estesbubba Posted December 24, 2012 Report Share Posted December 24, 2012 I joined this forum a month ago and since I always take my iPad into the shop, thought I would try doing a journal of my current project. We recently got new leather furniture for our living room and finally decided on mission coffee and end tables for it. At this point I know the dimensions of all the tops and the height of each table and the color the wife wants. Other than that I'm winging in! I already had a nice stash of quarter and rift-sawn white oak which was milled locally. I've used this oak for many projects and it is a joy to work with. I have a lot of white oak test boards for finish colors and here is the one the wife liked the best. She wants a dark finish. I'll post the complete finish details when I get there but it is basically water-based dye, shellac, oil-based stain, and Waterlox varnish. I'm starting with the tops and like to joint and plane them just shy of the finished thickness so I can clean up the glue lines with the drum sander. The wixey digital planer readout is one of the most useful tool additions I've made. It's so nice to not have to try and measure the thickness of a long board with a rough edge after each pass. Here are all the boards for the tops. It is really satisfying to take a bunch of rough-sawn boards and mill them perfectly flat. All three tops are now glued and clamped. One of the best tips I've learned is to lightly clamp both outside ends and put a light coat of paste wax down each joint line. This makes the squeeze out scrape off with no effort, and by the time you sand and wipe with mineral spirits it won't cause any finishing problems. That is it for now. Any suggestions or criticism is welcomed. I pretty much screw something up each project and I'll post the good and bad. Happy Holidays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Crawford Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 I like the wax suggestion - will try it on my next glue-up. Are you just making notes and taking the pictures with the iPad or are you doing the entire post with the iPad? If you are doing the entire post on the iPad I would like to know what apps you use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted December 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 I like the wax suggestion - will try it on my next glue-up. Are you just making notes and taking the pictures with the iPad or are you doing the entire post with the iPad? If you are doing the entire post on the iPad I would like to know what apps you use. I plan on doing the entire journal with the iPad. I don't bring my DLSR camera into the shop and the iPad and iPhone cameras are decent point and shoots...at least for a garage shop If I need to tweak any photos I would use iPhoto. I used a Web Albums HD app to upload photos to Google Picasa web album. Then in Web Albums app you can copy link to photo and insert into post using: [img=http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6bQTu5jt9-8/UNi7gDDcJbI/AAAAAAAAIGE/ZGfAvK6N79c/s800/IMAGE_F663B680-E15D-4304-93F9-4C599246CFD1.JPG] When I paste link using above I change to s800 in the link so images aren't too big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 I've been wanting to put one of those Wixey's on my planer...I have the same one you have I think...15" Griz? Is that a particular model made for 15" planers or did you rig one up retro-fit? If so, how? Looking forward to the rest of the build... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted December 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 I've been wanting to put one of those Wixey's on my planer...I have the same one you have I think...15" Griz? Is that a particular model made for 15" planers or did you rig one up retro-fit? If so, how? Looking forward to the rest of the build... The Wixey Remote Planer is the one you want. I have a Shop Fox which is the twin of the Griz and many other 15" planers. I attached mine just like the Powermatic pics. Takes less than an hour to install and calibrating is a breeze. I surely don't miss the plane, measure, plane, measure.... http://wixey.com/remote-planer/fit/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 Thanks man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted December 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 This evening I cut the tops to final width and ran through the drum sander to clean up the glue lines. A 24x48 top pretty much maxes out what my crosscut sled can handle. The tops came out nice and flat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted January 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 Milled up all the boards for the legs, rails, and slats the past week. It wasn't my intention to fill the upper bag on the dust collector but I had a good start. Lets just saw that minutes after showering I was coverad in sawdust. Each table will have 32 mortise and tenon joints making a total of 96 for the three tables! The Leigh FMT is great for work like this bit will still take a while. One thing about Leigh is you won't find a company that makes better manuals. With the 2 1/2" wide tenons you route one side, slide the table, then route the other side. It works really slick. Made a few extra and did 100 tenons in 1, 1 1/2, and 2 1/2 widths. It's fun at first but towards the end like watching paint dry. The FMT does produce some good looking tenons! My reward for all those tenons? Finding out I only made half the legs I need! When I cut the boards for the legs I forgot to factor in they would be face glued to make 1 3/4 thick legs - doh! Guess I need to make more legs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted January 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 I laminated 6 more legs then started the long journey of making 96 motices and did it in several sessions. After all that work is was a relief when the dry fit was dead on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted January 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Tonight was a nice change of pace from the mortise and tenon marathon. I cut the lower rail arcs and sanded them. I also cut the leg tapers and put a 1/4" round over on the edges. I think I'm about ready to start assembling after some sanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted January 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2013 After 2 evenings of sanding, mostly by hand, I really didn't feel like sanding 30 narrow slats by hand. I came up with this and the Festool and I were both happy. When 96 mortise and tenon joints fit and align perfectly it is a good feeling! When you look at the finished bases they are pretty simple but it sure takes a lot of work to get there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted January 20, 2013 Report Share Posted January 20, 2013 Lookin' good Bubba! Sanding sucks! Spent most of yesterday and some of the day before...sanding. One little table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted January 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 The tables are completely built and sanded. This evening I wet all the surfaces to raise the grain...just so I can do more sanding tomorrow. Then I can start the finishing process which will be: - Lockwood American walnut water based dye mixed 1 lb. in 4 gal. ratio - Zinsser Sealcoat dewaxed shellac - Varathane Gunstock oil based stain - Waterlox original oil based varnish - 50/50 mixture of Waterlox original/satin to knock down the sheen The end is in sight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted January 28, 2013 Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 Looking great, Bubba. Btw....I HATE sanding. It wouldn't be bad except for all the sanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted January 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 Well I applied the water based dye last night and shellac tonight. After the dye After the shellac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted January 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 Tonight I lightly sanded the shellac with 320 and applied the oil bases stain. I work it into the pores then wipe hard to really highlight the ray flecks. The water based dye doesn't penetrate the pores very well which the oil based stain does. This gives a look that dye or stain alone can't give. Now it's on to the Waterlox varnish! The end is near. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Looking better and better. Nice job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted February 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Other than attaching the tops, the tables are finished! The finish is a lot of steps but I'm really happy how it turned out. Sometimes with quarter sawn white oak you never know how the rays are going to pop when finished but these did nicely. After it cures and the tables are in the house I'll take pics with my DSLR and post them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Nice job Bubba! They look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrewX10 Posted March 4, 2013 Report Share Posted March 4, 2013 Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing the photos and info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guillaume Breton Posted March 5, 2013 Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 very nice ! gj ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris H Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 Gorgeous work! I love the stain color, it really pops the grain nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 Beautiful!!! I love qswo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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