End table joinery help

[wtnhighlander]

Your table turned out very nice! Glad the domino helped, but Eric is right, learning to cut integral motice & tenon joinery is a key part of mastering the craft. But if I had a domino, I'd use it!

[shaneymack]

Table looks great ! I agree on on the above comments.

I will warn you, now that you have a domino be prepared for your systainer collection to multiply, they tend to do that.

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[..Kev]

Great job on the table!  Take the previous comment in the spirit they were intended, constructive..

Tapered Legs - Agree with the comments, that would have added a nice touch and added another skill to your bag of tricks.

Domino - Awesome tool but, sometimes you need to do a traditional M&T so, put learning this on your bucket list.

Drawer Front - Richard is correct, the apron and drawer front should all come from the same board.  Especially considering you have the domino, this would have been pretty easy to pull off.  But, again, another item of learning for your bucket.

 

[Eric.]

One last small constructive criticism in the spirit of learning...

Your top is made up of way too many pieces.  Shoot for as few boards as possible to make up the top.  Ideally that top would be comprised of two, no more than three boards.  Take some time to grain match the boards as best you can.

If you cut them into skinny boards like that because you heard that it makes a panel more stable...ignore that wives tale in the future.  It has a grain of truth to it, but you lose way too much aesthetically for the tiny bit you gain structurally.

[dlmorgan999]

Thanks for all the comments everyone - they are definitely taken as constructive / instructive.  On the topic of tapered legs, I considered that but I personally don't care for the look of the taper (I remember that in the guild video, someone else also made that comment).  Having said that, I do want to learn how to do tapers, so perhaps I'll make another table using them.  Maybe when I see them in person, I'll change my mind, but even if I don't, I will have learned something new.

51 minutes ago, Eric. said:

One last small constructive criticism in the spirit of learning...

Your top is made up of way too many pieces.  Shoot for as few boards as possible to make up the top.  Ideally that top would be comprised of two, no more than three boards.  Take some time to grain match the boards as best you can.

If you cut them into skinny boards like that because you heard that it makes a panel more stable...ignore that wives tale in the future.  It has a grain of truth to it, but you lose way too much aesthetically for the tiny bit you gain structurally.

I don't disagree, but I didn't really have a choice.  I didn't cut these boards down at all - just milled them.  The reason there are so many is that this is a large table.  The top is ~ 28.5" square.  At the place where I buy my lumber, most of the pieces are 5-7 inches wide rough.  They sell wider stock for some species, but I don't think they do for Cherry.  I also tried grain matching, but it didn't really come out as well as I would have liked.  I also had some challenges with the Arm-R-Seal.  I'm considering building another top.

I also would have liked to match the front aprons and drawer front, but two issues got in my way.  One is that my original design didn't include a drawer, and I had to go back and buy more lumber to build it.  Second, the combined height of the drawer front and the two front aprons is ~ 9 inches, so I wouldn't be able to get a single piece that wide anyway.

And I agree with everyone on the M&T comments.  I do like the speed and ease of the Domino, but I definitely want to learn to do traditional M&T before too long.

[mat60]

I agree with the guys and thats a nice first project. Its always great to learn better ways of building things.

 

[BonPacific]

11 hours ago, dlmorgan999 said:

I made various mistakes during the build, but I learned a huge amount, and the mistakes are mostly invisible. 

Sounds like a perfect project then!

The table looks very nice.

[Elroy Skimms]

The table looks great, nice work.

While I don't disagree with constructive/instructive comments above, speaking as a newbie to the craft, I would have made the same design choices you did.

If you can get the grain to match on the top with a few panels, that will always look great. On the other hand, if you can't get the grain to look perfect, I think it looks better to do what you did with multiple smaller boards. It's like trying to paint 1 wall in a room. If you can't get a perfect color match, it will look bad, as if you tried and failed to get a match. But if you make it an accent wall of a completely different color, it becomes intentional, it becomes a feature wall. Your tabletop grain isn't perfectly matched. But it doesn't look like you tried and failed to match them. Personally, I like it that way.

-E

[dlmorgan999]

2 hours ago, shaneymack said:

I will warn you, now that you have a domino be prepared for your systainer collection to multiply, they tend to do that.

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Yeah - I kinda expected that.   I really want to add an orbital sander to the collection!

[shaneymack]

Yeah - I kinda expected that.   I really want to add an orbital sander to the collection!

Look no further

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[dlmorgan999]

1 minute ago, shaneymack said:

Look no further

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Yup - that's the one I have my eye on!  I've been spending a LOT of money recently, so this will have to wait for a bit, but hopefully not too long.  I'd really also like to get an MFT, but I keep waffling between that, and building something instead.

[shaneymack]

Yup - that's the one I have my eye on!  I've been spending a LOT of money recently, so this will have to wait for a bit, but hopefully not too long.  I'd really also like to get an MFT, but I keep waffling between that, and building something instead.

Best of both worlds; build an mft style bench. Thats what i did and love it. All the advantages of an mft with the heft of a roubo. I did a project journal if you're interested. An mft isn't really a shop workbench. Its ok for cutting ply or panels or sanding but it falls short for handplaning or any handtool woodworking task. It's just too flimsy. Its great in the field but just ok in the shop.

