Sawdust on the Floor

A while back I wrote about a mirror made from Bubinga, for our living room. The mirror is still in its place just inside our front door, but it looked out of place, there was nothing under it to anchor it visually. We needed something beneath the mirror. After trying several options, we decided that we needed a small table beneath the mirror. The entry table shown to the right is the result of that decision.

This table was made from solid Cherry. This is a departure from the normal Oak that I usually use, but we felt that the cherry would appear to be warmer than a table made from oak would be. The table top, apron and the stretcher bar are all made of 4/4 Cherry, while the four legs are made from some 6/4 stock that I had in the shop.

The table top is made from two pieces of cherry; I could not find stock wide enough to make it from a single piece. I started by rough cutting the two pieces to an overall length of 40” which I will cut it to its correct length, later in the project. Next both pieces were ran across the jointer, to square up one edge, and then through the surface planer.

Cherry can have some very distinctive grain patterns, some very wild while others are quite tame. I took the time to ensure that the grain patterns of the two pieces looked good together before I joined them together. You don’t want to use a really decorative piece next to one that is very bland; this will only make your joint line stand out more, no matter how tight it is. To join the two pieces together I chose to use my biscuit joiner. I prefer to use the biscuit joiner when ever I do flat glue ups like a table top. I marked the location for the biscuits on both pieces of the top, and then cut #20 biscuit slots into both pieces of the top.

After applying glue to both sides of the top and the biscuits, I clamped the two pieces together. I used my normal process for glue up.  I used a total of five bar clamps on the top, I started with the first clamp, under the glue up, the next one in line was installed over the top of glue up, and the third was again under the glue up, and so on. By alternating the clamps, you reduce the chance of causing the joint to buckle.

While the glue up dried, I turned to the legs and the apron. The legs are 1 ½” square. I didn’t feel that the table needed for any taper in the legs. I wanted to keep the look of the table simple. The legs were cut to a length of 29”, I considered putting a chamfer on the bottoms of the legs, but left them flat so I could later install mechanical levelers. At the top of the legs I installed a simple apron; the apron is made from the same 4/4 cherry that the top was made from. The front apron is 3” tall and 31” long, while the sides are only 7” Long. To add a small amount of interest to the aprons, I ran the bottom edge of aprons over a beading bit installed in my shaper.

The apron are attached to the legs with Kreg pocket Screws. I held the aprons to the back of the legs, this gave me a small reveal or shadow line along the front of the aprons, I think this looks much better than to have everything meeting along the same plane. But before I attached the aprons to the legs, I wanted to take care of the stretchers.

The stretchers are made from 4/4 cherry stock. I ripped the stock to make a ¾” square long center stretcher and two shorter end stretchers. To attach the stretchers to the legs I chose to use my Hollow Mortise machine. Using the hollow mortise chiseler, I was able to cut 3/8” x 3/8”mortises in the inside edges of all four legs. One thing I learned a long time ago was to clamp all four legs together temporarily, and mark the locations for the mortises across all four pieces at the same time. This helps to ensure that mortises will all be square when you do the final assembly. I also clamped a stop block onto the fence of the hollow mortise chiseler, to help ensure that the cuts were all at the same point.

One more process before I did the assembly. I took the two short stretchers and made the same 3/8” mortise along the center of the stretchers. I had cut the end stretchers long in the beginning, so I just found the center of both pieces and made the mortise there. To determine the length of the side stretchers, I clamped the legs to the end stretchers, and measured the distance between the legs at the bottom of the apron, after verifying that the legs were square to the aprons. Knowing this length I returned to the side stretchers, from the center of each stretcher, I went half the known length plus 3/8” for the mortise in each direction. After cutting the side stretchers to length, I took them to the table saw, and cut 3/8” x 3/8” tenons onto each end. Before I actually cut the tenons, I made several trial pieces, tweaking the cut until I felt it was perfect. While I had the table saw set up, I cut the tenon on one end of the center stretcher, I would cut the other end after some assembly.

Before I assembled the legs, apron and stretchers, I took the time to cut some more Kreg pocket screw holes into the back side of the front and back aprons along their top edges. I planned to use these to attach the apron to the bottom of the table.

Using pockets screws and glue, I attached all four legs to the four apron pieces. I applied bar clamps along the apron to hold it secure to the legs while the glue set. Now I used a little gentle pressure to separate the bottom of the legs apart just far enough to allow me to install the side stretchers. With these installed, I added more clamps along the side stretcher and leg intersection. Then using a framing square to verify that the legs were all square to the apron, I turned to the center apron. Since I already had cut the tenon on one end, all that remained was to mark the final length and then cut it off after the 3/8” for the other tenon.

After cutting the center tenon to length, I used the same set up on the Tablesaw to cut the remaining tenon. Then using the same concept as above, I spread the legs just far enough to insert the tenon into each of the mortises. With this done, I added one more clamp along the center stretcher, while the glue dried. While this whole assembly dries, let’s get back to the top.

After removing the clamps, I used a paint scraper to remove any excess glue. Then I took the whole top and sent it thru my surface planer. Then I ran the top back over the jointer, to create a straight square edge on one side of the top. With this done, I took the top back the Tablesaw and cut it to it’s final width of 12″. Then I turned to my miter saw to cut the top to it’s final length of 36″. One more operation before I can attach the top to the leg assembly, I eased the edge of the top with a ½” ogee bit, mounted in my shaper.

I now took the opportunity to do a light sanding of the entire project. When I sanded the table I stopped at 180 grit paper. I planed to finish the table with an oil finish, and I feel that any finer sanding closes too many pores in the wood, which will keep the finish from penetrating into the wood.

After putting a rubber mat on my work bench, to protect the freshly sanded top, I attached the apron and leg assembly using only pocket screws, No glue was used for this process. I did not install any screws at the side apron and top intersection; this is the axis that the top will move if it ever is affected by a moisture change in our house. I also backed the screws on the front and back aprons out just a bit, again to give the top some room to move.

After wiping the entire project with a clean rag and naphtha, I checked the entire project for any glue squeeze out that I may have missed, or any spots that needed more attention.

My finish was applied in three steps. The first I made a 50/50 mixture of tung oil and linseed oil. This mixture was brushed over the surfaces, and left to soak in for 10 minutes before I wiped off any excess. I left the table to set up for a complete week, before I applied the next step. This time I made another 50/50 mixture, using Tung oil and polyurethane. But before I applied this mixture I did a wet sanding. I applied a liberal amount of pure Tung oil to the project, and then using 280 grit wet sand paper, I sanded the entire project. The Tung oil combined with the wet sand paper creates a slurry that helps with the sanding. After cleaning the table completely, I applied the second mixture. Once again, I waited another complete week before I applied the third and final top coat. This time I used 100 % polyurethane as the final coat. The top was sanded before I applied the Polyurethane, with 400 grit wet sand paper and Tung oil. The legs and apron did not receive the final sanding as they were smooth enough.

Not as complicated as some of the projects that I have undertaken, but one that created a nice piece of furniture with simple lines that looks like it belongs in our house.

Related posts:

1. Woodworking Projects – Hall Mirror
2. Woodworker’s Hall of Fame