From John:

I worked on Luke's bench non-stop over the weekend and have completed most of the base. The top will take every bit as much attention. I’ll post a few of the in-progress photos while Pam and I work together on the top over the next couple of weeks. I'll post some of the more challenging parts of the build rather than a simple play-by-play. My first design was a lot like the final design, but I wanted to give it more weight. Here's the first design with my prototype:

My method is borrowed from Jory Brigham who is a woodworker in California (he just won a TV show called Framework). Based on his blog and videos he has posted, his first step after he has an idea is to make MDF templates. He makes one large template of the entire piece (the side profile), and then makes a second identical template that he cuts into the component pieces. Individual pieces are traced onto the wood, then the wood is rough cut (not quite to the line) and joined. Once the rough shape is done, he places the first template over the wood and uses a router to trim all of the wood that extends beyond the template (the router bit has a ball-bearing that follows the perimeter of the template). I followed this method for the most part, but I was worried that mjy router wasn't quite up to the task so I cut all of my individual template pieces to final dimension before I joined them together. This wasn't an issue until I clamped the pieces together. Too much pressure caused some misalignment, but I was able to get things looking like they should in the end. I made a “tapering jig” to cut the legs, but unfortunately my table saw (which the jig depends upon) cannot be adjusted to the degree that it really needed to be in order for the jig to do what I wanted it to do (the blade isn't exactly 90 degrees to the front of the table. Believe me, I've tried). Still, with some sanding to remove the burn marks from the blade I think I was able to get passed this hurdle (the table saw goes on Craigslist soon, I think). Here's some steps in the making of my templates based on the final design:

As I’m sure you realize, the importance of this project to me and Pam goes beyond the object itself, to its subject. I wanted (needed) to focus my energy on something tangible to remind me and my family of our sweet boy. I remember vividly the 20-weeks ultrasound appointment, when the biggest news of the day was supposed to be “We’re having a boy!”, but instead was the revelation that there was a lot going on with our baby that didn’t look good. The tip of the iceberg ultimately called “partial trisomy 22” was his leg. It had grown to a point but, as would be made clearer in each visit, it grew then in another direction. His femur was “bifurcated” and his foot was “clubbed”. It sort of bent inward. It was the least-life-threatening evidence of his genetic anomaly, but because it was the first thing we saw it was special. I wanted to make some reference to this a part of the bench. 

For the special leg on the piece, I had saved the best piece of wood. One piece of the wood had a gorgeous rippling effect in the grain ("figured," as they say). I hadn't realized until I was ready to start making it that it was about an inch and half too narrow. To fix this, I cut a small piece from the opposite end of the same board and joined it to the edge of the figured area (from the same board so as to match the color and grain pattern). 

 

Because I was using so-called "loose mortise and tenon" joinery, even though I would eventually be cutting into the piece I added on to connect it to the rails (the long pieces of the base), the joined piece had no metal or other hardware to get in the way—it was effectively a new solid piece. Because of the grain-match, you can hardly see where I made the addition. I think the leg came out great. When I see it now I think instantly of Luke. Here's the final shape in the wood and a dry fit of the leg to the rail:

 

One of the other challenges so far came when I joined the two halves of the base together.

The wood I reserved for the four perpendicular cross-pieces was chosen out of my stack because it didn't quite match the color of the rest of the wood (I think it would be called “sap wood"). It doesn't quite show in the photo but it was lighter and almost looked like a different species. That was one aspect of the problem I encountered, but the bigger one was my own mistake. You see, I sold a lot of stuff to get a more powerful sander. I am still coming to terms with how powerful this thing is. Long story short, I must have used too much pressure in one spot and I created a low point in a visible spot (on one of the end support pieces). Now the top wouldn't lay flat from all angles. After regaining my wits I decided to sort-of edgeband the side of the support pieces on both ends with a thick piece of the more color-matched walnut scrap (edgebanding is when you glue a wooden veneer onto a surface to make it look solid—in this case it was already solid but you get the idea). I couldn't be more pleased with this solution. I was able to both cover the gap I had created AND maintain the same gorgeous dark walnut on all sides. 

 

Phew! From below, the color contrast is nice as well. There was already going to be some contrasting wood on the underside of the bench for the bench's most important feature, but that’s for another time. Here is where we stand now (note the picture was taken prior to my sanding incident):