minorhero Posted September 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 A little bit of progress today with a few hours in the shop. At this point all the wood is surfaced flat on 3 sides and knot holes are all filled with black dyed epoxy. I have now also cut the legs to length and width, after that I then drew out where the mortises were going to go. With the mortise locations marked all that was left was to actually make them using the mortiser with a 3/4 bit. This was actually the first time I have used my own bit in the mortise machine at the shop I am at. As such I forgot to square the bit to the fence. This turned out to be a rather annoying but not irreparable mistake. Basically I ended up with a very nasty looking mortise which needed to be squared up with chisel and hammer and after doing so was a 16th or two bigger then the others. This just meant I needed to make one tenon a bit larger as well. With that in mind I went ahead and cut my tenons using a tenoning jig on the table saw. Next up I will need to cut my long thick aprons and put tenons on the ends. Can I do this with a regular tenoning jig? My stretcher will be almost 70 inches long and that is a lot of wood just sticking up in the air. Or is this a time when I should be practicing hand cut tenons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 If the tenon jig is one of the old huge heavy cast iron ones 70" is no problem . The little modern ones with just a few pieces of cast iron are probably not big or heavy enough. Do a dry run with the blade lowered and see if you feel comfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted September 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 It looks similar to this grizzly tenoning jig though its not identical. http://www.grizzly.com/products/Tenoning-Jig/H7583 I am only cutting a 3/4" deep tenon so there wont be a lot of force on the bottom. I think it will be fine but wanted to make sure I am not doing anything unsafe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted September 29, 2014 Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 As an alternative, you can nibble away the cheeks of the tenon with the apron flat on the table, using your miter gage or crosscut sled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted September 29, 2014 Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 That's the little modern tenon jig. Try the cuts with the blade below the table and see if you are comfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombarde16 Posted September 29, 2014 Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 Nice trick with the heat gun. What sort of epoxy is this and does it work with all kinds of epoxy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted September 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 Thanks wdwerker, I will definitely do that and see how it works out. The epoxy I used is System 3 Five Minute Epoxy. http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2000342/2602/System-Three-5-Minute-Epoxy-Pint.aspx No idea if other epoxy will do the same or not since this is the first time I have used a heat gun. But I used it because lots of folks suggested it if that helps any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Got into the shop last night and got a few hours of progress. Last night it was all about tenons and mortises. I started by putting the tenons on the long aprons. I thought about using the tenoning jig for this but ultimately decided I didn't like the idea of that much wood hanging around above my head when running it over a blade. So I opted for wtnhighlander's solution and used a crosscut sled and a dado to cut out the tenons. Took a bit of measuring to make sure I had the right heights but it was pretty easy. After cutting the long tenons the rest of the night was spent fine tuning each one for its respective mortise. Each tenon had to be sanded a little (they were cut a hair over sized on purpose) and I needed to clean up the mortises with a chisel to get rid of the rough spots left by the mortiser. It was worth it though. Here are some pictures of a very loose dry fit. Due to some logistic issues I was not able to cut the hard maple to size, but here is how it looks in contrast to the cherry. Next up will be doing the mortises (or lap joints?) of the hard maple and cutting it to size. After that I just need to get the top surfaced on the remaining side and then glued up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Looking good! I think the cheery / maple contrast is going to be really nice when the cherry darkens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted October 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 More progress has occurred! Since the last time I updated I have cut the maple stretcher to length and then used a dado and a crosscut sled to make the half lap joint. One of the cherry boards I was planning to use for the top was very out of square with a big curve in it. So much so that I didn't feel like using a jointer would be profitable and running it through a table saw would have been potentially dangerous. So instead I used a track saw to get one flat side. From there I was able to get a square board. My original design calls for a single stripe of maple down the center, and I could have done that, but that would have required me to cut up my one really good cherry board which is about 9" across. I decided I really liked that wide board look so instead I cut the board I squared off into two 3" pieces to put on the outside, and went with two maple strips down either side of the center. I am glad I did it this way and I think the effect is rather striking. Tonight was the big glue-up. Here you can see the top all glued up. Gluing up the top went pretty well with no surprises. The top is a little under 17" wide which means it is narrow enough to make it through the 20 inch planer at the shop. So tomorrow I should be able to actually plane the darn thing to flatten out any irregularities with the glueup. The base glued up very easily as well. The maple stretcher was a near perfect fit and required a bit persuasion with a mallet to seat completely (which is pretty much exactly as I prefer it to be). I am just thankful my shop has a couple of 6+ foot long pipe clamps for this kind of situation. Tomorrow I will square the ends of the table top, cut out holes for the feet of the base to go up where the table top corners are, and begin the sanding process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted October 11, 2014 Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 Looking pretty awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted October 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2014 And even more progress! Got in the shop today for a few hours. Removed all the clamps and the base and top looked quite nice! First thing I did really was sand the heck out of the base through both 120 grit, raised the grain, and then through 180 grit. Some parts had to be hand sanded but most of it could be done with the random orbit sander. The base is now ready for finish After I dealt with the base I moved onto the top. I ran the top through the planer just to clean up a few bits of glue and some slightly uneven edges, then I set about trimming up the ends. The track saw made short work of that. With the board nice and square I could now cut out the corners where the legs of the base will stick up and be proud from the table. For this I opted to go with a hand saw since in the past jig saws have resulted in less then precise cuts for me. Cross cutting through the cherry was very easy, but ripping through the little strip of maple turned out to be a real bear. Eventually though I got the job done. Only to discover I did it wrong! DOH! As mistakes go mine turned out to not be so bad. The cuts are a little too short and the top wont fit the base. All I need to do is cut out a little bit more so the legs will have room with a bit left over for wood expansion. Not too bad really. Tomorrow I will make those cuts, sand the top and almost certainly, put on the first coat of finish. I am going with Arm-R-Seal Satin for this to match the table of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted October 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 And now we are approaching the finish line. I got in the shop early this morning, made a few cuts, and sanded a bunch and walla, all done with everything but the finish. Speaking of the finish... I will put 3 coats on the base and 3 coats on the top of the bench and 2 coats on the underside, then I will be done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted October 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Lots of old furniture I look at is missing finish on the bottom sides all together. Most of that furniture is decades to a hundred years old so I am not too worried about less finish on the bottom sides of things. I am only giving it less coats for convenience because it means 1 less day I need to travel to my shop which is a bit of a drive for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Melton Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Looking good. Which woodworking club are you going to? The one in Rockville? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted October 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Yep. the one in Rockville on Parklawn Drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted October 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2014 Thank you to everyone that helped! The bench is done, now all that is left is posting the pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted October 19, 2014 Report Share Posted October 19, 2014 Very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Jimerfield Posted October 19, 2014 Report Share Posted October 19, 2014 Beautifully done, and nice wood too. Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk HD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted October 19, 2014 Report Share Posted October 19, 2014 Very classy design and fabrication ! I love to see someone March to the beat of their own drummer. I hope she is very proud! You did sign and date both pieces didn't you? I sometimes include the woods used and a few finish notes so some future repairs might go a little bit smoother. Think about it a table built that way could last for generations ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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