Nicer Photos

I decided that I should take some nice photos of my side table.  They turned out okay, not bad for the first time with a bedsheet in the doorway.

Side Table- Finished!

With the top done, I moved on to securing the top to the base. I used low profile wooden buttons in the front, and glue blocks with enlarged holes for the back. With that done, I moved on to the finish. For the first two coats I used a mixture of 1 part oil+varnish, 1 part varnish, and 1 part mineral spirits. This creates a wiping varnish with a little bit of oil. For the base I added one coat of pure wiping varnish. For the top I added 3 more. I think that overall the project came out pretty well, there are some imperfections, but they are pretty minor. Here is the table next to its "sister" table.

Table Top

For the table top I am using two boards about 8" wide each. First I match the grain in the best way possible, and then I joint the edges and glue them together. Then I flatten and smooth one side, and just flatten the other side. This side will be the bottom. In order to lighten the look of the top, I put some bevels in. They are marked out with pencil, and then just planed to the line. Start with the two sides that are cross grain first.

Drawer Build

With the runners glued in, I began to work on the drawer itself. I first selected a nice piece that will become the drawer face. Then I planed the edges it until it fit exactly into the drawer opening. Then I planed the sides so they would both glide smoothly on their respective sides. Then I cut a back piece to exactly the same width of the drawer front, but it is about 1/2" narrower. This allows the drawer bottom to slide into position. Then I set the distance for my plow plane' fence (with 1/4" blade) to exactly the same width as the back piece. Then I always reference the fence against the top side of the drawer parts. This makes them line up perfectly. The dovetails are the cut, thorough ones in the back and half-blind ones in the front. Make sure to space the tails so they cover up the groove in the front. After the drawer is done gluing, I plane the outsides until I have a smooth fit. The drawer bottom is made from 3/8" thick poplar. It has a 1/4" rabbet in it that allows it to slide into the drawer. When rabbeting thin sock like this, put some sort of batten across the top of it to keep it flat. For the knob I had to turn my own using my bungee lathe I posted about a while ago. Luckily all I had to do was rough it out as the tenon on the end allows me to chuck it into the drill press for easy sanding. The knob hole was drilled on my drill press so I could use my 1/2" forstner bit. The knob is glued and wedged in by a small rosewood wedge. The drawer is finished with shellac, except for the drawer front which was varnished.

Whoops

I realized that I haven't shared what I've been up to in a while, so here goes. Here is epoxy tinted with black acrylic paint that is filling a knot hole in the breadboard shelf. The breadboards were made using the same technique that I used for the stretchers. The ends have a groove, and a matching mortise for the breadboard tenons. The ends are also slightly longer than the shelf so they can be mortised into the legs. Here is a shot of the mortise being drilled in a leg. It was later squared up. Before assembly I made some small mortises in the inside of the stretchers.

These will accommodate the buttons that will affix the top.

This is a picture of the dry fit, which is very important.
And a picture of the actual glue-up: I did this in two stages, first I glued the long stretchers in, then after they dried, I glued in the back-stretcher, the front drawer runner, the other thing that goes above the drawer (that's the technical term for it), and the breadboard shelf to the legs.

With the base done, I turned my attention to the drawer. First I glued some runners onto the inside of the stretchers. I also put in some drawer guides. These have a small rabbet that allows me to trim after they are installed by only using a block plane on its side. If there was no rabbet, I would have to use a plane whose blade extends the entire width of its body in order to get right into the corner.

Shelf Glue-up

To make large panels, you have to either buy stock that is wide enough, or you must glue two (or more!) boards to make a wider one. For the shelf, that is exactly what I did. First I flattened one face, and squared one edge square to the flat face. I do this to both boards. To do the glue-up, I have the flat faces facing down on another flat surface (in this example, my saw bench) and put some clamps across the joint. The small clamps and holdfast help keep the flat faces from moving and potentially bowing of cupping. After the glue is done drying, I flatten the face that I flattened before, to make one flat face on the panel. Then I scribe a line of desired thickness, referencing off my flat face, and plane to the line. Finish up with a smoothing plane.

Measure Once, Mark Twice

Relative dimensioning is a very important concept. When I make my design, I know that my final product will not have exactly the same dimensions as my design. No one cares if the side stretchers are exactly 18", or if they are 17 61/64" long. The eye will not notice this. The eye will notice gaps however. This is why I measure once, and mark twice. First I measure out the distance between tenon shoulders for the left side stretcher (18"), and then I lay the right stretcher next to it and mark a line next to where I just marked. This way, I have two stretchers with the critical dimensions identical. I do this for most of my components, usually measuring once with dimensions from my plan, and then transferring these marks to other components. When you are doing this you must keep track of your reference faces, and only reference off them. This will ensure consistency. A reference face is a part of a board (ex. the face, the edge, the end) that you know is exactly flat and square to the other reference faces on the board.

Using the techniques explained above, I got a lot done on the table. I started with the legs, sawing them out, and then planing them down to 1 1/2" square. As you can see, I didn't notice a large crack in one until I cut it out, which annoyed me because it's a lot of work to cut them out.
The leg to stretcher joinery is fairly straight forward, it's all mortise and tenon. To make the tenons, I tried out a new method. First mark a heavy line for the shoulder. Then pare away some material to make a vee groove. This makes a very clean shoulder line when you go to make the crosscut shoulder cuts. The line for the shoulder is transferred all around the stretcher (remember to only use the reference faces to reference your square). Then I make the shoulder cuts and chop out the bulk of the waste with a chisel.
After the waste is chiseled out almost to the line, I switch to the router plane and make light passes to reach the line. This is one exception when you can work off a face that isn't a reference face. To cut the back of the tenon (on a non-reference face), you can reference the router plane's sole against the face, because the tenon will be trimmed again later.

This makes a very nice, consistent, and square tenon.The mortises in the legs are drilled out and cleaned up with a chisel.

Next Project!

For my next project, I will be building a shaker-style side table. Here is my design, it will have tapered legs like the front right leg in the sketch. I'm still experimenting with what taper looks best, I think that I will try a more subtle one. I have mapped out where all the components will come out of the boards, and have broken down and stickered the boards. For this project I tried a new lumber supplier that is much closer to my house. I have never seen so much lumber in one place before. It was so much fun, they had outbuildings full of all sorts of stuff. The only thing I didn't really like was that the boards were kind of hard to sift through to find one I really liked. I bought two 1" thick walnut boards, and one 8/4 walnut board, and one board of poplar. The widest board I will use for the top and shelf, and the thick walnut will be for the legs. The leg board is really nice, it's almost perfectly riftsawn, and even has a subtle curl to it. Unfortunately I had to cut it by hand, which took a while. I started by gluing the panel for the drawer together. It is a spring joint, and I simplified the glue-up by doing it on my wagon vise. This keeps everything flat.