Card Table Build

[Scoony]

One of my woodworking bucket list items is building a Federal style card table. I have the cherry left form other projects and decided to make one from that cherry.  The apron is made up of several layers of wood. I had some cherry boards that were culled out from the past project due to sap wood and unattractive grain. I decided to use up that cherry instead of buying more poplar for the core. 

I have a good start on the core and currently at layer 3 of 4 layers. I made a jig to cut the various angles. Took a lot of testing and resetting the fence to get the angles right. 

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The apron will be be laminated with a figured crotch veneer. There is a small section of tear out/void where the router bit was going against the grain, and I wasn't climb cutting. That small area that will have to be filled with something. Not sure how I will fix it yet, going to think about it for a little.  

I am not planing any inlays. I say that now, but I may change my mind as this goes along. I do have some ebony and holly, but if I do any inlays, I will keep it simple.  

The legs are cut to size but not tapered yet. I am contemplating turning them on a lathe instead of the Federal style of tapering. Here in Kentucky, turned legs seems more prevalent than tapered. This may end up as a Kentucky styled card table. Going to focus on the apron and see how that turns out

[handi]

Love building card tables! 
Looking forward to seeing how that brick mold, and all the rest, comes out!

[Scoony]

The apron is coming along. There is a some tear out from 2 mistakes
1. Not cutting close enough to the line before glueing the apron pieces. The trick is to clamp a layer in place, mark a line from the form, and bandsaw off most of the outside waste, then glue down that layer.

2. I was not climb cutting with the router slow enough at that section.

I mixed up some glue and sawdust and used that to fill in the rear out void. 

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I also started on the knuckle joints for the rear legs. 

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[Scoony]

I have these two pieces of cherry for the veneer. One is QS with some curl. The other is a crotch section. 

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I plan on using hot hide glue and hammer veneering it to the apron. I will need to make a proper veneering hammer and get some 1/8" ply for clamping. I will saw some veneer pieces and play around with the orientation. Any insight or tips on how to orientate the veneer would be welcome.

[Scoony]

Had time to cut out the inside waste of the apron. I also sanded it down with 100 grit to prep the surface for the hot hide glue veneering. I don't have a toothing plane so corse sandpaper is recommended.  I was going to try to cut the veneer on the bandsaw, but a test cut on some scrap changed my mind (need a new blade). I ended up cutting them on the table saw which wastes a lot of material. I was able to cut them just shy of 1/8" and made a planer sled to get them down to  heavy 1/16". That Ridgid has a Shelix head which is nice on the figured grain. 

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I made a veneer hammer today and letting the epoxy cure overnight before I finish it up. If all goes well, I will be veneering tomorrow.

[handi]

Looking good. Interesting build.

[Scoony]

Looking good. Interesting build.

Thanks, I am using an article from Steve Latta on a federal card table build. The apron is all veneered. Once that is cleaned up, I am going to work on completing the knuckle joint, then the legs. 


I was not happy with the way the knuckle joints were coming along so I went to youtube academy and watched a couple of videos. One thing is the youtube versions were all for 90 deg swing. These need to be 30 deg swings so the relief is a bit different. I started over with some more wood and have everything marked out correctly.

[Scoony]

Thougt I posted this last night but my mind may have been clouded by the bourbon.

Yesterday was a long day in the shop working on tapering the legs, and starting on new knuckle joint pieces

The front legs are tapered on 3 sides and get attached to the apron with a bridle joint. The back legs are only tapered on 2 sides and are attached to the swinging arms with a mortise and tenon joint.

The knuckle joints for the swinging arms are probably the most difficult part of this entire build. 

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All the parts so far, minus the top. As can be seen, I started to remove the waste on the apron for one bridle joint but stopped for the day.

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[Scoony]

Today was an easy day. Fit the bridle joints. Sawed kerfs made removing most of the waste a bit easier. What is tricky here is the changing grain and the splines. 

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The 3/8" mortise chisel was a big help in removing waste quickly. Saved the edges of the wide bench chisels for paring down to the final depth.

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Sneaking up on the fit. The sliding dovetail was what required the final fitting.

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I managed to get both front legs fitted and the fit is good. 

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Now I need to figure out what I want to do with the bottom edge. I want to some sort of banding with walnut and maple. Going to do some research and figure that out. This upcoming week with be focused on the knuckle joints.

[handi]

Looking great! I did a tea table many years back with an “X” hinge between the four legs. Interesting work forming the hinges.