How to Design and Build This Cool Modern Bench

[Music] this is going to be what I consider a japanese-inspired design a long low bench I'm kind of designing this one as I go but once it's all finished I will have a drawing and a cut list that you can find on my website this is all going to be made out of Douglas fir you can find this material at any Home Store and it's only $32 worth of material let's go ahead and get started by first making the legs the measurements for the legs are 16 inches but I like to cut everything a little bit heavy first until I finish all of the milling so I'm going to cut the four by fours at 16 and a half to square up the four by fours I'll put a pencil mark on all four sides and then I'll use the jointer to remove the pencil mark on two of the joined sides not the opposite side making sure to hold the material up tight against the fence [Music] to avoid any confusion a scribble a circle on the joined surfaces of the board then I use the thickness planer and remove the pencil lines that I made earlier once those pencil lines are removed the four by fours are square I've just finished milling the four by fours down to three and a quarter by three and a quarter being sure to square them up in the process starting out on the jointer then the thickness planer and I even ran these through the drum sander although I didn't get that on camera now I'm going to take the two by eights and cut 16 inches off each 2 by 8 and that will give me a board that will fit in the middle of the two four by fours again I'm cutting the boards a little bit heavy at sixteen and a half this is how the 2 by 8 is going to work with this leg design it will fit in between the two four by fours but right now it's a little bit too big a 2 by 8 measures seven and a quarter by an inch and a half I'm going to mill this down to six and a quarter by an inch and three-eighths [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] and now that all of the milling is done I'll set up a stop block and cut all the parts to the finish length of 16 inches the sides of the bench are made up of three pieces the two posts and the center piece I've decided to put a taper on the outside posts and to make that taper I'll measure in an inch and a quarter at the top of the leg make a mark and then use a straight edge hold the straight edge at the mark and then at 0 and in trace a line after using the bandsaw to cut the taper and the legs I'll use the jointer to clean up any of the blade marks left by the bandsaw now you want to be careful here and not remove too much material from one leg you're trying to keep all the legs roughly the same size and it usually takes about two or three passes over the jointer and this looks pretty good I'll use the biscuit joiner to join the three boards together and the biscuits don't really add any strength to the glue joint but it definitely makes it a lot easier to keep the board's nice and level during the glue up [Music] and I always make sure to clean up any of the glue squeeze-out with a wet rag before it has a chance to set up i glued up the legs yesterday and let the glue set up overnight and now I'm working on a cross brace and for now I'm going to use a 2 by 6 and I'll attach it with a lap joint my first thing I'm going to do is mill this board down to size I want it to be four and a half inches I also want to run it through the drum sander to clean up the surface a little bit and because this board is a lot longer than what I need I will rough cut it to length and I can cut away some of these problem areas like a knot over here and not over here whenever I'm milling the board down if I can rough cut into Lane first I do because it makes it that much easier to push through the machines [Music] I'll measure from the outside of the leg six inches and then cut the brace to length and use the cut off from the brace as a guide for the lap joint a [Music] crosscut sled on the table saw is great for cutting lap joints because you can align the marks on your project with the saw kerf in the sled if you want to build the sled that I'm using I'll have a link in the description to the project video [Music] okay so that fits really nice and now I'm going to make sure that I have a 6-inch reveal from the outside of the leg and then mark the brace for the next lap joint [Music] [Music] I've just finished up with the brace and it fits really nice really having a lot of fun with this project and I'm real happy with the way it's turning out and now I'm getting to work on the top of the bench and I've decided to go with a seven inch overhang from the brace on each side and that'll give me a top that's seventy one and a quarter inches I'm going to make the top of it to two by eight this board is a little messed up so it's got a little bit of a rock in it so first I'm going to try to remove that with the jointer and probably run it through the thickness planer and all that stuff and bring it down to about an inch and an eighth and I think that'll look a little bit nicer than this inch and a half and I have now right now I think this just looks a little thick I'll use the jointer to flatten out one side of each of the two by eights and then use the jointer and the table saw to remove the round over and square the edges up [Music] and again I'll use biscuits to join the two boards together I just unclamped the top and this is the side of the boards that I ran through the jointer and this is really pretty nice and flat there's a lot more to do on the other side so now I'll run the top through the thickness planer flying it out turns out that I've got some kind of a problem with my thickness planer so I used sixty grit sandpaper in the drum sander to remove the material and flatten the boards out and now that the board is nice and flat and the edges are square I'll use the crosscut sled in the table saw and cut the top to its final length there's not a lot of strength when you're screwing into endgrain so I'm drilling an inch and an eighth hole and I'll place an Internet an inch and an eighth dowel in the hole and that way I'll be screwing into the cross grain of the DAO this is something that was pointed out to me a few years ago by a viewer Edie Tillman this is something I've been using now for a couple years and it really works great [Music] I'm attaching the brace to the legs with wood glue and a four and a half inch long fastener countersink a hole for the head of the fastener and then pre-drill for the screw here I'm using an eighth inch drill bit to drill four and a half inches down into the leg now switch to a quarter inch drill bit and I'm only drilling through the brace about two and a quarter inches deep I don't want the screw to grab onto the material in the brace I only want it to grab onto the material in the leg and pull the two pieces together [Music] to attach the top to the base I'm going to use the biscuit joiner and make slots into the base then I'll make clips and those clips will fit into the slots this will allow for the top to be able to expand and contract [Applause] [Music] for the finish I'm going to use water-based polyurethane I'm going with water-based because I don't want the double spur to darken an oil-based finish would darken the Douglas fire I generally avoid water-based finishes on darker woods like cherry and walnuts appealing but on lighter woods like Douglas fir or maple or birch plywood I often will use a water-based polyurethane applying three coats and sanding with 220 in between coats [Music] all right well I am really happy with the way this project turned out it was a fun build and if you want to build this I will have a drawing and cut list in the material list that you'll be able to find on my website the nice thing about it was only $32 worth of material if you liked this video please give it a like leave a comment tell a friend that would be great it really helps me out thanks for tuning in and I'll see you soon [Music]

Channel: Jon Peters - Longview Woodworking

Views: 376,797

Keywords: DIY, do it yourself, how to, woodworking, jon peters home improvement tools wood working home projects interior design, bench, build a bench, how to build a bench, modern bench, woodworking projects, woodworking project, how to make, Jon Peters, wood, douglas fir, furniture project, home improvement, youtube, home project, DIYer, woodwork, make a bench

Id: OCfw9NR-7iI

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 08 2017