(bright music) - Hi, welcome to "The American Woodshop."

I'm Scott Phillips and we have a great show for you today.

We're getting into a live edge bench which I'll give you all the details on, and I have my shop dogs here, my helpers.

And we'll also show you an update on the Long Haul project of "The American Woodshop."

So stick around.

- [Announcer] "The American Woodshop," with Scott Phillips is brought to you by... Woodcraft, since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(upbeat music) Pro tools, for tool pros.

(upbeat music) Rikon Tools.

"Woodcraft Magazine," projects, plans, and weblinks designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf, Swedish silicon steel band saw blades, and super sharp scroll saw blades.

A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- You too can create your own bench and you take a slab of wood, tell you all the tips on that, and you turn it into a masterpiece.

The back is raked back at a 14 degree angle.

This is all walnut red oak spindles here.

Walnut legs, very easy to do, and we're going to get into the basics today.

But remember, whatever you do, work safely.

Be sure to read and understand and follow all the instructions that come with the tools and products you use.

Be safe about it.

So I'm gonna get hearing protection, and these are full time safety glasses with side shields because in a second, TJ Lange is here, and we're going to work on the Long Haul.

So that is an update on that project but I'm going to use a track saw that glides in this metal track to rip this down into two pieces.

This board's 20 inches wide, an inch and a quarter thick.

And by ripping it down we can take it to a planer inside.

And this is hooked up on dust collection, so I'm good to go.

I'm just gonna make that cut.

And this is on the track that has non-skid strips on the bottom so it stays in place without clamps.

So I'll cut this in half, make another cut along this edge to have a straight edge.

And then from there we'll go to the Long Haul project and then get to building the bench.

(saw whirring) Let me show you why I like track saws.

I'll set this down safely outta the way.

And that is because on big live edge work pieces like this, look at the straight edge that you get.

And also look for sawdust.

There is none.

That's because it's on that dust extractor.

So that's the first board.

Set that back here.

And then what we can do is, get this set up, and why do you use insulation down like this?

'Cause the blade actually goes, just the tip of it goes, into the insulation and you can use it again and again.

So I'm gonna get this set up so that we get rid of that end check right here.

And that's the only split that's on it.

And this moisture content now is down to about 8%.

So it'll make a good glue up.

So we have to angle that a bit using your creativity.

And this plank is just a little over eight feet long.

I do know one thing for sure, working outside, it just can't beat it, which is why we have the Long Haul project going on.

Jeff and I are going to set a truss here in just a second, but let me finish this cut.

(saw whirring) Well, Jeff, let's get this up.

- [Jeff] All right.

Okay, come my way, right there.

That's perfect.

Let me get this towed in.

Okay, go ahead and screw it all the way up.

(drill whirring) All right, now this is pressure treated, and that will stop the wood boring bees from getting into it.

(drill whirring) And that looks good.

That's nice and tight.

You do good work.

You know that?

- [Jeff] Thank you, sir.

- Jeff Lange.

You go back to the seventh grade when we were setting off M-80s.

- Yeah.

- Oh man, that's living.

- Long time.

- So Jeff was with us when we built the Suzy barn.

I'll get the hearing plugs out, so I don't have to shout at you.

And what was the hardest part of Suzy's barn project?

- Oh, Scott.

I'd say its being up on the very top, putting the trusses up.

- Yeah.

Well, I've got a plan today.

We're going to use this kicker on this side and the board we just put up so that when we use your Jeep and that pulley and rope to pull up the truss it's gonna lock right in between there and camp back just a little bit.

And we'll get it plumb.

- That'll be much easier than what we did years ago.

- Well, you get smarter with age.

- That's right.

- Well let's get set up.

Let's go over to the truss, get to it.

Okay, go for it.

(engine humming) Back a foot.

(engine humming) Stop.

Stop.

(engine humming) Six inches.

(engine humming) Stop.

Perfect.

(drill whirring) So if you look at this closely, this pivot right here with the screw on top kept this truss where it needed to be.

And it's up against this top laminated beam structure here.

And I'll put a filler block in right here to close down that gap.

But this prevented the tow right here from kicking out.

And I can promise you this, once we get a couple purlins on the horizontals, this is there to stay.

And it is plumb and square.

Do not try this at home.

This is a job for professionals.

Now that is absolutely plumb, and it's braced in with these temporary purlins, and that's what we'll fasten the metal roof to.

And Jeff, you can let go of the line now.

- All right.

- Okay, so that's the way we're going to set the other four.

- Great.

- So that worked good.

Now Jeff, I wanna show you something right here.

You see what I got on?

- Man.

- Protecting our waterways.

You may not know it, but this man and his wife, his family for the last 19 years, you've been cleaning up the river.

What's your mission?

