rodger. Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 My wife wanted a coffee table for our new-to-us home, and it's next in the queue. I told her to find a photo of something she liked, and she picked this super simple shaker table from Vermont Wood Studios. I offered to "jazz it up" with any varierty of suggestions, but she said she wanted a simple and elegant table. She also said she did not want the legs tapered at all, just a square leg that was a bit thicker than the one in the photo. She also requested it to be dark, but still made of cherry. Needless to say, test boards will be required to see how the blotchy-ness is. Here is the sketch up file creation. I omitted any edge profiles, etc for the sake of simplicity. Not sure I like the overhang of the ends, may incease it later when I start the top. So after i did the sketch, I went to the lumberyard and picked out some cherry. It was listed as "90/50", instead of "80/20". So I guess thats good as it means less sapwood. I bought 15 BF of 4/4 cherry, and 6 BF of 8/4 cherry. Obviously the 8/4 is for the legs. Then I went to work with my chalk to sort out the parts. There were some imperfections I wanted to work around, and I bought a little more than I needed to help with this. After I decided what parts I wanted from where, I rough cut all my materials and milled them up. You can see that I made an extra leg. There was enough of an offcut to make a 5th leg, so I thought "why not". This is a bit of insurance for later, and it also gives me the option of rejecting one leg if there is some cosmetic issue that I didnt forsee. Next Up - cut to final size and layout/cut the joinery. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Wow! Another one for Pug! Awesome! A little simpler joinery than the last one! Should be fun to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted November 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Wow! Another one for Pug! Awesome! A little simpler joinery than the last one! Should be fun to follow. Yup, no rest for this pug! The finish is hardly dry on the last project! haha You are correct, however - this one should be far simplier in the joinery department. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Yup, no rest for this pug! The finish is hardly dry on the last project! haha You are correct, however. This one should be far simplier that the last in the joinery department. I do need to construct a top for this one, however, and not simply buy a glass one. All good! Good on ya for pugging away! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroDave Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Looking forward to following your progress Pug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Looks like a nice project and I love cherry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 I like your wife's taste, simple and timeless design never goes out of style ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Looking forward to seeing this one take shape! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 Nice little table, but if you eliminate the tapered legs, you no longer have Shaker...you have Arts & Crafts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Crawford Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 "She also requested it to be dark, but still made of cherry. Needless to say, test boards will be required to see how the blotchy-ness is." I have had excellent results with Charles Neil's Blotch Control https://charlesneilwoodworking.3dcartstores.com/Charles-Neils-Pre-Color-Conditioner--Blotch-Control_p_47.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted November 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 "She also requested it to be dark, but still made of cherry. Needless to say, test boards will be required to see how the blotchy-ness is." I have had excellent results with Charles Neil's Blotch Control https://charlesneilwoodworking.3dcartstores.com/Charles-Neils-Pre-Color-Conditioner--Blotch-Control_p_47.html I would love to order that, but they wont ship liquids accross the boarder of this nature. No retailers here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapid Roger Posted November 30, 2014 Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 I know that I don't need to tell you this but, cherry does get quite a bit darker when exposed to sunlight and time. I made a dining room table out of cherry. I used cherry plywood for the top and the table sits fairly close to a set of sliding glass doors with sunlight coming in during the day even though the doors are on the north side of the house. My wife leaves place mats on the table continuously and when they are moved, there is a considerable difference in color on the table top. The leaves are stored underneath the top and they look almost pale when they are used compared to the "exposed" top I did not stain the wood, just a few coats of polyurethane for a finish and it got darker over a period of the first two years. We have had the table for five years or so by now and I think it has gotten darker yet! It all depends on a persons idea of "darker color" I guess and/or how long you want to wait. Rog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted November 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2014 I know that I don't need to tell you this but, cherry does get quite a bit darker when exposed to sunlight and time. I made a dining room table out of cherry. I used cherry plywood for the top and the table sits fairly close to a set of sliding glass doors with sunlight coming in during the day even though the doors are on the north side of the house. My wife leaves place mats on the table continuously and when they are moved, there is a considerable difference in color on the table top. The leaves are stored underneath the top and they look almost pale when they are used compared to the "exposed" top I did not stain the wood, just a few coats of polyurethane for a finish and it got darker over a period of the first two years. We have had the table for five years or so by now and I think it has gotten darker yet! It all depends on a persons idea of "darker color" I guess and/or how long you want to wait. Rog I built a live edge table from cherry a while back, and I too finished it with just poly. It turned out great, and Ilike the colour it is now. My wife wanted the table to be a dark brown, and I have the appropriat dye from my last build (X-Table). I did a test board, and I am awaiting the drying of the dye before I make any further decisions about the colour. If I can convince her, I would like not to have to risk blothcing it with a colouring agent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted December 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Joinery I started by bringing all parts to final dimension. Even though the Shaker craftsmen didnt have a domino, I decided to use mine for the M & T on this project. I wanted to