End Table 2

I last left off with the rough cut legs after cutting them on the table saw. At this point, before we final shape them, we need to make the mortises for the tenons of the apron to mate to. The mortises on this project are going to be a little out of the norm as they will have to mate with the apron tenons at 45 degree angles to allow the legs to splay out to give the effect we need. I consulted my library of joinery to find no examples so I’ll have to figure it out as I go. The joint is basically a 45 but joint to the legs but with a central tenon. This means the apron has to be cut at 45 degrees for the shoulder. The tenon will extend parallel to the apron centrally as is normal for a typical mortise and tenon. The mortise will have to be cut at 45 degrees into the face. As is typical, I begin with the mortise first then fit the tenon.
To cut the mortise at 45 degrees into the face, I ran into the difficulty of holding the workpiece at a 45 degree angle. So I built a jig to do so. Since the legs are all relatively uniform at this point, they should all fit on the same jig. Here is a picture of the jig.

Here is the jig holding the leg in it.

The next step is to do rough stock removal. I will do this on my drill press utilizing the fence. I constructed the leg to fit the jig using a level so the fence of the drill press will easily track the plumb line of the leg when roughing out the mortise. I clamped the leg to the jig and began my work.

After all was said and done, I wished I had piloted my holes at 90 degrees versus trying to begin at 45 degrees because the bit jumped around a lot and pushed the jig away from the fence making the cut not very clean.

I finished the work using a set of mortise chisels to clean up the work.

End Table 1

So on to the next project. This project will be the creation of a similarly themed matching end table to the coffee table I recently finished. Like the coffee table, I have decided to use a starburst veneer but due to the corner utilizing nature of an end table, the top will not be round but square with rounded features. Like any project, the first step is to draft out the idea in some fashion. Pasted here is my preliminary drafts.

The next step is converting the draft design features into real world measurements and scale. I decided on a typical height of 22″ and length and width of top of 24″ square. The curvature of the legs I usually draw freehand on cardboard and cut out for use as a basic template. From the perfected cardboard template, I create a hardboard and therefore more permanent template. From this template I cut out the actual legs on the bandsaw. You can see the results below.

I cut the legs from one 2″ x 6″ board. The legs are 3″ x 1.5″. I want to put the legs angled at 45 degrees at the corners of the apron to make the curves more noticeable and symmetrical. The other alternative would be to cut cabriole style legs with two cuts but this would require 3″ x 3″ blanks which would be cost prohibitive for this project. When cutting the legs it is important to keep close to the line but to leave it. Fine tuning happens later. The next picture is the stack of all the completed preliminary cut legs.

Shop machine outfitting

I often get asked about initial outfitting of the shop with stationary or powered tools. If I were begin again from scratch today, this is how I would proceed.

My first purchase would be a stationary table saw (contractor or cabinet) with at least a 2 hp belt driven motor. The 2hp is necessary for powering through thick stock or using dado blades, the heaviness of a stationary tool and the belt driven motor help reduce vibration and give you better cuts. I would also find a saw with a cast iron table and a riving knife. This single tool is probably the most versatile and central to a modern woodworking shop. Sometimes the blade you get with the machine is good but often it is a general purpose. I would probably splurge for a good quality plywood blade as plywood is also pretty central to my woodworking. Make sure not to cut cost corners on this purchase. Often you can get good deals on used machinery and tune them up yourself.

My next purchase is tied between a drill/driver and a router. There are very good handtools that can do either of these functions but powering these actions can really speed up what would be pretty mundane tasks. When getting a router, get at least a 2 hp router with the ability to change the collet size. The 2hp is essential because you really don’t want a boggy router because it slows feed rate and increases burn. Cleaning up a burned routed edge is a nightmare. That being said, having good bits is also essential. At the very least get carbide bits. If you can afford it, get top quality carbide bits and in the biggest shank size you can fit in your router because this will reduce your vibration and clean up results better. Good router bits are expensive but they are worth the extra money IMO for quality, expected life, and results. I would probably recommend getting a large router bit collection unless you know for sure what your style of woodworking will require. You also might consider a router table at this point as well, depending on what you are doing.

My next purchase would probably be a random orbit sander. Make sure to pick up some masks at the same time and a good selection of sanding disks. Who likes sanding by hand? Enough said.

Next purchase would be a stationary bandsaw. I would recommend researching what you intend to use it for before deciding what to buy. Again, deals can be found with used tools. If you are planning on doing fine work and not much resawing you can save some money and get a slightly underpowered 14″ 3/4hp bandsaw. If you are going to be doing resawing and a lot of it, definitely consider a larger saw with a lot more power. Think 2hp or more. I have a 14in 3/4hp bandsaw and I can only resaw wood up to about 3 in without bogging down. I however, have no problem with sawing normal curves in normally thick stock. I’ll add a caveat at this point. A lot of the functions you can do with a table saw can be done on a bandsaw although feed rate is generally slower. If you want to saw a lot of curves, maybe consider a bandsaw first. You also might want to consider a scroll saw here if your interest is in small detailed work. The feed rate is incredibly slow so don’t think you can saw 2x4s on a scroll saw.

