Popular Post derekcohen Posted June 2, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 My wife requested a side table for the family room. This will be situated between two arm chairs, and replace the small table (which is too high and dominating) ... Not just a side table, but it also needed to house her needlework thingies. In other words, shallow drawers for cotton reels and sewing kit. I played around with several ideas, and eventually came up with a design that borrows a little from a piece I recently made. Lynndy liked the softness of the rounded dovetails and overall dimension of this coffee table I built some months back for a nephew ... The plan (looking down) would be to create a curved front and back, with round, splayed legs to the outside (an alternative is a straight, tapered round leg) ... In contrast to the Jarrah in that piece, the carcase will be built in Hard Maple, dovetailed and mitred at each corner. It will feature 8 drawers. All drawer fronts will curve as well. The reason for "Harlequin" in the title is that the drawers will be a mix of woods, as depicted in the elevation of the drawer section ... A harlequin design is often thought of as a diamond pattern, but does also include a rectangular checkerboard. Anyway, it's just a name, and I like giving my pieces a name At this stage I have chosen for the drawer fronts Black Walnut and Blue Gum. I may also add in Hard Maple. Always interested in your thoughts here. The Blue Gum is lighter than the Black Walnut and is a good foil against the Hard Maple … The legs will taper and curve from the carcase, attached with a loose mortice and tenon ... The sides and top were arranged so that the grain flowed continuously. The carcase is 20mm thick, 800mm long and 350 at the wide, centre point .. The initial dovetail plan was to keep the boards parallel and saw the curves later. It became apparent when joining the first set that this would not work ... .. there would be too much at the sides to mitre, and so I decided to shape the top and bottom panels at this stage rather than later. This was the first opportunity to use the modification I made to my Moxon vise (see article: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/NewMoxonMods.html). It now enables the pin- and tail boards to be clamped together to aid in marking out (see earlier photo). In marking out for mitred corners, the side tails are not sawn out from the front ... ... the board is reversed, and the mitres are marked ... ... and sawn ... The reason I had wanted to retain square carcase sides was that it would make it easier to square the chisel guide for the mitres. I got around this by squaring them to the front of the carcase ... The pin board is seen here ... One of the difficulties in fitting this many tails and pins is that any slight errors are magnified. The fit below illustrates that the left side is too tight ... To deal with this, the tails were given a pencil scribbling ... Fitting the board together left this behind ... This process needed to be done once more, before the fit was satisfactory ... The four sides were dry fitted together, and the front and rear upper and lower panels planed to shape (this was close but not enough) … All is coplanar … Where we are up to at the end of today … One set of mitred corners … … and the other … Next up is building the internal dividers for the drawers. Regards from Perth Derek 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted June 2, 2019 Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 Another lovely design, Derek! I appreciate the amount of construction detail you provide, too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted June 2, 2019 Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 Another great journal going here Derek! Thanks for taking us along I always pick up tips from your postings. This looks to be a really neat piece with some interesting challenges. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted June 2, 2019 Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 Some really nice work once again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlyoak Posted June 2, 2019 Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 Beautiful work! I would be very nervous the deeper and more invested I got into the project. And the demand of incredible precision would be hard on my well being. I will watch and appreciate your exotic skills. Thanks for sharing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted June 2, 2019 Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 You always make my day when you post a project. A question: do you plan to leave the dovetails proud? That might be an interesting look. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekcohen Posted June 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 Hi Richard The plan is to round over the dovetails, so the "proud" will disappear. Sorry Regards from Perth Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted June 2, 2019 Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 Not a problem Derek. I did a round over on dovetails on a bench, I really liked the look. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeslayer Posted June 2, 2019 Report Share Posted June 2, 2019 I’m in on this one as well Derek, wishing someday I will get to your level of skill, beautiful work sir! