JMalone

Hello All,
Having had a measure of success with my first project, being a couple of planter boxes, I thought I'd move up to some inside furniture.

Our spare bedroom is a little sparse on useful furniture, most notably tables beside the bed, so I thought that'd be a worthy project; a couple of bedside tables.

After scrounging the Internet for some plans, I came up with an Arts & Crafts style table that the good lady really liked. See attachment for the full plans.

Someone mentioned that it's easier to do two at once so I'm going to give that a try. It should cut down on setup times and guarantee that both tables come out the same.

Here we go.

John

Attached Files

	Side Table Plan - Details.pdf (768.2 KB, 114 views)
	Side Table - ExplodedPlan.pdf (333.5 KB, 75 views)

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bobj3

hi John

Bob and Rick made the same table on one of the RWS shows,,it's a real neat table...
Episode 1106/1107 Chair-side Table, 2 Parts


A fine oak furniture piece with a modern touch, the chair-side table can be used in the bedroom, the living room or the family recreation room.
Router joinery by Bob and Rick Rosendahl make this table sturdy and esthetic by incorporating mortise and tenon joinery with the router. Watch episodes #1106 and #1107 for design and construction details.
1106. Chair-side Table Part 1
1107. Chair-side Table, Part 2

http://www.routerworkshop.com/series1100hilites.html


Thanks for the PDF plans great set of plans ...

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JMalone

I have finally managed to cut all the wood for the two tables to the correct dimensions, except for length. I cut the length when I come to use the piece. I tend to make less mistakes that way.

I was really lucky to get a whole bunch of 6x2 off-cuts from a local building site, which will be just the thing for this project because of all the 4" planks that are in the plans. 6x2 jointed and trimmed leaves plenty of timber for 4x1s.

I've attached some photos of where I'm up to.
- The stack of dimensioned lumber
- The legs of the table with mortises done.
- The table saw with mortise jig
- My homemade mortise jig.

Cheers all,
John

Attached Thumbnails

       

JMalone

Finally, after lots of cutting, routing, sanding and measuring (not necessarily in that order), I've got something this is almost recognizable as taking the shape of a small table.

All the parts have been sanded to 100 grit. The visible parts will be sanded to 220 grit before I fully assemble and glue up the job.

I've deviated from the plans with regards to the bottom shelf. I don't have a biscuit joiner, so I went with a long mortise and tenon on each end of the shelf. It seems to work rather well, and should be stronger than the original design. I plan to only glue the bottom shelf in the middle of the joint so that the panel can shrink and expand. I'm not sure if this is necessary, but one can't be too careful, and the mortise and tenon give it a nice solid feel.
Feel free to comment. I'm very new at this.

Next step is to put the slats in the side panels and then start work on the drawer. I've never done a drawer before and must admit that I'm a little intimidated.

We've got a visitor coming at the end of the month so I'm up against a deadline since we don't have any bedside tables in the spare room. I think I'll make it, but it'll be a close run thing. I learned in my last project that staining and finishing takes a lot longer than I expect.

Cheers all,
John

Attached Thumbnails

     

JMalone

I'm not taking any credit for the mortising jig. I got the plans off a forum somewhere.
I can't remember exactly where now so I've included them here for reference should anyone want to build it.

I didn't like the way it looked when I first built it and tossed it on the top shelf of my cupboard, until I really fudged up a set of mortises on my planter box project. So for this project I thought I'd give the jig a try. To my surprise it worked remarkably well. Far better than I expected and resulted in nice, straight, predictable, and repeatable mortises. And for 40 mortises just for the side slats alone, that is a very good thing.

Maybe the Saturday afternoon it took me to build the jig wasn't the total waste of time as I originally thought.

Cheers all,
John

Attached Files

MortisingJig-Lite.pdf (182.4 KB, 80 views)

harrysin

Those results don't look like a beginners project to me, are you keeping something from us? Whatever you're experience, the results are something to be proud of.

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Joe Lyddon

John,

I think you're doing a wonderful job of making those tables with jig n all!

I can tell that you're taking your time and not rushing it... Very important.
Haste makes waste... is a good "saying" in woodworking.

Just take it step by step... dry fit before committing to glue, etc.

Thank you for keeping us up to date with your progress!

challagan

Wow, nice tables! Your doing some very good work. Thanks for sharing the photos!

Corey

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JMalone

Another good day on the tools and I've made some really visible and tactile progress.
First order of the day was to sand all external faces of the timber to 220 grit. I'm not such a martyr as to do the inside faces to that level; they can stay happily at 100 grit.

After much mental agonizing I decided to sand over the corners of all the pieces rather than go with a round-over bit in the router or leave them crisp and sharp. As it turned out, it was the correct choice, IMHO. The timber feels silky and a delight to touch.

That should be pretty much the end of the sanding, except for bits here and there. I'm not a huge fan of sanding, but I DO like the result it gives.

The final task today was to fit the slats into the sides. This involved a bit of manual chisel work so that they would fit, and I was a bit daunted at first (being 40 ends to go into 40 holes!) but it wasn't as bad as I feared. A little here, a little there...

Anyway, there's some more photos for your perusal.
I've put some of the raw material in the front of the tables to show what I started with. I get a real buzz from taking others scraps and making something beautiful and useful. (And I'm too cheap to buy wood when I'm still learning the game!)

Cheers,
John

Attached Thumbnails

       

Joe Lyddon

John,

You're doing it right... just the way You want it...

Looking really nice...

Thanks again...