Here it is, neglected for who knows how long?

My arsenal - insecticide for spraying the work area, Deep Woods Off for spraying the two of us, penetrating oil for loosening rusted bolts, and seltzer for rehydration.

The legs were buried in leaves and dirt.

Really rusty.

Real men know how to use vise grips.  Check out Mike's wellies.  When we first scoped out the bench, we ended up throwing away our socks because of all the deer ticks embedded in them.  Rubber boots up to the knees solved that problem. 

The bench has six seat/back sections or twelve pieces.

I thought a soaking with penetrating oil would allow me to break the nuts and bolts loose; however, I had to hack saw most of the bolts.

Each seat had a support attached to the leg.  This one was rusted off.  The others were so fragile that removing the bolts would have broken every support.  I decided to leave well enough alone.  

     This is where the project took a turn.  I took one seat/back section and tried to remove the rust with a power drill and wire brush attachment.  All those curlicues made it a difficult task.  I wire brushed, chiseled, and scraped, creating piles of red powder.  Still, I never seemed to get past the layer of scales that had formed over the years.  I settled for what I had wrought after a couple of hours of hard labor.  Then I sprayed with a Rustoleum product called Rust Reformer.  When that dried, I spray painted with white enamel,  The results were disappointing.  Mike saved the day by deciding we should sandblast and powder coat the bench.
     We found a great local business, Mt. Holly Powder Coating.  They sandblasted the bench removing every trace of rust.  Then they applied a white powder coat finish.  Check out their website:
http://www.mthollypowdercoating.com/  

Each piece has a perfect finish.

The fragile led supports survived the sandblasting.  The powder coat finish sealed the cracks, so rust should not be a big problem around the old nuts and bolts.

We selected a tree and prepared the ground around it.

Here's our bench.