03-02-2016, 11:30 PM
We needed a table near the front door for keys, sunglasses, mail and other stuff that I'd rather not have collected on the kitchen counters (small pet peeve of mine). I was originally going to make an arts and crafts style table, but I never found a piece that I really was interested in building. Then I happened across this table in a popular woodworking book:
I showed the photo to my wife and explained the table could be used for other purposes with the extensions raised. She approved and since I had a lot of cherry laying around, I decided I'd be faithful to the article.
The legs splay out 4 degrees in both directions so a 5.5 degree cut across the diagonal gives the right flare. I didn't have a chopsaw, so a I used the same cradle idea from the article only attached to a sled:
Mortises were cut, then a simple taper leg jig, followed by aprons and finally a test fit.
For what its worth, I have no idea what the exact angle of the aprons are. After I made the 5.5 degree cut, I stood the leg up on end and used a bevel gauge to find the angle. I kept it set throughout the project.
The issue was cutting out the spinners for table supports. This was an issue. The article says you cut the top of the spinner to the same angle as the aprons, but the bottom of the spinner and the top of the cutout in the apron should be square. It didn't seem right to me, after all the apron is angled, so a 90 degree cut wouldn't be parallel with the top. But I had faith in popular ww'ings editors... which was a mistake. They attach their spinners with a screw. I thought it seemed really sloppy and not at all right.
I was trying to use the cutout as the spinner too (Norm does this in one of his builds), but I thought it made a bad problem worse. Whats more, I was convinced the spinner should be angled on the top and the bottom and the apron cutout should be angled too. So I sat and thought for a long time and decided the only way I could create that inside angle on the apron was with a tilted router.
Real classy, I know
This left just a little clean up on the ends:
I chose to make the spinners turn on 1/4" dowel which mean drilling straight down with the apron at the correct angle on the drill press. I used an apron end cut to the tilt the apron and drilled through the spinner and the apron at the same time. The finished spinner worked much better.
Now it was on the table top. I cut the drop leaf edge on the shaper running in reverse. I wanted both profiles to register off the bottom of the table and the profile I had, would only work in reverse.
The u-shaped block of wood is a hold down/guard. Very handy and works well. Here it is in operational position.
As you can see, no DC attached which wasn't the best decision.
With the hinges in hand and test parts but, I started fitting the hinges. Rule joints are a real pain in the butt. This was suppose to be a quick and easy build and, and .....
Anyway, I figured out how I wanted the hinges and where and then drew outlines. I didn't bother with a router template, I just free handed and cleaned it up with a chisel. A second router was used for the barrel.
Glued up the short ends first then all together.
Finished with a very thin coat of BLO and then arm-r-seal.
I showed the photo to my wife and explained the table could be used for other purposes with the extensions raised. She approved and since I had a lot of cherry laying around, I decided I'd be faithful to the article.
The legs splay out 4 degrees in both directions so a 5.5 degree cut across the diagonal gives the right flare. I didn't have a chopsaw, so a I used the same cradle idea from the article only attached to a sled:
Mortises were cut, then a simple taper leg jig, followed by aprons and finally a test fit.
For what its worth, I have no idea what the exact angle of the aprons are. After I made the 5.5 degree cut, I stood the leg up on end and used a bevel gauge to find the angle. I kept it set throughout the project.
The issue was cutting out the spinners for table supports. This was an issue. The article says you cut the top of the spinner to the same angle as the aprons, but the bottom of the spinner and the top of the cutout in the apron should be square. It didn't seem right to me, after all the apron is angled, so a 90 degree cut wouldn't be parallel with the top. But I had faith in popular ww'ings editors... which was a mistake. They attach their spinners with a screw. I thought it seemed really sloppy and not at all right.
I was trying to use the cutout as the spinner too (Norm does this in one of his builds), but I thought it made a bad problem worse. Whats more, I was convinced the spinner should be angled on the top and the bottom and the apron cutout should be angled too. So I sat and thought for a long time and decided the only way I could create that inside angle on the apron was with a tilted router.
Real classy, I know
This left just a little clean up on the ends:
I chose to make the spinners turn on 1/4" dowel which mean drilling straight down with the apron at the correct angle on the drill press. I used an apron end cut to the tilt the apron and drilled through the spinner and the apron at the same time. The finished spinner worked much better.
Now it was on the table top. I cut the drop leaf edge on the shaper running in reverse. I wanted both profiles to register off the bottom of the table and the profile I had, would only work in reverse.
The u-shaped block of wood is a hold down/guard. Very handy and works well. Here it is in operational position.
As you can see, no DC attached which wasn't the best decision.
With the hinges in hand and test parts but, I started fitting the hinges. Rule joints are a real pain in the butt. This was suppose to be a quick and easy build and, and .....
Anyway, I figured out how I wanted the hinges and where and then drew outlines. I didn't bother with a router template, I just free handed and cleaned it up with a chisel. A second router was used for the barrel.
Glued up the short ends first then all together.
Finished with a very thin coat of BLO and then arm-r-seal.
