Display Table Build

[Woodworking_Hobby]

I am making a table for my FIL that he had specific dimensions he wanted the table so he could display a model ship he inherited from a close friend. Other than height and size of the top, the rest of the design was up to me to figure out.

This is the first time I am trying to building something that I sketched out from nothing and is a little larger in size than I usually build. 

I have been super busy with all of the normal life and work things also going on as usual and progress has been a little slow. I am also making some small test pieces out of some scrap wood I had so that I can test my joint layout and make sure the parts look ok close to scale before I go all in with his lumber.

I wanted to do a project journal but I am a little behind. I have been keeping good notes and taking photos along the way and I am going to try and get this journal caught up to my current progress and finish with the build. 

[Woodworking_Hobby]

I will post some of the original design notes and picture of the sketch in this journal but I also wanted to link to the original post that had some good content on the original design. 
 

 

[Woodworking_Hobby]

After going through a few iterations of layouts, dimensions, and size of parts here are the final sketches that I made for the table and the cut list for the bottom structure.  A few items have been modified as I started working with the test pieces but this is where the build started. 

[Woodworking_Hobby]

After looking at different wood options, how they would be finished with a natural danish oil, and look in the space, we settled on building the table out of sapele. Luck for us our local hardwood supplier carried a good selection of this lumber as quarter sawn.  Based on what I needed for parts I ended up in getting 6/4 and 10/4 rough boards and will mill them as needed to the final dimensions. 

[Mark J]

Looking forward to the build.

[wtnhighlander]

Thanks for journaling! I think this is goung to be a beautiful piece. Quarter sawn sepele is lovely.

[curlyoak]

I like the wood and design. except one thing. I like to build so the next several beneficiaries will find it useful. And it must not interfere with FIL needs. If possible I would make the top of the table a height of 30" which is standard height. I think 30" is more useful. Unless there are a lot of basketball players in the family. Regardless this must have the approval of FIL.

[Woodworking_Hobby]

Finally had some time in the shop and got the wood rough cut and starting the milling process. I like to mill my boards to final thickness plus 1/4 and let them rest. Then I will mill to the final thickness when I am ready to progress the build and once they have e acclimated. I have never used this kind of wood before and it has an interesting smell when you work the wood. I do not know how to exactly describe but almost smells a little sweet. 

[Woodworking_Hobby]

Since this is my first build based on my own design I am also building a smaller mock table so I can test out the joints and make sure the size of the parts will work well. I am not going to make it as long as the actual table but the same height and thickness of the parts. I had some old scrap polar that I am using to make the legs and some other scrap boards for the rails. I did not have the exact thickness for the legs so I made a little glue up of some boards so I could get the thickness I needed. 

[Woodworking_Hobby]

Worked on the mock up table some today and felt like had to fight some tools but got there and was able to enjoy some good shop time.  

Sometimes I feel like I worry too much about a board being 100% flat or 100% square. It’s wood it moves, they are tools and will not always be 100% aligned.  I think for me it is trying to find that sweet spot of building things that look good, but not spending all of my time fighting the tools and worrying if the cuts are a hair out of square or flat.  Then shop time becomes frustrating and not fun.  

Sometimes I watch the old New Yankee workshop videos (the early ones) and Norm just hammers those parts out with a stock miter gauge that looks as if it has been dropped 100 times. It makes me just stop and think and realize I will never get done if I just don’t keep moving forward. 

Today I was struggling when milling the lumber to get the edge jointed square to the two faces that I just milled to thickness on the planer. What I have been doing that seems to help is leave my rough boards a little wide, edge joint one side of the board to get super close to square, then rip the opposite edge of the board on the table saw leaving enough extra width, rip the side that was jointed, and then rip the other side down to final width. This adds a few extra rip steps and uses a hair more wood, but seems to do the trick to get all four sides square. Anyone have any issues getting that edge off the jointer?   

Then I worked on getting the legs to the final length. I clamped all four legs together so I can cut one end and flip to cut the other end to try and keep them exactly the same length. The chop saw seemed to be a little out of square and luckily I was able to fit this cut onto the table saw. With the legs all clamped together that also prevented having to worry about setting up a stop block.

I got the chop saw from a friend who no longer was using the tool and I need to read the manual to see how to do some fine adjustments to square the blade to the fence and table. It is not that far out of alignment but I can tell it is not square when I put my square on the fence to the blade. Usually I am so limited on shop time it is hard to spend a weekend reading the manual and making adjustments to a tool but need to find the time so I can make crosscuts easier on larger parts.   

Once I was done cutting the legs I laid out all of the joints.  I used my router, spiral upcut bit and edge guide to cut the mortise in the legs.

Next I cut all of the rails to final length on the table saw and laid out the tenons. I then used dado stack on the table saw to cut all of the faces on the tenons. I ran out of shop time and next I will work on rounding the edges of the tenons to fit into the mortise. 
 