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post derekcohen Posted June 3, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 3, 2019 With the carcase completed, it is time to turn to the internal dividers for the drawers. I took the time first to plane the rebate for the rear panel. Knowing my spatial weakness of getting parts back-to-front and upside-down, I marked these when the carcase was a dry fit (and later briefly thought I had screwed this up!) ... One of the benefits of mitred corners is that the rebate can be planed across without fear of it showing ... The rebate is 6mm deep as the rear panel will be 5mm thick to bend it around the curved rear. The carcase is 20mm thick, and the rebate extends halfway into this. I was curious to see how rebating on a curve would turn out. No problem ... Here is the rear of the carcase with the rebate ... Moving to the stopped dados/housings ... the centre panel is solid rather than a frame. I decided that this would be less work, plus there will be a series of stopped dados to be made. The panel is 10mm thick. This was made first, that is, the dados were sized to fit the panel thickness. I made up a couple of templates. One was the height of the dado, and the other was the height of the dado plus the width of the dado. The inside of the carcase is marked on both sides using the same templates to ensure that they are exactly the same height from the base. The lines are deepened with a knife, and then a chisel wall is created to register a saw cut ... The end of the stopped dado is defined ... A Japanese azebiki was used along a guide to ensure it cut on the vertical ... Now that the sides are defined by the kerf, this could be deepened with a chisel (this is my favourite chisel - a 1" Kiyohisa. Sublime!) .. The waste is removed with a router plane ... Check that the side walls are square ... Completed side panels ... I was so confident that the dados were perfect that I dry fitted the carcase once more ... and then found that one dado was a smidgeon too tight for the test piece. It turned out that a small section of a side wall was not as square as I thought (probably the saw did not cut deeply enough at that spot). The best too to clear this is a side rebate plane. Set for a very light cut to clear the waste, not the dado width ... Perfect fit this time ... Time to fit the centre panel. This has been shaped to size, but will need a little fine tuning at a later time. Note that the rear section is secondary wood (Merbau) ... I had just enough time to slide the panel in. Nice tight fit. Not enough time to saw the rebates for the stopped dados. This will be done next time ... Regards from Perth Derek 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted June 3, 2019 Report Share Posted June 3, 2019 Still liking what you are doing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Nicely done and documented. I like it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Getting better by the minute! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 @derekcohen, I think it’s time to ask, and I apologize if it’s already been mentioned, what do you do for a living? It should be Woodworking if it isn’t. Nice work bud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post derekcohen Posted June 4, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Coop, by day I'm a shrink ... clinical psychologist specialising in working with children and their families. Woodworking is my therapy Just a different type of problem-solving. Regards from Perth Derek 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post wtnhighlander Posted June 4, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Well, that explains your ability to explain the details of your woodwork in a way that most of us can understand! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post RichardA Posted June 4, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 It also makes it apparent that dealing with woodworkers, is a lot like your day job. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlyoak Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 22 hours ago, derekcohen said: I marked these when the carcase was a dry fit (and later briefly thought I had screwed this up!) ... So Dr Derek how many times a day can I feel like you did on the screw up and still be sane? Seriously I know the feeling. And I hate that momentary thought. And immediately feel better when I realize all is well. The thought of the screw up reminds me to be thorough and dry fit. Thanks Derek. I am enjoying this build, the same as all your work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Derek you do some simply stunning work!! ...and how about that rebate plane shaving in pic #5 ....nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post derekcohen Posted June 10, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 10, 2019 The Harlequin side table will have 8 drawers. The drawer case sides and the central drawer blade are panels and run in dados or housings (depending on which side of the pond you live). Positioning of these dados is critical since any misalignment will affect the aesthetic. It goes without saying (but I shall) that the alignment also determines that the side panels will be square ... and drawers need to run against square sides. All this is done here with hand tools. Some of the finer points in getting it precise ... First of all, templates (or story sticks) are created to position the dados. There are two for each side panel: the second is 10mm longer than the first. Scoring each creates an exact 10mm dado. There is a series of templates to position all the dados. This ensures that the upper and the lower dado are position exactly the same distance from the reference wall ... A chisel wall is created for the marked outlines. This wall enables the fence to be lined up