DiResta: Locust Wood Bench

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By jimmydiresta
Posted 2012/08/15 @ 11:45 am
Category Art & Design, Woodworking

In each episode of DiResta, artist and master builder Jimmy DiResta (Dirty Money, Hammered, Against the Grain, Trash for Cash) will let us into his workshop, to look over his shoulder while he builds whatever strikes his fancy. In this episode, Jimmy finds a slab of locust wood at a flea market and has a brainstorm. -Gareth Branwyn

My sketch for the bench. My other idea was to make big rusty nails and have them poke through at the corners. I have a second slab of pine, so this could still happen.

Materials:

Slab of Locust wood, flea market find, Livingstonville, NY. Cost $22
Tung oil
0.5″ x 1″ Hot rolled steel
0.25″ rod “cable ties”

Tools:

Millermatic MIG (metal inert gas) welder
Handheld belt grinder
400 grit black sand paper

Notes:
The moment I saw the wood, I saw this video in my head. I am always looking for interesting materials and tools to feature in videos.

BY jimmydiresta

I make stuff.

In the Maker Shed

13 Responses to DiResta: Locust Wood Bench

Daniel Lidén on August 15th, 2012 at 12:23 pm said:

Nice bench! But the style of this video with speeding up of the video and sound makes it unwatchable. Next time, just let me see what you make, thanks.

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- Tommy Phillips on August 15th, 2012 at 1:27 pm said:
  
  I can’t fault the style, myself. It shows the steps clearly, and the order they were performed. I would have liked to hear a little discussion about the rings around the intersecting bars underneath (is it reinforcement or decoration?) and perhaps about welding so close to the wood (discoloration? damaging the finish?), but this shows the basic steps very clearly.
  
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  jimmydiresta on August 15th, 2012 at 1:34 pm said:
  
  thank you for watching , and commenting. the rings are decoration. it was an after thought bc i wasn’t happy w the way the rods looked crossed. it is all welded at this point and very strong. TX u!
  
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  Ben Duffy (@benduffy) on August 16th, 2012 at 9:33 am said:
  
  love the video and pace. Thanks for filming it all and putting it together.
  
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Goli Mohammadi on August 15th, 2012 at 12:26 pm said:

Love this design: simple, elegant, awesome!

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- jimmydiresta on August 15th, 2012 at 1:11 pm said:
  
  Goli Thank you!
  
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Yorg Mendleson on August 15th, 2012 at 1:25 pm said:

Excellent! I heart time lapse assemblies. Thank you!

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DG on August 16th, 2012 at 8:56 pm said:

I didn’t realize The Hulk was a maker too

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Walter Anderson on August 21st, 2012 at 3:13 pm said:

I like the look; however, their is one major implementation fault. You show the frame being drilled with holes to bolt the bench to. The problem is that holes will not allow the wood bench to expand and contract (as it will). Slots would have served better.

As it stands I suspect the bench will show cracks and/or warping fairly quickly and will not long survive.

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- Jacques on August 21st, 2012 at 7:23 pm said:
  
  I don’t think so has the drilled holes where larger than screws diameter. The screws can slip inside the holes in any directions.
  
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- rdfInOP on August 21st, 2012 at 7:27 pm said:
  
  I think he’s ok. There definitely won’t be any movement along the length of the bench. Even if there were movement along the width of the bench, the slab didn’t look that wide so there wouldn’t be much.
  
  If you look at the ring pattern when he’s sanding the ends, you can see that they basically split the tree down the middle. Wood expands tangentially which is why tree trunks crack the way they do. This is really hard to describe but if he put the slab so that the rings cup downwards, there would be no significant movement between the screws. I probably would have still drilled the holes a bit big and not tightened the screws really tight. I would have just tightened them down enough so the seat doesn’t rattle.
  
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- Jay on September 10th, 2012 at 11:47 am said:
  
  This bench will outlast you my friend.
  
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