Kym's Table

[Coop]

Really nice job bud!

[lewisc]

Nice work. It'll be an epic size table. 

[..Kev]

Nice job on the base!

[Ronn W]

When we last heard from our hero he was stuck in the middle of a dining room table project with only the base constructed and the construction the house that it will live in was on hold for a while.  So the project stopped becuase the top will be so large that I have no w here to easily store it.  Back to the present ----- So word has it that my duahgter will finally be moving into her new house in November so I am back to the table project.

Starting the milling of the table top pieces.  ONly have a 6" jointer so some hand planing and plnaer sled will be used.

Marking the pieces, aligning the grain in case planing is needed later.  Leaving the pieces random widths.  This is just one half of the table top. I wanted the table to be 44" wide but I will rip a little off of the far board to bring the width to 43 3/4" just before final glueing.  Why 43 3/4" .  Because the pieces for my breadboard ends are just barely 44" and I need a little wiggle room when I attached the end to the top.  I will trim the end after installing if necessary.  I would like the ends to be slightly proud of the top.

Total of 120 mortises for 60 dominoes (2 pics).  This is where the cost of the domino starts to be justified.  First mortise in each row is to exact size with the rest in each row cut with a long mortise.  I did not use the spacer attachment.  It was easy enought to draw llines on the wood.

I was going to try to glue 6 pieces at once with the help of a friend but he can't help for a few day and I want to keep going. 
So, 3 pieces at a time.  Then glue 2 sets of three to get full width.  Rinse and repeat for the other half of the table.  I wanted to put cauls on both sides of the piece but found that I don't have enough ceiling height to stand these clamps on end so I use one clamp at each peice.  Unfortunately, I still thnk I clamped too hard with the bottom clamps before I added the top clamps and one end ot this piece has a slight bow to it.  Less pressure next time.  Will have to do some planing to take most of the bow out before fitting the bread board ends. I may be able to rig up some clamps to flatten the top completely while installing the ends.  I guess that also means that the router depth setting used for the breadboard tenons will not be the same for both ends of the table - oh well.  Hopefully no one will everknow.

BTW,  The dominos lined up the surfaces of the pieces really, really well.  Better than I ever manage with various other alignment methods.

Next few days will be gluing days.

[mat60]

I really like the base and the top is looking good Ronn.  

[wdwerker]

The base does look great with the finish !   You have my sympathy on fine tuning the breadboards fit, slow down and do a bit of practice test cuts before you tackle the real thing.

[Ronn W]

Help, I have a question.  I have glued up the 2 halves of the table top except for the bread baord ends and the bread board center piece.  If I assemble the whole thing it will be very heavy and I will prbably have to remove a handrail to get it out of the basement.  So I was thinking.....could I assemble one bread board end and the breadboard center piece to one half of the top and just one breadboard end to the other half so thhat I have roughly 2 halves dry fit the pieces to check for fit, sand and final finish them and then carry out the top in 2 pieces and assemble the pieces on the table base on site using drawbored holes in the center bread board.  It sounds OK to me.  Am I missing something?  Will it work? 

[wdwerker]

Ever heard of "Tite Joint Fasteners "   Get the install jig too, well worth the price

http://www.rockler.com/tite-joint-fastener

[Ronn W]

Each half of the top is notw glued up.  I glued 3 boards then 3 boards and then glued them together to be 6 pieces wide.  Had a firend help with the second part becuase of the weight.  So now have 2 halves (minus the bread board ends.

Routing a test bread board piece that will serve as my test when cutting the tenons.  Got a 3 1/2" long 1/2" dia upcut spiral bit.  It will allow me to make the 2" deep mortises in the ends.  Only minor problem is that the bit is so long that I cannot retract it above the base of the router and the plunge is so deep that I don't think that I can use the plunge stop on the router - I come up about 1/4" short.  Problem to be solved as I go.

Cutting the tenons for the ends.  The 1/4" strip on the end is just to support the router (and maybe my router plane) and give me a common reference plane for the router guide for both top and bottom of the table top.  This way I don't have to try to chase a scribe line from one side to the other.  I will cut them off later. By the way. The end of the table was trued with a flush trim bit in preparation for use as the router guide surface.  I used the sprial upcut bit here, too to decrease the chance of chipping.  I took off only about 1/16" witht he final pass.  Pretty smooth edge.  By the way  - in this pic the bit is raised almost as far as it can be and I just got my 3/8" deep cut.

This is a little labor intensive and nerve racking (don't want screw ups now).  Both ends of one table half cut and one to go.

[Chet]

I missed that you had started this back up Ronn. Glad to see it is going again.  The top looks like it is going to be a beast. 

[RichardA]

You're doing great Ronn, keep it up, and thanks for the ride along.

[Ronn W]

Router Plane to adjust the thickness.  Had to plane 4 ends times 2 sides = eight mortises.

Testing fit. Just preliminary since I am sure that there is som variation across the table width that I can't test yet.  At this point I am glad that is is close but not too loose.  Final adjustment will be later.