- We wanna make the watershed on the great Miami River in Miami County, a cleaner, more beautiful place for all people to utilize the river, kayak, canoe on it, fish it, walk along it, ride their bikes along it.

And over 19 years, it's gotten a heck of a lot cleaner.

So our mission is to keep it clean, and let everybody enjoy it.

- Keep it clean, and let everybody enjoy it.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen from TJ Lange.

Thanks for all your help over the years.

- You're welcome.

It's my pleasure.

We're gonna get back, we're gonna make that live edge bench now.

You'll see more on this next week.

Let's get to it.

(Planer whirring) Now look at that beautiful air dried, black walnut.

You can tell it's air dried because the white sapwood here.

And let me bring this up and lay it next to the unplaned board so that you can see the beauty of this.

And that saves a ton of time sanding.

And that's why I rip it down into two pieces.

Now I want you to look at this.

This is going to be the crest rail.

That's the rail that the spindles come into.

And there's a walnut that's encapsulated into this gnarly area.

Let's plane this down.

See what we have because I'm hoping to incorporate this into the project.

Oh, ho, ho, ho.

We're in luck!

Look at that walnut.

Gotta love it.

This is gonna make a great crest rail.

And also it's slightly curved, which will be a nice addition to the bench when I put those spindles onto the back of it.

Let me turn this off.

We'll take a closer look at some things Now to save time, that's the crest rail, okay?

That's going to get those red oak spindles to it and to do the glue up.

You know how to plane down large planks like this.

But that track saw gives me a glue edge.

So I just put glue on both edges, clamp it up.

And I've already done that to this piece to save time.

So this is our seat board and I'm looking at it and sometimes it's hard to tell which side's best, but the grain on this is just spectacular.

And if you look, where's the glue seam?

My goodness.

So now I'll get this set up so that I can drill this using a hand jig that makes it super simple.

I'm using a Japanese style razor saw to cut 20 back spindles that have been out of red oak five eighths inch in diameter, 18 inches long.

And those are gonna be beautiful when it's combined with this beautiful walnut.

And then this crest rail, the back of the bench.

Well look at this, it's warped.

Hey, I'm working with that.

People go, "How did you do that?"

Well, they pay extra for that.

And the figure of that walnut being cut in half that grew in the crotch.

Gorgeous.

But anyways, I laid on the back crest rail, couple layout lines.

I used my grandfather's layout tool.

I love using his stuff to lay this line in.

And he was a famous builder out East, Herman Reinke.

And I guess that's where I get the bug bad, the wood bug that is.

And if you look here using a white marker, look closely, I've transferred lines every three inches centered up on the bottom of this work piece so that I can drill not only in the seat board, but in the crest rail, but to drill the crest rail that's done at the drill press with a jig.

More on that in just a second.

But I have a nice line laid out by the curve of the board.

So the spindles will match the curve.

It's good to have a fixed rule to space all those holes.

I'm using a fancy drill jig that cants this back and it's locked in at a 15 degree angle and I just get that bit, the point center point of that bit right on the center of that union of the layout line, layout's everything.

And then it has a depth stop right here that's locked in place.

So it stops the bit precisely at an inch and three sixteenths.

Now I have to hold that base flat, and I'm sighting off of these grooves to keep it perpendicular to the front imaginary line of the bench, hold it in place, bring it up to speed, and then just make the hole until it hits that stop.

Just like that right there.

And look at that, no tear out.

And that's why you use that Forstner style bit, multi spur, high quality steel outta Germany.

It blows my mind.

People think, "Well, what type of bit or cutter blade should I get?"

The best you can afford.

You gotta use good steel on these tools.

Line it up again like that.

That's perfect.

I have it all lined up.

And now I'm just going to repeat this process for all 20 holes on the seat board.

Take your time, get it precise.

(drill whirring) Now I've put in the same bit that we just used on the seat board and this is a drill press table with a tall fence to keep this back of the board square.

And I have it set up where there are white marks that all I need to do is drill those holes and I have the depth stop set so that it only goes an inch and a quarter deep.

That's plenty for stout.

So let's make those holes all the way down until it stops.

(drill whirring) Like that.

Okay and I know there are gonna be some wood workers out there that say, "Wait a minute, that's a rough edge right here."

I measured it.

The board is the right width, the whole length.

So that looks good right there.

And I'm just using my hand to hold the back of this crest rail flat to this fence, and I'll just drill all 20 of these crest rail holes.

And once I get that done, I'm sighting down center of the shank.

So I don't need to see the point.

Once I get all these holes drilled, it's over to the band saw to prep some other parts.

(drill whirring) So how do the legs go onto the bottom of the seat assembly?

This bracket is how, so the legs are raked out at a 15 degree angle and that's done at the drill press with an inch and a quarter bit and we'll turn the legs in a bit.