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[dlmorgan999]

Just now, shaneymack said:

Best of both worlds; build an mft style bench. Thats what i did and love it. All the advantages of an mft with the heft of a roubo. I did a project journal if you're interested. An mft isn't really a shop workbench. Its ok for cutting ply or panels or but it falls short for handplaning or any handtool woodworking task really. It's just too flimsy. Its great in the field but just ok in the shop.

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Yeah - I'd love to see your project journal.  I'll search for it!   The flimsiness of the MFT is exactly why I was hesitating.  I want something much more solid.

[shaneymack]

Yeah - I'd love to see your project journal.  I'll search for it!   The flimsiness of the MFT is exactly why I was hesitating.  I want something much more solid.

Save you the trouble, cause I'm awesome

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[Eric.]

It's only the spindly legs that make it seem flimsy.  I'm gonna build a rolling cabinet for mine which will make it way heftier and more stable.  It still won't be a replacement for a proper workbench but it will no longer be "flimsy."  Which it is, right out of the box, no doubt.

[dlmorgan999]

Just now, shaneymack said:

Save you the trouble, cause I'm awesome

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Thanks!  I'll read it tonight - or maybe today during a break at work. 

And you are awesome. 

[shaneymack]

Thanks!  I'll read it tonight - or maybe today during a break at work. 

And you are awesome. 

LoL. Any questions, pm me if you want.

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[dlmorgan999]

24 minutes ago, Eric. said:

It's only the spindly legs that make it seem flimsy.  I'm gonna build a rolling cabinet for mine which will make it way heftier and more stable.  It still won't be a replacement for a proper workbench but it will no longer be "flimsy."  Which it is, right out of the box, no doubt.

I like the rolling cabinet idea Eric.  I have to keep an eye on space usage, so I probably only have room for one workbench.  Having some of my other tools (the router table, the planer, and the miter saw) on rolling bases has been very useful.  Whatever direction I go for a workbench, this might be a good idea, as long as I use wheels that lock well when I don't want them to move.

[gee-dub]

10 hours ago, Eric. said:

Looking good man.  For the next one I challenge you to put the Domino in the drawer and learn traditional M&T.

My knee-jerk reaction as well.  Although I stray from traditional techniques quite a bit now, it is well for you to learn them.  Same old story about learning how far you can rock the boat before it goes over ;-)

Your table is already a step up from your original plan; well done.  I am looking forward to following along on the rest of the journey.

 

 

[SeattleSarah]

That looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing your table. Is it finished with a clear natural finish? If not please share a picture after it's finished. 

[dlmorgan999]

10 minutes ago, SeattleSarah said:

That looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing your table. Is it finished with a clear natural finish? If not please share a picture after it's finished. 

Thanks!  I put on one coat of Bullseye SealCoat shellac, and then followed with three coats of Arm-R-Seal semi-gloss.  It warms it up nicely but doesn't change the character.

[dlmorgan999]

Here is one last photo of the completely finished table.   Soon I'll be moving on to my next project - a small display case made from Walnut.

 

[Byrdie]

I think your table turned out nicely and some of the suggestions made are eye of the beholder.  Not saying I disagree with any of them, just if you're happy with the outcome and like the way it looks, if the form fits the function, then the particulars are just less important.

I do have to agree with the learning traditional M&T comment, so much so that I currently don't have any intention of buying a domino.  I've done trad. M&T as long as I've been woodworking.  They just come natural to me.  I don't have a production shop and don't need the speed advantage that a domino would give me.  I've gotten good enough at making mine pretty precise and actually think they're pretty easy.  Probably not as easy as a domino but I'm fine with that because it's what I've always done.

But back to your table - I think it's really nice.  Should become an heirloom.

[Brendon_t]

On 9/19/2016 at 6:41 AM, dlmorgan999 said:

And I agree with everyone on the M&T comments.  I do like the speed and ease of the Domino, but I definitely want to learn to do traditional M&T before too long.

The domino is a great tool.  I'm still pretty fresh with mine but have used the crap out of it.

What someone said about putting it away was great advice.  The problem I see is in never actually learning to cut m&t joint either by machine or hands or both sounds crippling. You need a 3" deep mortise, sorry, your 500 won't do that. Have a mortise you need to cut right next to a lip or another piece, can't do it.  Learn the basic joint so it never scares you off from something that otherwise could be awesome. 

[dlmorgan999]

1 hour ago, Byrdie said:

I think your table turned out nicely and some of the suggestions made are eye of the beholder.  Not saying I disagree with any of them, just if you're happy with the outcome and like the way it looks, if the form fits the function, then the particulars are just less important.

I do have to agree with the learning traditional M&T comment, so much so that I currently don't have any intention of buying a domino.  I've done trad. M&T as long as I've been woodworking.  They just come natural to me.  I don't have a production shop and don't need the speed advantage that a domino would give me.  I've gotten good enough at making mine pretty precise and actually think they're pretty easy.  Probably not as easy as a domino but I'm fine with that because it's what I've always done.

But back to your table - I think it's really nice.  Should become an heirloom.

Thanks for the nice comments!  I'm definitely pleased how it came out, given that it was my first real piece of furniture (all previous stuff was shop furniture).  And it did check all the boxes of why I built it.

I do have the woodworking bug though, because literally within a few minutes of finishing it, I was thinking "hmm - I wonder what I should do for my next project".   Aside from the display case, I also have several techniques I want to learn.   M&T is one, but I also want to try my hand at box joints (after I build a jig) and eventually dovetail joints.  Having said that, I do enjoy using the Domino.