Started by doing rough layout on these boards. Since I was footing the bill for materials on this, I was a little more judicious with my board choices to eliminate as much waste as possible.  

All parts rough cut and ready for ripping and gluing.

I picked up this trick from Marc Spagnuolo on his outdoor bench build. Using holdfasts at the bench I can put a stop that I can use to register the legs on for cutting the mortises. I was able to get all 8 mortises on the legs done in ~5-6 minutes (after setup). I enjoy not having to get finicky with each piece and they just plop into place every time I change or rotate the legs.

Ok, so I know these tenoning jigs get a bad rap for being difficult to set up or not square, but this guy was the best $40 I've spent on Craigslist in a while. Sets up nice and square and I didn't have any trouble with initial setup. The only thing I would change is putting a waste block on the clamp to prevent any kind of denting when really putting pressure down. Maybe some kind of zero clearance piece on the back to help with blowout. I took the cuts slow and didn't have an issue. 

Normally I would use a dado stack for tenons, but these were awesome. Got them all done quick and they all fit exactly the same with clean cheeks. 10/10 would buy again.

Just doing a dry fit on the base to see how it's coming together.

Skipped a few steps here, but I put a taper on each leg and cut a large chamfer on the outer corners as well. Although my "client" had literally no care as to what it looked like, I took this as a chance to try a different design. I really like the overall look with the corners cut on the top to match the effect on the legs. If I could do one thing differently it would be to maybe increase the taper I took on the legs.

My second idea for this project was to not use my sander. Let's be honest, who likes sanding? No one, that's who. So I found it a great time to practice smoothing with my No 4. While the base proved to be easy because all the parts were super thin, the top proved otherwise. I need more practice to keep consistent with my planing in order to avoid the slight tracks from the iron.

Note to self: Buy a set of 5' pipe for long glue-ups. 

I frankensteined two of my clamps together for one side of this glue-up, but I had to get creative for the other side. Considering I'll be building a table for myself within the year, I do need a set of long clamps.

My bench was great for holding the top at the weird angles to clean up the corners I chopped off with my block plane. I'm really glad I had the front facing clamping surface to do this. 

Several coats of shellac later and the bench was done! I was going to connect the top to the base with some wood brackets, but I was lazy. I've screwed into the center of the top on each short apron then I made some wider holes in the long aprons for screws there. The wider holes should provide enough room for the top to move between seasons.