But anyways, I need this heavy duty block, which is an inch and three quarter thick, four inches wide and twelve and three quarters long.

It has to be dry, not green wood here.

So to do that, I'm just going to cut these work pieces out on the band saw with a half inch blade and then drill the holes at a 15 degree angle with the drill press table tilted and lock the work piece down with a clamp, drill those complementary raked holes, and then it's over to the wood lathe to turn the legs.

So let's get this done.

Half-inch four tooth blade, properly tensioned.

I'm just gonna free-hand it, following the white line.

I'm going to take the line.

And people say, "How can you do that?"

It's a good blade.

Silicon steel and the steel makes all the difference.

(machine whirring) (wood scraping) Now take a look at this leg.

I'm turning it.

It's captured between the drive spur and the light ball bearing center right there.

Let me turn it off for a second.

And you can see it's gonna be thick in the middle and tapered down to an inch and a quarter on each end.

Oops, that's the wrong caliper right?

Here we go.

Inch and a quarter.

Perfect and so I'll do the same thing on this end.

And use a skew to smooth it out and friction a finish on it.

Yes, I skipped the sanding because with the skew it gives you a super smooth cut.

And with the roughing gouge, inch and a quarter, you just take your time, keep the angle low, don't go in like this, that'd be scraping.

Here comes closer to shearing and we'll finish this down.

We need four identical legs and once we get these turned, (wood turning) we will do the assembly of all the parts.

(wood turning) This is so easy and so much fun.

And I'm turning at 1200 RPM.

(wood turning) Straight by eye, from the wood lathe are four identical legs going into those 15 degree raked holes into this inch and three quarters thick bottom brace.

And some folks go, "Now wait, you can't screw like that.

These are oversized holes."

So as the wood, this top, expands and contracts, the screw has wiggle room so it will not explode out.

So let's take this up gracefully.

And this slab is heavy because this one is actually just shy of an inch and a half thick finished out.

Okay, watch the fingers.

Here we go.

Nice and tight.

Oh yeah, now that looks good.

Now the floor is not flat here.

Concrete rarely is, but once I get this done, it will be perfect.

And then this crest rail is hole drilled and I'm ready to fit these five eighths inch dowel rods of oak and join it all together.

But before I do that, I have some hand work to do.

So I'm gonna set this up and I'm going to give you some tips on how to profile the edge.

The legs were just dry fit, no glue in that yet.

Naturally they'll get glue down the road.

And what I'm doing now is just using the draw knife to clean up this front edge.

That's important because, well, this is about ready for the finish.

The other thing is when I'm into profiles that I can't get with that draw knife, I use what's called a scorp, and this gives me... or an inshave.

Some people say scorp's just one handled.

But anyways, you can see you can go to town with this.

And the other thing that has to be done, a little bit of sanding with dust mask and dust collection.

And then look at this.

The crest rail has all those oak dowels fit in, and this is the order that you want to do.

You wanna put 'em in the crest rail first, and then you can work the dowels into the bottom, which will take some doing with a little bit of glue in there.

So we'll get that set, get it all sanded out, then it's outside to do the finishing with Arm-R-Seal.

This is beautiful and comfortable and natural.

I love the live edge.

And take a look at that walnut shell right there.

That's into that crotch pattern where from the top of the tree, two sections came together, the walnut and actually there's another one I didn't even see the walnuts fell in there.

And then over time the tree grew and encapsulated those.

That's just spectacular, and that's what it's all about in woodworking, the surprises.

So I'll get this all brushed out with Arm-R-Seal.

It's a blend that's super durable, great to use, very easy, very forgiving.

So I'll brush all this out, and then we'll get a good look at the finished project.

The blend of walnut to red oak.

Absolutely grand.

Well, there's the first coat and it's drying.

And take a look at the color.

That's why I love air dried wood so much.

It leaves the sapwood on walnut and the red oak spindles.

The combination, you just can't beat it.

So I'll sand this down and put three coats on it but you get a good idea of why I do woodworking.

You take pieces of wood that are less than perfect, like all of us, and you create something beautiful out of it.

There's an allegory for you.

But anyways, this is to honor my two grandfathers, who taught me the fine art of wood working, along with father, John.

Well, that's it for this week.

Next week it's onto kitchen cutlery and all sorts of things for the kitchen.

See you then.

Thanks for being with us today.

Boy, loving that.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Woodcraft, since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(upbeat music) Pro tools, (upbeat music) for tool pros.

(upbeat music) Rikon Tools.

"Woodcraft Magazine," projects, plans, and weblinks designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish silicon steel band saw blades and super sharp scroll saw blades.

A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information on tips behind "The American Woodshop," and watch free episodes 24/7, check us out online and like us on Facebook.

(bright music)