[Coop]

@Woodworking_Hobby, I do the same process on my ts get the final edge on my boards smooth for the glue up. It seems that the ts gives me a nicer edges than the jointer. 

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 7/5/2025 at 10:43 AM, Woodworking_Hobby said:

Worked on the mock up table some today and felt like had to fight some tools but got there and was able to enjoy some good shop time.  

Sometimes I feel like I worry too much about a board being 100% flat or 100% square. It’s wood it moves, they are tools and will not always be 100% aligned.  I think for me it is trying to find that sweet spot of building things that look good, but not spending all of my time fighting the tools and worrying if the cuts are a hair out of square or flat.  Then shop time becomes frustrating and not fun.  

Sometimes I watch the old New Yankee workshop videos (the early ones) and Norm just hammers those parts out with a stock miter gauge that looks as if it has been dropped 100 times. It makes me just stop and think and realize I will never get done if I just don’t keep moving forward. 

Today I was struggling when milling the lumber to get the edge jointed square to the two faces that I just milled to thickness on the planer. What I have been doing that seems to help is leave my rough boards a little wide, edge joint one side of the board to get super close to square, then rip the opposite edge of the board on the table saw leaving enough extra width, rip the side that was jointed, and then rip the other side down to final width. This adds a few extra rip steps and uses a hair more wood, but seems to do the trick to get all four sides square. Anyone have any issues getting that edge off the jointer?   

Then I worked on getting the legs to the final length. I clamped all four legs together so I can cut one end and flip to cut the other end to try and keep them exactly the same length. The chop saw seemed to be a little out of square and luckily I was able to fit this cut onto the table saw. With the legs all clamped together that also prevented having to worry about setting up a stop block.

I got the chop saw from a friend who no longer was using the tool and I need to read the manual to see how to do some fine adjustments to square the blade to the fence and table. It is not that far out of alignment but I can tell it is not square when I put my square on the fence to the blade. Usually I am so limited on shop time it is hard to spend a weekend reading the manual and making adjustments to a tool but need to find the time so I can make crosscuts easier on larger parts.   

Once I was done cutting the legs I laid out all of the joints.  I used my router, spiral upcut bit and edge guide to cut the mortise in the legs.

Next I cut all of the rails to final length on the table saw and laid out the tenons. I then used dado stack on the table saw to cut all of the faces on the tenons. I ran out of shop time and next I will work on rounding the edges of the tenons to fit into the mortise. 
 

I definitely know that feeling  you're describing. 

I've  had to get more realistic in my expectations.  If i can get the twist and the cupping out and it makes a nice flush sound when i lift one end and drop it on the bench, I call it a win, even if it's not 1000% flat. 

If I'm not dead square off the saw (almost never am) i can clean it up with a shooting board and get pretty close. But not NASA- level laser perfect. 

And so on. 

 As an amateur hobbiest. I'm never going to be on the level of a 40 year pro. Do the best you can with the resources you have and enjoy the ride. At least, that's what i tell myself. 

 

 

 

 

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

One thing i noticed is that you mention that you're trying to square 2 faces after thickness planing. 

The order i was taught to mill in goes like this: 

1. Joint 1 face flat. 

2. With jointer fence set to 90, put that flattened face on the the fence and joint the side. This gives your 2 square sides. 

3. Now plane to desired thickness with the jointed face down on the planer table. 

4. Rip to width with jointed edge against fence. 

Tweaking the order of operations might help a little bit.

Good luck. It looks like you're off to a great start. 

[Mark J]

2 hours ago, Woodworking_Hobby said:

Sometimes I feel like I worry too much about a board being 100% flat or 100% square. It’s wood it moves, they are tools and will not always be 100% aligned.  I think for me it is trying to find that sweet spot of building things that look good, but not spending all of my time fighting the tools and worrying if the cuts are a hair out of square or flat.

My personal montra is:  "Be as precise as you can, that way your mistakes will be more accurate".  

But there is a limit.

[wtnhighlander]

There are two things I am realizing after doing this for a few years.

1. I have reached, maybe passed, the point where adding machines to my shop brings more maintenace headaches than woodworking benefit.

2. Focus on hand tool methods helped me understand how to work with the material far better than machine methods did.

Don't misunderstand, I'm all for using power tools to help things along, otherwise I would never finish a project. But practicing with hand saws and planes really brought to light where precision was important, and where it wasn't.

[Coop]

On 7/5/2025 at 2:25 PM, wtnhighlander said:

2. Focus on hand tool methods helped me understand how to work with the material far better than machine methods did.

Don't misunderstand, I'm all for using power tools to help things along, otherwise I would never finish a project. But practicing with hand saws and planes really brought to light where precision was important, and where it wasn't.

I obviously missed that class. I still use power tools to clean up my hand tool mistakes. 

[fcschoenthal]

The joinery and attention to detail this guy uses on this table are mind blowing.

