The "X" table - completed


rodger.

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Recently, we moved our family to a new home (and shop).  This means that a lot of furniture needs to be built.  I custom built a lot of the furniture for our last home, and ended up selling most of it to the new owner.

 

Anyway, my wife saw a table at Peir 1 that she really liked and it had a round glass top with an "X" style base.  It looked really cheap to me, and becasue I love building, I decided to improve upon the design and, of course, build it myself.

 

I went online and looked for some images.  I found this image from Dorset woodworking, and knew this was the table to build.

 

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I read the blog, and posted a question to the guy who built it.  I guess he is pretty busy, as he never responded to my question.  So I began to reverse engineer it.

 

I started with sketch-up, but it was a nightmare.  I noodled around with it for a while, but decided building a prototype would be a better idea.  I had a general idea of the angle requirements and posted a few questions to the community.  In the end, the angle was determined, and I build this 1/2 scale prototype.  This will come in REAL handy when doing my full build.

 

The actual dimesnions of the table are 2.75" x 2.75", so my prototype was 1 3/8" x 1 3/8".

 

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After finishing the prototype, I knew it was time for lumber selection.  My wife wanted something close to our living room floor, which is adjacent to our kitchen (and the final destination of the table).  Our floor is oak (stained dark brown), so i decided to go with ash, as it was easier to get in 12/4 than oak in my general area.  Ash also takes stain really well,  so the decision was ash.

 

I went to the lumberyard and got what I needed.  In fact, I bought twice as much as I needed for a few reasons - the guy gave me a good deal (marking 7.5" board down to 6") and I thought i may want to make a few spare parts (or maybe even a second table in the future).  Finally, the lumberyard closest to me with the appropriate materials was about an hour.  I didnt want to drive back if i made an error!

 

Here is the lumber in my shop.

 

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Next installment - rough prep!

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Update 1 - Rough Milling

 

I got up early today and got out to the shop.  I want to take my daughter to the Santa Clause Parade this afternoon, so my goal was to get the rough prep work done early in the day.

 

The 12/4 stick I selected to use was 7 1/4" wide (or so) by 98", which is larger than my 6" jointer can handle.  I needed to break it down first, so I crosscut the board  first into two pieces (34 long and 64 long). 

 

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I knew that  i needed to rip these pieces in half before any jointing or plane-ing.  I couldnt simply run it over the table saw, as it was in a rough state.  So i scored both sides, and left about 1/4" of material in the middle.  Then I finished the cut with a hand saw.

 

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I was left with 4 rough work pieces which I could safely run over my jointer and then send through the planer.

 

post-6372-0-68079000-1416151109_thumb.jp

 

The I milled everything up to 1/16" over final dimension because I knew I would be leaving it for a at least 24 hours before cutting joinery.  Ill do a quick joint/plane to get it down to 2 3/4" final dimension right before I cut the joinery.

 

post-6372-0-08619800-1416151215_thumb.jp

 

Now I'm ready for the Santa Clause Parade!

 

Next up - Laying out and Cutting the Ends

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Laying out and Cutting the Ends

 

Back in the shop tonight, and put a few solid hours in on the table.  I decided to cut the ends tonight, and get ready for the joinery.

 

Because the legs need to be cut in two dimensions, I made a simple jig for my miter saw.  I bevel cut a piece of pine to act as a secondary fence to position the stock so that it sat at a 45 degree angle.  I scewed the jig to the saw's fence though the provided holes.

 

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Then I positioned the head of the saw at 55 degrees.  This was the angle that I determined though the model build (and through mathematics - thanks to mathlete H3nry).  Then I used a combo square to ensure that my jig was, in fact, a true 45 degrees.

 

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Then I double checked the jig!

 

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Then I cut the two "small legs", and used the table saw to square off the ends (and make them equal in length).

 

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Finally, I cut both "long legs" and used a modified stop block to get them equal in length.

 

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Now that all the angles are cut, I can focus on the joinery lay out. 

 

The protoype really helped in not getting "turned around" while cutting the legs on the saw.  If i got confused, or second guessed myself, I simply took the appropriate part off of the model and laid in on the saw.  I could confirm that my workpiece was in the correct orientation before I cut it.  Due to the fact that each "long leg" has a cut on each end (four cuts), there was no room for a "do-over" if I made the cut in the wrong dimension.  The short legs have one square end, so they were less critical (and I left them a bit long).

 

Next update will be joinery layout, and joinery 1.

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Glad you are the one doing this, and not me! I'm sure I would have had to start over at least twice by now. Question: The long points of those mitered "feet" look sort of fragile. Have you considered squaring off the tips to avoid breakage?

 

They are not so much fragile as they are sharp.  I am planning on rounding them off a bit when I break the edges later on in the project.  I thought about knocking the corners off, but I like the look with the corners.

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Joinery Lay Out

 

The joinery for this table is kind of unique.  Basically the project starts out as two "Ts", which are half lapped, and then they are assembled together.  Here is an example, using the prototype (which was far easier to take a photo of then the real table).

 

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For the prototype, I used a screw to join the "short" leg to the "long" leg, driving the screw through the half lap.  With the real project, I used a domino and cut two mortises, so I could use a twin tenon in each joint.

 

Again, the prototype really helped with the full size build.  I could use it to keep my head straight, so as not to cut a half lap in the wrong place.  If the lap is cut on the wrong side of the leg, its a project do-over, as the angled feet were cut ahead of time.

 

I laid out my half laps using standard measurement tools (steel ruler, square, etc).

 

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Then to be sure, I laid my prototype pieces on top to make sure the workpiece was in the correct orientation.

 

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After the half laps were cut, I test fitted the big "X" to ensure it was a good fit.

 

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Using the prototype again, I marked the short leg for mortises.

 

post-6372-0-58006700-1416589398_thumb.jp

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Joinery and layout continued...

 

I laid out some center lines, and then, using the domino I pluned a mortise. I set the fence, cut, flipped the piece over, and cut again. Did this for each short leg, and then cut the mating mortises on the long legs.

 

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Then I had to tackle the first part of the glue up.  I used a hand screw and clamped it onto the short leg.  I then used some 12" F clamps to pull the joint together.  I obviously couldn't place a clamp on the pointy end, so this was the best option.  It worked really well.

 

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So, at this point, I have the two sub assemblies drying.  When both "T's" are dry, I can do a dry fit to make sure all is right before doing the final glue up.

 

Next up - Dry fitting, glue up, and prepping for finish

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Glad you posted this explanation. I just could not wrap my mind around how that joint could work.

I had another few ideas of how to put this thing together.  If I was to build it again, I may avoid the half lap and go with all dominoes.  I think this could be accomplished by creating one long leg, and doing a twin tenon on all four sides of the leg.  The hard part may be the glue up.

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Dry Fitting and Final Glue Up

 

Okay, the moment of truth!  The final glue up...

 

I placed the two "T's" together and clamped them together using two flat pieces of scrap, and four 12" clamps.  Here is the result.

 

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The I held my breath and checked for level:

 

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Then I exhaled, and decided to glue it up.  You may notice that the background in the photos changes.  My wife wanted me to place it in its final home a few times to get a feeling for how it would look and to help decide on a final colour.  I also did some sanding before all the final glue up, but ultimately I know I'll need more sanding (**sigh**).

 

Here is the final glue up:

 

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When the clamps come off, I'll take a pic and discuss the finish schedule.

 

 

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