That bench looks great. I really want to build one. I'm all about showing you don't need to be a pro to build things and I think I will be able to build this following your great instruction. Thanks.
Totally loved the video. I made one just like yours on the video. Everything was perfect...but when I looked closer at the actual Nelson bench it has 12 slats not 11 and it is a few inches shorter as well. So I’m made another. This is not a criticism just a friendly observation for those who want to make it EXACTLY like the Herman Miller one. I live in Zeeland MI, the home of Herman Miller so I feel like I need to be spot on. Thanks again for the video.
At the beginning of the video I was sure you bought metal legs, but after watching it I really like how you made them! I would definitely like to try that one of these days. great project!
my home is mid-century and i just saw your other video for the table with glass. INSANELY BEAUTIFUL! its depressing and exciting to see how you can build some of these classic mid-century bench at home. your collection of equipment is so intimidating. i wished i knew someone like you near me to help me to get this house into its original glory. as life would have it, i am sure you live nowhere near me. :-( great job and thanx for the video.
Nelson bench turned out great! You should prove everybody wrong and do a follow up video building one with just store bought lumber, a circular saw and a drill!
The leather is great on wood too, I know of it and has seen it being used by some of my friends in the woodworking industry. Excellent job on the bench.
That was a great project as well as a nice video. I believe that could be built from big box lumber right off the rack. Thanks for sharing. God Bless my friend
I'm gonna attempt to do just that this weekend. As always, the video quality IS amazing and so easy to follow. I don't consider myself an expert woodworker by any means, but after watching this I feel like I can hit up Home Depot and make this happen.
LOVE the simple jig idea! As always, your joints look awesome! Great video! Also, the leather dye looks amazing. Never even considered using leather dye.
+Sooner Keith thanks again Keith! Yea, the dye worked great. I have a lot of friends who make high grade tobacco pipes, and they use this dye on the briar. Figured it'd work for me too!
Looks great. I love the look of these Nelson Platform Benches. They are definitely are a classic design. Great work once again. As always you did a fantastic job. This is a definite must do when I can finally get my workshop set up.
When I first looked at it, I the legs were metal. Interesting that you used leather dye for the wooden legs. It appears to work great. I like how the bench turned out!
What color black are you guys using? I tried the Fiebings "Black" color and it has a purplish sheen to it. I also have a black Kiwi dye that is seems more black, at least to my eyes.
Nice video..And bench..I avoid all "gaps" projects specially in furniture people here just don't like it. When they think of cleaning all tje dust from those hols :-)
Very impressive build Johnny! I like the idea of the leather dye. Also if you where having a hard time ripping down that hard maple into strips, next time you might consider using your band saw then thickness plane them down to size or use the drum sander. It may be an extra step, however you don't have to deal with the tension that can be in hard maple.
Just gorgeous! I have a similar bench design but a very different set of legs. Would love to have it built. I would do it, but I don’t have all the tools to do it perfectly. Also, I would prefer steel legs for my design and hence welding would be necessary.
Look's great! I've seen this built before in another video but done totally differently - the jig for cutting the dado's looks super handy - would love to try out that method one day when I have a table saw set up like that. Cheers - Zach
Any advice for making those dado's without a Dado Stack blade? Have made dados with multiple passes on table saw but seems like that would be too much work for the # of cuts needed for this bench..
+Joe basementwoodworking hah, a lot of Frozen fans in the comments ⛄️ And no, the dye is intended to be used on leather, not wood. It's just an alcohol based dye so I figured it'd work on wood as well, and it did!
Great project. I built something much rougher but similar years ago for a display rack for Bonsai trees. Also what is the counter sink that you use early in the video and also at about 9:30 in the video?
I got super excited to hear you can do this with a circular saw, after watching the video I still have no clue how to do that =( you got a link or something to the technique you are refering to?
Great project and fantastic video! I'm planning on the same project and would like to understand the best way to finish the legs. Is it necessary to apply shellac over the die or can one go straight to poly for a durable finish on the legs? Was poly used on the legs as apposed to Lacquer due to these pieces being prone to kicks and scuffs? Again, great video and craftsmanship!
So I have a question - as you mention while cutting the dados in the slats, you had several slats to cut into. Is there a reason you didn't do multiple slats in a row? If it's going to be cut in the same spots, wouldn't it have been useful to align and tape/clamp the slats together, and then just run a few at once across the table saw?
Hey dude. Awesome build! How do you determine your drill bit size and length for pre drilling? I've tried pre drilling and still seem to experience wood splitting. Also, how do you come across so much oak for these builds? I have a rough time finding any that someone's not trying to charge an arm and a leg for it!