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 7/7/2025 at 5:57 AM, fcschoenthal said:

The joinery and attention to detail this guy uses on this table are mind blowing.

I'd say this guy is out of my league, but i don't think we're even playing the same sport. This was amazing, humbling and educational. Thanks for sharing!

[fcschoenthal]

On 7/7/2025 at 8:25 AM, Ron Swanson Jr. said:

I'd say this guy is out of my league, but i don't think we're even playing the same sport. This was amazing, humbling and educational. Thanks for sharing!

Agreed. Although, I particularly found it odd that while he's in China, most of his tool brands are ones we use here in the US (Sawstop, Grizzly, Veritas to name a few I noticed). 

[Mark J]

1 hour ago, fcschoenthal said:

he's in China, most of his tool brands are ones we use here in the US

So he's using "locally made" products .

[Woodworking_Hobby]

After a long pause I finally made more progress on the table build.

I cut all of the mortises into the legs with my router and upcut spiral bit. I cut two legs at a time and used a third to give me some additional space and room to balance the router. I tried hard to make sure I set my router guide on the same face of the legs that were connected by a rail to remove any slight inaccuracy of not being exactly in the center of the leg with the cut. A lot of planning and pencil marks and I think I got them all cut in the right spots. 

Next I cut the tenons into the rails for the table. Before I cut any of the tenons, I laid out the entire project and marked all of the rails to make sure I knew what tenon went with that mortise, what side of the rail is out vs inside showing, top and bottom. Then I cut the checks and shoulders of the tenon on my table saw using the dado stack. I tired to ease into both the thickness and length of the tenon to try and get as close as possible to match each mortise size. 

Once I cut all of the tenons, I used my chisel and Shinto rasp to round all of the square corners to fit into the round mortise and correct any tenons that were too wide or long for the mortise they were keyed.  I also made sure and cleaned up any excess material at the base of the tenon so it will sit flush into the mortiseand against the Face of the leg. I really like the Shinto rasp and felt I had good control of material removal and was able to easily remove the materials with the fine tooth side of the tool. 

Next I use my router and add d a 1/4 roundover profile to the legs and bottom side of all the rails. Luckily I had my test table as I stared with 1/8 and it was too small for the scale of the project. After a quick test fit for all of the parts I sanded everything through the grits of 120 / 150 / 180. I usually finish my projects with Tried and True oil and have found going past 180 has not gained me anything else on the finished project.   

At this point I also decided I was going to keep my test table and with a few scrap boards I could easily fit a top onto the base. It’s nothing that I can finish as it is a mix of different wood types but with a little paint it will actually make a nice table for the patio. 

Next I glued all of the short rails into the legs. For this project I used Tightbond hide glue. I really like how easy this kind of glue is to use on projects that are not exposed to the elements. 

Then I checked square and clamped everything for around 16 hours.  Next I need to glue the long rails and then I will be done with the base. 

I have rough cut the board for the top and next up is milling to get them flat and to final thickness. 

On a side note, does anyone have any tips or tricks they use when their projects drag out between milling and final construction. I have heard some people wrap in plastic or garbage bags but I have never tried that approach. For this project I tried to clamp the parts flat and I think this helped at keeping the legs and rails flat and square; we are not done yet so I guess we will see.  I could tell one of them moved maybe a 1/16 as when I sat the rail on my table saw it had a tiny rock across the diagonal. It did not seem to cause any issues with the glue up.  

For me I just cannot carve out the chuck of time needed to go straight from milled boards to finished projects and my projects seem to take months to get all the way done not days or weeks. I think this fear of milled board movement  was stopping me from doing anything and finally just decided the board is going to move a 1/16 or more and I am just going to go with the flow and make it work.  I found that waiting for the perfect time was just keeping me from doing what I enjoyed. Worst case I guess we will just call it “rustic”. :-) 

[wtnhighlander]

Looking good! Wish I had some advice on storage of parts. I also tend to have ling periods between sessions, but generlly just stack parts neatly and hope for the best!

[Beechwood Chip]

On 9/5/2025 at 7:56 PM, wtnhighlander said:

I also tend to have ling periods between sessions, but generlly just stack parts neatly and hope for the best!

I'm sure I recently saw a YouTuber say that they wrap parts in plastic wrap if they know that they'll be away for a few weeks.  They tested when they got back and everything was still as straight and square as when they milled it up.  I thought it was Marc, but I can't find the video.

[EDIT] Found it!  It was one of Marc's members only videos.

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 9/5/2025 at 6:56 PM, wtnhighlander said:

Looking good! Wish I had some advice on storage of parts. I also tend to have ling periods between sessions, but generlly just stack parts neatly and hope for the best!

Same. If I'm lucky, they all get stacked in only one location. But I'm rarely lucky. 

[Von]

Nice work. I almost never get through a project in a timely way. I have stacked, stickered and then clamped flat parts I was concerned about, e.g. a re-sawed board. I can't swear it does any good but it hasn't obviously not worked yet.