Cut off the ends that were used to support the router and router plane using skill saw and guide. I'ts a little rough but it does not have to be precise. Hopefully its just a tad short of my mortise depths.

Next step will be to layout and cut the tenons................

[pkinneb]

Looking good! Great tip on leaving the end to support the router plane.

 

[Chet]

1 hour ago, pkinneb said:

Great tip on leaving the end to support the router plane.

Yep, I was going to say the same thing.  Nice idea.

[Ronn W]

Cutting the tenons - hand work... mortises are 2" long and 4 1/2" wide on ends of table and 1 1/2" long and 4 1/2" wide at the center breadboard piece.  Continuous strip between tenons is about 5/8" wide.

Stopped tenons about an inch from the table sides so they are not visible in the finished piece.

Setup for tranferring marks from tenons to the bread board end pieces.

Darkening up the marks and making heiroglyphics so that I don't cutting mortises in the wrong place.  While doing this I left the marks for the center mortises to be a snug fit

and widened the the mortises away from the center to allow for movement.

Next step will be to finesse the thickness of the tenons to fit my test mortise piece........router plane work.

 

[drzaius]

As @pkinneb pointed out, that is a great way to use the router plane. I've only discovered the joys of a router plane a couple of years ago & wonder why I didn't pick one up sooner.

That's some very nice work you're doing here.

[Ronn W]

Routing the mortises.  My bench is very straight so I just clamped the ends to it.

First a 5/8" deep passalmost full length stopping short of the ends..

Then set up for 2" deep mortises.  Five per end.  I used clamps as stop blocks.  I think that I lost the fastest speed on my router during the frist few mortises becuase it started chattering....nothing to do but take more and shallower cuts to get the job done.  Worked OK.

 

Now to fit prefit the bread board ends.  I have decided not to use draw bore pins since I have a way of drawing the ends on tight with clamps.  So I will clamp and drill - not forget to elongate the proper holes.  I will do the pins after my  120 grit sanding and the edge work.  Fitting the ends....

It's amazing and frustrating when you know that the thickness of the mortise and the tenons are correct and it still hangs up when you try to slide the end tight.  Since it always seems to hang up near the center tenon I am guessing that the top is not perfectly flat.  Got each of them so that a couple light rubber mallet taps will seat the ends.  And since the ends of the ends are about 1/8" proud on each side of the table I can use a pine block and mallet to remove them to elongate my holes later on.

Easing edges, and round overs.   I have had the edges of white oak splinter before when edge routing so this time it will be done be hand.  It's semi-rustic so machine perfect is not needed.

Plane then rasp to the desired profile.  The round over is to be smooth on the edge but have a slight break on the top so I used my block plane to restore the break line after the reasp work.  Then round overs on the end grain of the bread board ends was 100% file work.  Sanding all to 120 grit now in progress. I could feel it in my shoulders the next day.  BTW, that is a Veritas low angle smoother - very nice.  All for now.

 

 

[Ronn W]

Fillling in some surface checks.  Turns out that I did not have to color ar tint the quickwood with the white stain.

Clamped the breadboard ends tight. Marked and drilled 3/8" diameter through holes for the pins.

Used drill and rat tail rasp to slot the holes (excpet the cneter one)

Flush

 

Flush cut pins top and bottom.

The sanded top side and bottom side to 120grit. Stained, light sand and 1 wipe on coat of ARS on underside only.  The top side will be done after the 2 halves of the top are joined together on site.  Top will be sanded to 150 grit before about 3 coats of ARS.  The underside of this half of the table is a lttle whiter than I had planned.  Will need a little more sanding between stain and first coat when I do the top.  Strangley enough the other half of the table is not as white and closer to what I wanted.  Then intensity of the whiteness and decreases a lot when the ARS is applied sometimes it almost makes the white disappear sometimes.  I think I have a handle on it now.  We will see.

This pic is the bottom side of 1/2 of the top.

 

[Chestnut]

I really like the rounded edge between the panel and the breadboard. Looking good Ron.

[pd711]

Very nice. I really like the idea of leaving some on the ends to have a stable platform for the router and router plane. I will "borrow" the idea for some breadboard ends coming up on a desk I'm building.

[Ronn W]

At last. After over a year wating for my daughters house to be ready,  they aren't totally moved in but the table is in use.

[treeslayer]

Beautiful work Ronn, that’s a table to be proud of and will last many lifetimes. And a couple of great looking kids enjoying your work ain’t bad either  

 

 

[Coop]

21 minutes ago, treeslayer said:

Beautiful work Ronn, that’s a table to be proud of and will last many lifetimes. And a couple of great looking kids enjoying your work ain’t bad either  

 

 

+1

[RichardA]

You done good young'un.   Really a nice job.  I love it.

[pkinneb]

Nice! Bet you're glad to have that done and out of the shop  

The grand kids look like they are enjoying it LOL