Thanks a lot! As far as pre-drilling sizes, I don't seem to have a lot of trouble with it. I bought a countersink bit that's meant for #8 screws and I just use #8 screws when using that bit. Simple! This Oak was just a piece of scrap, but Oak is cheap in my area. Sorry it's expensive where you're at!
That bench looks great. I really want to build one. I'm all about showing you don't need to be a pro to build things and I think I will be able to build this following your great instruction. Thanks.
Thanks man!
Man, that thing is beautiful. The box joint jig really makes this seem more accessible. I think I'm going to have to make one or two of these...
+rockusbacchus go for it! Thanks.
excellent job as a retired gc i can tell you take pride in your work. well done
Totally loved the video. I made one just like yours on the video. Everything was perfect...but when I looked closer at the actual Nelson bench it has 12 slats not 11 and it is a few inches shorter as well. So I’m made another. This is not a criticism just a friendly observation for those who want to make it EXACTLY like the Herman Miller one. I live in Zeeland MI, the home of Herman Miller so I feel like I need to be spot on. Thanks again for the video.
At the beginning of the video I was sure you bought metal legs, but after watching it I really like how you made them! I would definitely like to try that one of these days. great project!
Thanks man! No buying legs for me, at least for the most part. That's cheating, hah!
That leather dye worked really well on the oak. Bench came out great!
+YouCanMakeThisToo thanks Caleb!
my home is mid-century and i just saw your other video for the table with glass. INSANELY BEAUTIFUL! its depressing and exciting to see how you can build some of these classic mid-century bench at home. your collection of equipment is so intimidating. i wished i knew someone like you near me to help me to get this house into its original glory. as life would have it, i am sure you live nowhere near me. :-( great job and thanx for the video.
Thanks man! I'm sure you could find a woodworker in your area!
Nelson bench turned out great! You should prove everybody wrong and do a follow up video building one with just store bought lumber, a circular saw and a drill!
Hah, maybe one day! I would love to shut up the trolls.
Nice! That jig you made for cutting the dados was great!
Thanks Mike! I saw someone else do something similar and it worked awesome. Loving the podcast, by the way. Listened to them all so far, great stuff.
Sweet, thanks dude. Maybe someday we can do a podcast quest swap
+Modern Builds that'd be great! I'd love to have you on ours any time your available.
Modern Builds sm
love this build johnny! got a pal who's going to be doing this for their first project! pumped to give this a shot!
The leather is great on wood too, I know of it and has seen it being used by some of my friends in the woodworking industry. Excellent job on the bench.
Thanks!
That is a very nice bench
+Specific Love Creations thanks man!
This is next level furniture. Good work.
+SweatyPalms007 thanks!
What a great looking bench!
Stunning project. Makes me want to run out and build it.
Thanks!
I like that design. That would be perfect for a mud room for changing boots and shoes.
Thanks Chad, definitely would be!
Looks great. Always loved this style of bench.
Thanks!
It looks very beautiful !
+BUK thank you!
Looks Great man!
+DIY Creators thanks Glenn!
Beautiful. Your joints came out awesome.
+ACW thanks!
Great video. Just finished making mine!
That is a beautiful remake of a classic piece. I've been wanting to make one of these for a while.
+Let's Make Something Awesome Together thanks man!
Love the Olaf bandaid. Great looking bench!
+Downtime Media hah, thanks!
That was a great project as well as a nice video. I believe that could be built from big box lumber right off the rack. Thanks for sharing.
God Bless my friend
For sure! Thanks Frank.
I'm gonna attempt to do just that this weekend. As always, the video quality IS amazing and so easy to follow. I don't consider myself an expert woodworker by any means, but after watching this I feel like I can hit up Home Depot and make this happen.
+Sooner Keith thanks so much, man. Good luck!
Acme tools rocks! I got a crazy deal on my miter saw from them.
They are definitely good people!
Great job, Johnny!
+red12287 thanks!
Very cool build!! Cool jig too!!
+Jake Thompson thanks Jakes!
LOVE the simple jig idea! As always, your joints look awesome! Great video!
Also, the leather dye looks amazing. Never even considered using leather dye.
+Sooner Keith thanks again Keith! Yea, the dye worked great. I have a lot of friends who make high grade tobacco pipes, and they use this dye on the briar. Figured it'd work for me too!
Nice work Johnny!
Thanks Fred!
Great work Johnny!
AWESOME JOB Johnny. The bench is beautiful
+Thom spillane thanks Thom!
I love your DIY videos and less of the woodworking ones on UA-cam. Keep them up!!!!! Great job on this video.
+Neil thanks!
