The table will eventually look like this:
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Sketchup mockup |
The top slats for this table will be supported by a center round piece as well as by a ring that rests on the base.
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View from below showing the ring that supports the top slats |
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Today's post will be about making these two support pieces and will be mostly pictorial. Lots o' pics!
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Started with a full scale drawing of the ring - 23 1/2" outer diameter |
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Detail view on one component of the 8-piece ring |
Originally I thought I might use splines to connect the parts, but I went with integral tenons on one end and mortises on the other end of each piece.
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Took dimensions from the drawing, squared up some pieces and marked where things will go |
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After a couple successful test pieces, ganged up the rest and marked edges together |
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Transferred angles to faces and then to other edge |
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Marked to make absolutely certain of no mistakes |
Making the tenons
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Sawed off the waste end |
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Marked the tenon extents using a router plane as marking gauge |
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Sawed the shoulder, which was 3/4" from the end |
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Split off as much as I could safely do |
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Pared close to the line |
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Then used the router with unchanged setting to get exactly to the lines |
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Cleaned up the shoulders with a sharp chisel |
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Rinse and repeat for the rest of the pieces |
Making the mortises
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First, removed the waste |
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Then carefully squared the end |
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That's what Daddy likes! This is important for a good joint. |
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Before going further, numbered the joints (even though they were fairly interchangeable) |
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Made a knife nick on the corner 3/4" from end to mark the depth of the mortise,
transferred nick marks to other corner with bevel gauge and squared lines onto the edges in mortise area |
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Used same router setting as before to mark the mortise |
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Sawed close to the lines |
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Left the lines |
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After chiseling out the waste, pared closer to the lines.
Tested the fit of the tenon, and pared more until the fit was right |
Fitting them together
After all eight pieces were done, I tested the fit by assembling two sections of four pieces each.
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Two half-rings dry-assembled with tight joint lines |
Then carefully fit the halves together to see what kind of adjustments would need to be made.
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Left side: gap on the inside |
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Right side: gap on the inside |
This meant I needed to shave a little off every piece and it's easiest to do that on the mortise end. I freehanded the cut on a shooting board, taking a bit off the outside half of each mortise end.
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Probably should have made a special shooting board for this, but this worked |
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Got a nice fit after only one iteration of this |
With the parts dry fit, I marked out the circles and then did the shaping.
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Marked the outer circle with large homemade compass |
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Didn't get pics of the shaping, but it went off easily |
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After shaping, the joints looked like this on the outside ... |
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... and this on the inside. I glued in small off-cuts from the tenons to fill these gaps. |
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Glued up using a ratchet strap, which pulled the joints together nicely.
Clamps and holdfasts kept the ring from twisting while the glue set. |
And there it is.
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Not perfectly round, but it doesn't need to be. |
As for the circle part in the center of the sub-top, that also went well.
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6" x 6" x 5/8" thick blank, squared and marked |
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Sawed the bulk of waste off |
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Then used chisel, spokeshave and file to complete the shaping and smoothing. Came out nice.
I also made a 4" round piece from redwood that will be the center of the top. |
Next time: Making the top slats and bringing it all together.
Impressive bit of handwork.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ralph. And a fun exercise, too.
Deleteis it just me or you arer taking on, more and more challenging projects ? :-)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work.
Bob
Thanks Bob. I thought this project would be easy, but there are always little details that make it more complicated.
Delete