use a 10mm x 50mm domino, but they would have weakend the structure by "bumping" into one another inside the leg. So I went with an 8mm x 40mm domino, and offset the depth so the deeper section was in the apron, and the rest was in the leg stock. I used the little index flipper on the domino. I kept track of wether I used the L or R flapper, just in case there were any small differences between the two. I simply marked the stock "L" or "R" for whatever flipper I used. I also marked the outside face so I didnt get "turned around" and cut a mortise off the wrong reference face. I did a quick test fit, and confirmed all was well. Then I busted out my new festool sander (ETS 150/3) and CT26, and sanded through 150, 180, and 220 on all faces using the optional hard pad (which I highly recommend). The edges were not sanded, but cleaned up with my no 4 smoother. Then I glued up part one of the sub assembly, and part two (short ends). I brought them into the house until the glue dried (no heat in the shop at night). My pug Franklin photo-bombed this one. Then this morning I removed the clamps and glued up the long aprons. Next up - The Top 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Looking sweet Pug! Amazing how much the domino speeds things up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted December 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Kind of an aside here - I have been working on some test boards to see if I can get dye to take well on the cherry. Didn't go so well - here is what I got: I brought the sample into the area where the table will live, and I was not impressed with the colour blotching. I showed my wife, and discussed various straegies to help alleviate the issue (1 lb cut shellac, pre stain, etc) and I watched her start to doze off while i Wood Geeked out. She said she would rather have it natural colour, and then turn slightly darker on its own rather than risk the blotching. Score! So my finishing strategy will be different. I'll do some further test boards with BLO, oil Poly, and maybe another penetrating oil for comparison. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Cherry is famous for the blotch! The Charles Neil stuff is awesome but, you said you had issues getting it. Any chance you know someone in the states to send you some? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Kinda late to the party but looking good so far! Interested to see what you do for blotching Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 I've heard that a wash of white vinegar will speed up the UV darkening process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwacker Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Just use glue mixed with distilled water, works as well as CN stuff. Just squeeze in about 2oz or so in a 16oz cup top off with water and mix. If you want a commercial product just use clear stain base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted December 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 The Top While the base was drying, I decided to get a start on the top. First thing I did was rough cut the boards to 48" or so, and get them ready for face thickness-ing. I ran them over the jointer (6"), but two of the boards were too wide and left the classic "ridge". I cleaned up the ridge with my jointer plane. And here is one of the flattened wide boards, ready for the planer. Then, afer all the thickness-ing was completed, I laid out my table top parts. You can see that I labelled each one with an arrow indicating the direction of planer feed. In this way, when I glue up the table top in sections (2), I can keep the orientation the same to minimize tear-out. I also identified and marked some problem areas to remove or fix later. Then I edge jointed each piece using my No 7 BU jointer plane. I laid the mating boards on top of one another to look for gaps, and to see if I needed to run the handplane over the edges again. continued... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted December 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 The Top continued This pairing needed another pass or two with the jointer plane When I was happy with all four boards (so 2 pairs of 2), I laid out for some 6mm dominos to keep the panels aligned for the glue ups. And then clamped them up in two separate assemblies Tomorrow, when both sections of the top are dry, I will edge joint both panels and glue them together using the same setting on my domino. Sorry for some of the blurry photos; these are cell phone pics. You may also have noticed I have an extra board for the top, this is for the same purpose as the extra leg earlier. Good for rejecting a part, a spare for "oops factor", or for stain/dye/top coat tests. Next Up - Top Part 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 Nice work Pug! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted December 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Top Part 2 After I removed the clamps from my two sub assemblies, I jointed the edges of both panels and then glued them together. I used some 6mm dominos to keep everything aligned. I arranged for a pleasing grain match. Then I ran both panels through my 13" thickness planer, taking uber light passes (just enough to flatten them). This left me with about 7/8" of material. Then i clamped them up: After the final assembly was dry, I removed the clamps and sanded everything down. Started at 150, 180, and then 220. I then put the top in my vice, and I used my jointer plane to clean up one edge. This would be my point for taking measurements in order to cut the panel to length later. I checked for square often Next I ran the jointed edge against the table saw fence, and ripped to final width (+ about a 1/16"). I went back to my jointer plane, and then smoother, to take off the last 1/16". To cut one end to length, I used a square and laid out a line on some painters tape (to reduce tearout). Then I set up my guide clamp, and ran the circular saw over the top. I left the last 2" or so uncut, and trimmed with a hand saw. This avoids a heavy piece from tearing the work out as one gets to the end of the cut. I also set the saw so that the tape would "hang on to" the offcut. Continued... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted December 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Top Part 2 continued... Here is the off cut "hanging on" Then I checked the cut for square, and all was good. I took some measurements from the freshly cut end, and cut the top to final width using the same set up (clamp and circular saw). Then everything got another sanding, to get rid of some "bench rash" and other small imperfections. Then I started to identify some areas that would need epoxy fill. I masked them off to prep for the fill. Next Up - Epoxy filling, edge breaking, and final prep before finish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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