and glue the two halves together.

Now, that's a creative solution.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got my neander bench base almost built, hurrah!, just need to bolt
the stretchers to the legs.

An alternative to drilling is to make the stretcher from two pieces ---
each half the thickness of the final thickness. Route a grove in each
board where the rod will run, and glue the two halves together.