Looks great man. Cool trick using the leather dye
+Robin Lewis thanks Robin!
Simple yet Beautiful 👌
Thanks!
Looks great. I love the look of these Nelson Platform Benches. They are definitely are a classic design. Great work once again. As always you did a fantastic job. This is a definite must do when I can finally get my workshop set up.
+Steve Jones thanks! It was a fun build. Love the way it looks.
Really good work. Got to make me one of those. Or two...
+Marcus Dahlberg thanks!
man! that looks sharp. well done.
Thanks Cressel!
Beautiful!
+Calvin Ng thanks Calvin!
When I first looked at it, I the legs were metal. Interesting that you used leather dye for the wooden legs. It appears to work great. I like how the bench turned out!
+Bruce A. Ulrich thanks Bruce!
Ya same, i think its metal
beautiful bench!!!
Thanks mama!
It looks very good man ! Great work!
+Making Stuff thanks!
Sweet bench, Johnny! Ripping that much maple must have been fun 😃.
+Fix This Build That thanks man! Yea, this project singlehandedly made me upgrade to the more powerful SawStop. Fun was not the word 😜
Well done sir.
Thanks Dan!
Looks great! Fiebing's dye is my go to for blackness.
Fun fact: The applicators are called "daubers." That's fun to say.
Ohh, thanks a good fun fact! Daubers, hah.
What color black are you guys using? I tried the Fiebings "Black" color and it has a purplish sheen to it. I also have a black Kiwi dye that is seems more black, at least to my eyes.
Interesting. I used Fiebing's Black (same as you) on my Zipper Snare and had no purple hue. India Ink is another pigment used by drum builders.
+BALES yup, same. Just the standard black color. Totally pitch black.
That looks great Johnny! 👌🤘
Thanks Heath!
love the jig you made, man!
Thanks! I saw something like it on an article on building a similar bench, it works great.
ur shop=goals
ur skills=goals
i couldnt sub fast enough
+marisotoserna thanks!
Thanks - That design would be great for a deck made from Cedar - I can see a couple around my deck in a few weeks.
+Lynn Lacey that would be cool!
985K subscribers. The guy can’t even read the comments anymore. Forget about answering them. But good for him. It’s a nice channel.
Did you have a question? This video is like 6 years old.
Nice video..And bench..I avoid all "gaps" projects specially in furniture people here just don't like it.
When they think of cleaning all tje dust from those hols :-)
Hah, I could see that I guess. Thanks!
very nice work
Thank you!
nicely done!
Thanks man!
Very impressive build Johnny! I like the idea of the leather dye. Also if you where having a hard time ripping down that hard maple into strips, next time you might consider using your band saw then thickness plane them down to size or use the drum sander. It may be an extra step, however you don't have to deal with the tension that can be in hard maple.
+GuysWoodshop thanks Guy! And yes, I will definitely be doing that in the future. It also wastes less wood likely. Thanks!
Very cool! From the thumbnail, I thought the legs were steel. The ebonized oak looks much better in my opinion!
Thanks, me too!
good job
amazing
It's very nice!
Thanks!
Great job man !
+DuddlesDB Thanks!
Nice work
+ira yanti thanks!
Looks great! :)
Thanks!
Great one, thanks for sharing 🙂
+1989go thanks for watching!
Hey mate, very very nicely built & I find your explanation on the project easy to watch, this is a fantastic channel & thanks for it 👍👍👍
+Sumo's Projects thanks so much!
Muito bom, parabéns pelo projeto.
Obrigado! (I don't speak Portuguese, hopefully Google got that right)
Love it!!!!!!!!!
Thanks!
It has been 5 years--how did the leather dye hold up? Looks great.
Just gorgeous! I have a similar bench design but a very different set of legs. Would love to have it built. I would do it, but I don’t have all the tools to do it perfectly. Also, I would prefer steel legs for my design and hence welding would be necessary.
Hi Johnny, how are you? My name is Mauro, i'm brasilian... i think your job very good... congratulations!!!
+Mauro Miranda thanks a lot!
Clean built! (y)
+Janmajit Shankar thanks!
Look's great! I've seen this built before in another video but done totally differently - the jig for cutting the dado's looks super handy - would love to try out that method one day when I have a table saw set up like that.
Cheers - Zach
Thanks! The jig was great, worked perfectly.
Cra
I got 8/4 walnut lumber and plan to rip it to 3/4 or so. Should I expect it to warp and need squaring up? Or will it likely be ok?
Which countersink bits do you use?
Is it best to mill 1x2s from 8/4 or 4/4 lumber?
Great work! How far in did you place the legs from the end of the bench?