using a wide chisel ... The sidewalls are sawn with a azebiki saw. This have two curved sides, one with coarse rip teeth and the other with fine crosscut teeth. I begin with the fine teeth and use them to establish the kerf, and then switch to to the coarse teeth for speedier sawing. With a compass, I check that the kerf is parallel and to the desired width (10mm) ... The sawn side wall is now chopped away close to full depth ... This is done across the dados on one board at a time ... The waste in the centre of each dado is removed with a router plane. The dados are done at the same time to save have to reset the depth of cut (one stroke on dado #1, one on dado #2, and one on dado #3 ... then back to #1 ...) ... Keep an eye on the depth ... Fine tune the dado should theoretically be unnecessary if they were marked accurately. In practice, I find that there is usually some waste in the corners, or a slightly sloped wall. For this reason I run a side rebate plane (here a Veritas), the length of each wall. This is not held vertically, since that with remove some of the width. Instead it is run at an angle away from the side wall, as it it was undercutting the side wall ... The fit is now checked with an offcut from the side panel ... The side rebate plane can take a smidgeon off the sidewall if the fit is too tight. Some will argue that it is preferable to plane the panel instead. In this situation that is not advisable since the panel is to slide along the dado, and a tight point will impede all points of the panel. The carcase is Hard Maple, with Merbau as the secondary wood. Locally, Merbau is used for decking. It is cheap and hard, both qualities valued. But is a really brittle wood, and awful to work with. The number of splinters I have had ... and they are sharp and lodge deeply. Ugh! It can look like this ... ... and then a section breaks away ... At least it will be far inside the carcase and not be seen. A panel is made up for the interior dividers ... The pieces are fitted. Will the careful planning and neurotic execution pay off? I was holding my breath. This is a dry fit .... (sound of breathing again) Then I pulled it apart and glued up the carcase ... More after the coming weekend. Regards from Perth Derek 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted June 10, 2019 Report Share Posted June 10, 2019 Well written and documented. Thank you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post derekcohen Posted June 16, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 16, 2019 We left off with the drawer dividers a dry fit in the case ... And then this was pulled apart and the case glued up. After a clean up, the ends were looking a little tidier ... Now we've been through this together with the Jarrah coffee table, but for those who want to know how ... The ends are marked (with a washer) .. The aim is the remove the waste progressively to the lines ... This is quick to do with a low angle jack ... .. and finish with a block plane ... Now finish with sandpaper - 80/120/240 grit ... The completed case ... I spent a few hours today turning a few legs. Rather than show the prototypes, I am hoping that I may have enough time to complete them tomorrow - I have the afternoon off! - and then I will post more photos. Regards from Perth Derek 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted June 16, 2019 Report Share Posted June 16, 2019 Derek, you may have mentioned this before, but what is your preferred method to avoid splintering the ends when planing across end grain such as that? Do you start from each end and work toward the middle, or is there another way that works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post derekcohen Posted June 16, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 16, 2019 I work from each side towards the centre Working across the ends will lead to spelching. Regards from Perth Derek 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post derekcohen Posted June 22, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 22, 2019 The case was completed last time ... ... but before the drawer dividers can be permanently installed, the legs need to be made and attached. This was the original drawing ... Some has been retained and some has been changed. Instead of curved legs, which I later decided did not match the overall style, I decided on round, tapered legs that will splay out from the case. Before turning the legs, the splay was created by tapering the top of the legs on the table saw. The slider uses a Fritz and Frans jig to rip the end at the chosen angle (8 degrees). This ensured that the splay angle would be the same for all legs. The blanks were then turned to shape. Here I am checking that the near-to-finished legs are the same dimensions and have the same taper angle ... The ends were then cut off and the top was shaped with rasps and sandpaper ... How to attach the legs? Well, that had given me a real headache. I was thinking along the lines of a loose tenon ... overcomplicating matters (as usual). A number suggested simply glueing and screwing. I was skeptical, but of course, a glue joint alone is generally stronger than the wood ... and reason prevailed There are three screws per leg, which were countersunk for the drawers. The glue chosen was Titebond III. All cleaned up, this is what we have (drumroll) ... The splay to the side is 8 degree, and from the sides, the legs are aligned with the front and rear of the case. Drawers next Regards from Perth Derek 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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