Depending on how much you deal with sheet goods, a circular saw might be in order. Stick with the reputable brands on this one and you will love yourself for it later on. Sheet goods are heavy. Instead of trying to hoist up a whole sheet to the table saw and try to get an accurate cut, I cut all my panels oversized and then trim to spec on the table saw when they are more manageable. A neat trick I use to cut plywood anywhere without worry of hitting something with the blade underneath is to get a 1in thick sheet of foam insulation- the hard pink stuff. I set my blade to just nick the surface of the insulation. I can easily cut plywood in the middle of the table by myself without worrying about supporting the cutoff. I use a 90degree angled piece of aluminum from the local home improvement store and clamp it down as a track. Super cheap and lightweight. Circular saws are handy in general around the house.

Perhaps the next thing I would buy is a drill press, used if possible. The precision you get compared to a hand drill is remarkable. Get a floor standing one, used if possible. The ability to change speeds with a turn of a knob is overrated IMO. I use two speeds and it’s not that hard to switch. Drill presses are great for hole drilling using forstner bits.

I would buy a compound miter saw next. This is a non essential tool but ever so nice. It’s fast, accurate, and I probably use it the most. But on a shoestring budget, I would make do for a while unless you are doing crazy angles for crown moulding. You could probably with a little practice still get by on the table saw.

I you are going to deal with roughsawn lumber you may want to consider getting a jointer and a planer at the same time. I would recommend against getting anything less than an 8″ jointer, larger if you can wing it really helps with long stock. The portable planers on the market are actually quite nice and give great results. They are much cheaper than stationary tools. Unless you are doing high production requiring lots of planing, I would stick with the portable planer.

Other tools to think about are a biscuit joiner, drum sander, and a vacuum press. None of these are essential but can be really nice. Each person’s shop is different.

Table Construction 5

After the table was assembled, the finish was in order. I applied a semi-gloss polyurethane to the legs and vertical face of the apron. For the top I wanted to do something a little more elegant and classy. I decided to do a hand-rubbed gloss polyurethane finish. The process to do this is extremely labor intensive. After scraping the top to a flat sheen I applied 3 thick coats of table top varnish with light sanding in between to ensure good cohesion. After the 3rd coat, I did a heavy sand to flatten the finish across the entire top. The next 3 layers were spirit coats, or highly thinned table top varnish, designed to go on extremely thin and flat due to the high solvent content at the expense of thickness. Because the thickness was already built up, this was not an issue. After the 3 coats were dry, it was time to rub out the top. Rubbing a finish is simply using a progressive system of grits and sanding block to flatten and then polish the surface. I began with 120 grit then moved on to 220, 300, 450, 800, 1200, 2000, and 2500. After this was done, I used automotive rubbing compounds for the final fine polish. These compounds could be substituted with linseed oil and pumice/rottenstone like they did in the old days.

After hours of rubbing, the final product was achieved.

Table Construction 4

The next step is mounting the legs to the table. The apron of this table is designed to provide not only damage resistance and protect the edges of the veneer but to prevent motion of the legs with their propensity to rock back and forth if weight is applied. Therefore, the legs must pass tightly through the apron before being secured to the underside of the table. To do this this I must cut rounded edge holes to accommodate the legs and they must be angled at approximately 25 degrees from a line through the center so that the bend is parallel to the table edge. I began by making a quadrant on the underside of the table. This was my reference for where to place the legs. I set a protractor to the proper angle and marked where the holes should be. I first drilled a pilot hole for a jigsaw to pass through and then roughed the cut using that tool. The remainder of the work was completed with hand tools. I used an edge gauge and chisels for the remainder of the work. I fit the holes to accept the pieces individually. I ensured proper placement by numbering the legs and the holes.  After all four were completed, I fixed the table legs to the base of the table top with lagging screws.

Table Construction 3

I previously left off with the table top getting cut with a router on a trammel. The next step is to wrap the solid wood around the round edge in plies and laminate it to make a nearly completely solid wood edging. I cut my walnut piece into 1/4″ thicknesses and planed them down until perfectly square to facilitate a good bend. The 1/4″ pieces were still too difficult to bend around the table top edge. I then used my steamer to assist in the process again. After 45 minutes in the steamer I pulled out my pliesand bent them around the edge and secured with a nylon strap ratchet strap. I let the pieces cool for a few days to assist in minimizing springback. After I took the clamps off, I observed quite a bit of springback anyway. I think this is because I must have used kiln dried walnut. However, this should not be an issue as it can clamp down to the round edge of the tabletop.

After the plies were steamed and clamped, I glued up the plies with urea formaldehyde type glue to ensure no creep and a solid lamination. I applied the ratchet strap as before. With the edges of the plies, I created a bridle type joint by interlocking the ends of the plies. This should assist with the overall strength as well as making the joint aesthetically pleasing. After the glue set, I strengthened the bond to the table top with pocket screws which would have split the thinner material had I used them prior to this point.