Nice work, I couldn't find the link for the dye though. Thanks
Whoops, here you go: amzn.to/2mIY41y
Thanks
"you can do all of this with a circular saw and a speed square" LOL okay!
Great tutorial! Thank you. I was just curious to know why you went with 11 slats instead of 12?
Really nice piece!
Why didn't you plane the joints flush on the bench top like you did on the legs?
I did some of that off camera on the ends. I don't have a way to hold the piece longways, so I couldn't plane the sides. Thanks!
How many 1x2s were you able to mill out of an 8/4? About 6?
Are there any worries of racking with the legs not having any cross supports?
+Chip Smith I don't think so. This bench has been made since the 1950s in this way, should be fine.
Any advice for making those dado's without a Dado Stack blade? Have made dados with multiple passes on table saw but seems like that would be too much work for the # of cuts needed for this bench..
Mastodon is for shure one of the bast sounds for the shop!
hahaha
i like olaf too..;) bench turned iut nice Johnny..so that dye is supposed to feel like leather when its fully dried and cured??
+Joe basementwoodworking hah, a lot of Frozen fans in the comments ⛄️ And no, the dye is intended to be used on leather, not wood. It's just an alcohol based dye so I figured it'd work on wood as well, and it did!
Great project. I built something much rougher but similar years ago for a display rack for Bonsai trees.
Also what is the counter sink that you use early in the video and also at about 9:30 in the video?
Thanks Dan! It's this one: amzn.to/2npMUgs Pretty pricey, but works really well.
my daughter got really excited when she saw olaf make an appearance.
+Waylon Walker hah, I was wondering how many people would notice that. Love my Frozen band-aids.
What's the big brass looking thing on your drill when you are predrilling?
It's this countersink bit : amzn.to/2HuvMAo
I got super excited to hear you can do this with a circular saw, after watching the video I still have no clue how to do that =( you got a link or something to the technique you are refering to?
Check out this video by Matthias: ua-cam.com/video/KNX9Y2cyRhk/v-deo.html
Hey Johnny, another great video. Quick question. What countersink bit are you using. I like the stop on it
+cory schaffer it's the Amana brand bit. I really like it.
Crafted Workshop oh very nice, I'll have to check that out
That turned out sweet. Did you put any felt feet or anything on the bottom?
+Brian Prusa thanks! Yea, I basically always add felt feet to things, just usually assume people know to do that.
Interested 😘😘😘
Thanks!
Great project and fantastic video! I'm planning on the same project and would like to understand the best way to finish the legs. Is it necessary to apply shellac over the die or can one go straight to poly for a durable finish on the legs? Was poly used on the legs as apposed to Lacquer due to these pieces being prone to kicks and scuffs? Again, great video and craftsmanship!
What kind of table saw do you have?
SawStop ICS, 3HP
So I have a question - as you mention while cutting the dados in the slats, you had several slats to cut into. Is there a reason you didn't do multiple slats in a row? If it's going to be cut in the same spots, wouldn't it have been useful to align and tape/clamp the slats together, and then just run a few at once across the table saw?
+Anthony LoPrimo I definitely could have done that. Not sure why I didn't in retrospect, hah.
Crafted Workshop style and cool points? :P
+Anthony LoPrimo hah
if i only can i give a two like!
+Alex Potestas hah, thanks!
wow i thought those legs were steel....nice job.
+Miter Mike's Woodshop thanks Mike!
how much do you sell them for?
+ddruff I haven't sold any, but probably around $1,000.
Hey dude. Awesome build! How do you determine your drill bit size and length for pre drilling? I've tried pre drilling and still seem to experience wood splitting. Also, how do you come across so much oak for these builds? I have a rough time finding any that someone's not trying to charge an arm and a leg for it!
Thanks a lot! As far as pre-drilling sizes, I don't seem to have a lot of trouble with it. I bought a countersink bit that's meant for #8 screws and I just use #8 screws when using that bit. Simple! This Oak was just a piece of scrap, but Oak is cheap in my area. Sorry it's expensive where you're at!
really nice did one a bit more simple.
it was a pain to glue up
Hey J!,
Quick question;
Any reason you didn't gang up the long pieces like you did the short ones?
I built one of these as a table in wood shop. A lot of chiseling!
(seeing as i didn't have a dato stack, I had to use a bandsaw and the a chisel)
+chh mhhh I bet!
+chh mhhh that sounds like a lot of work.
Crafted Workshop yea haha
Was this one of those project that took twice the hours you thought it would?
+Mike West the sanding and finishing prep process was definitely more involved that I anticipated. Lots of little crevices to get into.