01-06-2021, 08:52 PM
After spending most of the good months milling lumber I'm finally back in the shop using some of the lumber I cut and dried. Currently, I'm making a dining room table with English walnut for the top and a painted maple base using some legs from Osborne. As an aside, I ordered the legs on Monday and they arrived today. Amazing. And they are beautifully milled. Anyway, I designed the table top with breadboard ends because I thought they looked good on a rustic style table and because the lumber wasn't long enough to give me the 96" long top as a simple glued up assembly. I had never constructed bread board ends so I took a few photos of the process to share.
After the top had been glued up I made a simple jig to support the router as I cut the tenons on the ends of the top. I wanted the long tenons to be 2" so I set the fence accordingly and clamped it in place.
The slab flattening bit I used did a great job for this task.
The top is 1-1/4" thick so I made the rabbets just under 3/8" leaving the tenon just over 1/2" thick. With the rabbets cut I laid out the tenons, then cut them with a hand saw and jigsaw.
I cleaned them up with a couple of planes and a file.
The center tenon is 4" wide and the two at the ends are 2-1/2". The stub tenon is 3/4" and ends 1" from the ends.
After prepping the breadboard ends which I left 1/16" thicker than the top, I transferred the tenon locations to them. To allow for seasonal expansion I cut the center mortise about 1/8" wider and the outer mortises 1/4" wider on each side of the tenons. Since the wood is at 6% moisture the top is going to expand but I still allowed room for contraction, just in case. I cut the mortises with a 1/2" spiral upcut router bit using my horizontal router mortiser. By adjusting the height of the router I was able to match the thickness of the tenons by flipping the workpiece with each pass over the bit, keeping the mortise centered. First I cut the stub tenon across the full width of the ends, stopping at the transfer marks, and then I cut the deep mortises for the long tenons. The mortises are 1/16" deeper than the tenons. When done they looked like this.
I made a test piece before cutting the workpieces so I knew the mortise width would be very close, but I was still quite surprised when the pieces fit on the first try, maybe just a little snug on one but that will be remedied easily with the shoulder plane. With the pieces test fit I marked the edges where they meet the field, then drum sanded both sides until just proud. From here I'll bring them flush with the top with the ROS and maybe a hand plane.
More to follow on how these will be held in place. Thanks for looking.
John
After the top had been glued up I made a simple jig to support the router as I cut the tenons on the ends of the top. I wanted the long tenons to be 2" so I set the fence accordingly and clamped it in place.
The slab flattening bit I used did a great job for this task.
The top is 1-1/4" thick so I made the rabbets just under 3/8" leaving the tenon just over 1/2" thick. With the rabbets cut I laid out the tenons, then cut them with a hand saw and jigsaw.
I cleaned them up with a couple of planes and a file.
The center tenon is 4" wide and the two at the ends are 2-1/2". The stub tenon is 3/4" and ends 1" from the ends.
After prepping the breadboard ends which I left 1/16" thicker than the top, I transferred the tenon locations to them. To allow for seasonal expansion I cut the center mortise about 1/8" wider and the outer mortises 1/4" wider on each side of the tenons. Since the wood is at 6% moisture the top is going to expand but I still allowed room for contraction, just in case. I cut the mortises with a 1/2" spiral upcut router bit using my horizontal router mortiser. By adjusting the height of the router I was able to match the thickness of the tenons by flipping the workpiece with each pass over the bit, keeping the mortise centered. First I cut the stub tenon across the full width of the ends, stopping at the transfer marks, and then I cut the deep mortises for the long tenons. The mortises are 1/16" deeper than the tenons. When done they looked like this.
I made a test piece before cutting the workpieces so I knew the mortise width would be very close, but I was still quite surprised when the pieces fit on the first try, maybe just a little snug on one but that will be remedied easily with the shoulder plane. With the pieces test fit I marked the edges where they meet the field, then drum sanded both sides until just proud. From here I'll bring them flush with the top with the ROS and maybe a hand plane.
More to follow on how these will be held in place. Thanks for looking.
John