I then rounded the edges and cleaned up the excess glue. The result turned out very well. 

Table construction 2

The top and bottom sections are veneered but are currently square. I have to get them to be perfectly round. There are trammel jigs available for purchase but because I am either thrifty, poor, or have too much time on my hand I have to make my own from what I have which is lots of scrap wood, a router, and a router edge guide. My router edge guide connects to the router by use of two rods help in place with a thumbscrew. I will use that to attach the router to the arm of the trammel. I will drill two holes corresponding to the rods and use the natural expansion tendency of wood to hold them in place with friction. The whole point of a trammel is to keep a steady radius to make a perfect circle. The central point needs to be solidly affixed without any movement. This can be done with a screw or nail but because this will be on the face of the table since only the top has a central point, this needs to be a temporary and non-marring attachment point. To do this, I took a scrap square of wood and divided it into quadrants through the center. The lines will make alignment easier. The central point was drilled perpendicular with the drill press and a nail was inserted but did not go completely through the bottom. I then fixed this central point to the face of the table using double stick foam mounting tape. This provides quite a bit of holding power but is non-marring unless the veneer is not well attached. I used the lines to align it to lines of the center circle quad-matched veneers. From there it was only a matter of putting on the radius arm at the correct distance. I traced the intended circle and then roughly cut off the excess leaving the line intact with a jigsaw. Following that, I mounted my router to the trammel and then used a straight bit to clean up the edges and cut a perfect circle. I repeated the process for both sides.

Veneering 3

The fronts and the backs of the legs need to be veneered. This is a rather difficult proposition based upon the various curves found on the legs. I decided to use the old fashioned technique of hot hide glue veneering to get this part done. This method of veneering has been around for centuries. Hot hide glue is the oldest glue known to man and is extremely versatile and useful. The tools I use to hot glue veneer are simple. I have a veneer hammer, a hot pot to keep the glue around 135 degrees, a brush and an old clothes iron. Hot hide glue gets stickier as it cools and cures as it dries. The trick to hot hide glue is to make it runny like honey when warm. Any runnier and it loses initial tack and any thicker it gets gloopy and difficult to spread quickly. My method is to put light coats on both sides of the veneer and then a thicker coat on the substrate. Why both sides of the veneer? If you don’t, the uneven humidity will cause uneven expansion of the veneer and curling. It makes it a pain to get it down without it wanting to pull up. I tried it before…  You must repeat the opposite side with a backer veneer the same day so plan on that. Why? If you don’t, the veener after it cools with cause the piece to warp and cup. I tried that one before as well…

After you get the glue on, it will be sticky for probably 10 seconds, obviously not fast enough to get positioned properly. This however, works to your advantage. The cool and moist glue on both sides makes it easy to get positioned perfectly. Grab the hot iron and reheat the veneer on the top. The heat will remelt the glue on both sides. Then to both squeeze out the excess glue and cool the veneer and get the tack of the glue working grab your veneer hammer and use it like a squeegee. Start in the middle and work your way out. Reheat with the iron as necessary. I try to get an initial point secured and then keep the heat away from that while I work on the outsides. Check with your fingernail for a hollow sound underneath which suggests an area where it was not glued down. Reheat that area with a path to the outside just in case glue is causing that bubble. Hit it (figuratively speaking) with the veneer hammer and use clamps if necessary to hold it down or in place until it cools. When it’s clear the glue is holding, your work is done. If you find a mistake the next day after it is dry you can do one of two things. Reheat with a wet cloth and iron on top of the area or attempt a spot repair using a blade to open your bubble and then a fine brush to put your adhesive of choice inside and clamp it down.

Legs 2

The table legs were meant to be curved in every direction. One of the design ideas in this project was to limit as much as possible every straight edge from the design. The legs are bent but need refinement on the edges. Unfortunately, this is not a simple matter that can be solved with a roundover bit on the router. Firstly, the curved edge I want to be more sloped and elongated than any router bit I own can do. Secondly, even if this was possible, the leg does not allow me to let it rest on a router table top nor is it wide enough for me to support a router running over the edge. The small radius curves eliminate the possibility of using the flatter front and back surfaces to support the router working from that angle. For the solution to this problem I used good old fashioned handtools. I began with a block plane to square up the edges and do bulk removal of the not perfectly aligned layers of laminations. From that point on I used a low angle spokeshave to hand shape the curves except in the tightest areas. I finished those areas with a coarse rasp then smoothed them with a fine rasp then finished them with a felt block and 80 grit sandpaper. The results are below.

The next step is to veneer the fronts and backs of the legs.

Legs 1

It’s been a month since the last post and due to a week long break over Thanksgiving, I was able to get a lot accomplished. I left off previously with the laminates being steam bent. Obviously, those laminates have to be laminated to form the legs. I used a urea-formaldehyde adhesive to bond them and used the same form to glue them exactly how I wanted to have them and ensure each was exactly the same as the other.