Side Table 3.5

Today was a day of finishing cleaning up the garage after the garage sale, mowing the lawn, and then squaring up a couple of the laminated legs. As tomorrow is the surgery, I wanted to get quite a bit of work done on the table since I will likely be prohibited from doing much of anything for a while. Unfortunately, that didn't quite happen as my hand started to ache and swell while planing. Fortunately, I was still able to make some mouse a very cozy home.

The glue-up from a few days ago was horrible. Here is a picture of one of them. I figured I could deal with the problem while squaring, but I wasn't planning on dealing with as much twist as I had put in the laminations during glue up. I had figured the laminating process would have been the simplest I've done to this point, and to an extent it was, but I should have paid much more attention.

Started with cleaning up the major squeeze out with a chisel. This keeps my plane from having to deal with it and possibly damaging the blade. Then it was on to some quick sizing and roughly getting them square with my freshly sharpened #5.

Finishing off was the #7, the first plane I ever rehabbed. This made it nice and flat once I had the majority of the squaring done. A little help from my #4 helped to get a couple minor troubled spots. I actually stopped with the #4 as the chipbreaker wasn't seated right and clogged up on me. This will take some fettling that I just didn't have the stamina for today. My #603C came out to play instead for a bit. I actually think I might like it better than the #4, but that will take some more play time.

And this is the first one, I think. Both came out really nice and ready for cutting to length and some mild shaping. The size comparison on width between these to are within 1/16", so I'm calling them good unless I have a major fail with one or both of the other two and some shrinking needs to be done. I just know that if I keep playing, I'll just wind up with bigger piles of shavings than contained within the first picture.

Until next time, when we finish the other two and start trimming/fitting the top! --Josh

Side Table Part 3

So today was a little mixed up due to dealing with insurance and trying to get my surgery scheduled so I can get my finger put back together like it was meant to be, but I did get a little time in the shop. I was going to start on the table legs and get them planed square, but as I was setting up a planing stop, I had and idea in regards to the top. I realized that making breadboard ends as suggested to run the full length of the piece would be the best bet ( as nicely suggested by a reader), but then also thought of a different take on the same method for doing the top. Instead of doing one long top, I could create sections that would all slide together. This does two things: limit movement so that it will only be in small sections going front to back, and also give the top more "flair".

In trying out the tongue and grooves, I realized I don't have a cutter for my No. 45 that will go a full 3/4", at least not a 1/4" width. Also, the only 1/4" cutter I have was not a part of the set and doesn't seat in the holding mechanism on the plane, as it is too thin. This I fixed with several layers of aluminum tape and was able to test some tongues and grooves.

Now I had to practice. This is really the first time that I've used the 45 on anything other than a practice board and I didn't have a whole lot of good luck with it. For some reason, this time worked like a champ after a little fiddling.

So now the grooved test piece is done, so now it's time to try and create the tongue. I cut several boards for practice, as I noticed the last time I used my rabbet plane, I also got mixed results. I set it up based on my groove measurements.

The first shot was a little loose, but not really a bad fit overall. I made the most minor adjustments that I could and tried again. Good fit. Try again. Too tight, touched it up, and good fit. Another...good fit. One more....again good. One more piece for good measure.







Now it's time for the real stuff. About twenty minutes and all the grooves are done. If the tongues go as smoothly, I'd be surprised, but we'll give it a shot tomorrow...

Oh, and no, I'm not worried about covering up the exposed edges. Others may not like it, but I like the thought of seeing how it was put together. At least for now...

Until then!

Josh

Table part one

Well I had most of my boards ripped and planed flat on 2 sides in prep for the leg laminations, as there are no local stores that offer any material thicker than 3/4". Somehow I needed 5 more ripped and roughed to length rather than the 2 I had figured in my head. No big deal. I ripped an 8' board with a newly sharpened rip saw. This was my first real test after I sharpened my first saw...excellent! I know it's soft wood, but it took about all of 3-4 minutes to go the full 8 feet.

Since I took these from a wider board than the original pieces, I actually had less to flatten in prep for the lamination. Almost no shavings required to hit the floor...bummer. I usually look forward to that part.

Now it's time for the glue-up, so we'll see how that goes. I'm not generally very good at laminating, but since these will be small, only four boards, and glued on their faces, this should be a little easier...yeah, right.

Three of them turned out decent, but the fourth? Not so much. There will be a price to pay on that one. They had shifted out of "square" and so now have a twist. I think I'll be making a new leg rather than planing it all down, since I'd also have to change the sizes of the other 3 to match.

Either way, I now have 3 usable and 1 possible. We'll see where that goes when the dust settles and the glue dries.

I was also able to cut all 14 pieces of the top. Now I've run into another dilemma though that I'll explain and request assistance on another post. This one is long enough and I already tend to get a little wordy. For now I'll just let the glue dry on this one...

Josh