I delivered this table to my client’s office last week. It is good to finish a piece and be able to celebrate it. In spite of this I tend to experience a wide range of emotions and second guessing when I finish a job. One thing that never changes though is the gratitude I feel at the opportunity to be a woodworker, one who engages the authentic witness of the trees. They always have a real story to tell about our God and His majesty and faithfulness.
preparing to fit the base to the leg assembly
defining a semicircle with 3 saw cuts
3 saw cuts get refined into facets with a paring chisel
and again
then shaped with a rasp
the base of one of the leg assemblies after the 1/2 lap-tapered dado has been cut
here, mated with the white oak leg
a different piece of white oak being shaped with a rasp, one of three slats joining the top of the leg assemblies together and to the table top
the slats also receive a long bevel
the slats will rest in the notches being cut into the top of this leg section
clearing out material from the notch with a 1″ chisel
establishing the final depth with a router plane
here the slats are temporarily in place
an arsenal of shaping tools to begin sculpting the legs
shaping inside-curves of the leg assembly with an aggressive rasp
forming a radius where the legs meet the base
the preliminary drawings had a horizontal stretcher connecting the two leg assemblies at floor level. Having rough-shaped the components and taking a look, I started visualizing an arc instead. PVC pipe (already bent from a previous life in some low garden tunnels) offered a quick prototype to help see how it would look.
the arc made sense, so now setting about squaring up a white oak timber for re-sawing
re-sawn white oak and a glue-lamination form ready to make an arc
the glue lamination in the form- my 8 year old son was indispensable in this process, helping to roll glue, assemble, and clamp
rhythm is in unity to woodwork
the white oak timber, reconfigured as a messy arc
work for the jack plane
now the smoothing plane
cutting the tapers along the length of the arc at the band saw
marking the taper at the width
cutting the taper at the width
more elbow grease with the smoothing plane
shaping the many curves and facets along the arc, first with a drawknife
then with spokeshave
establishing details with knife
facets ease into curves
test fitting- some refining-shaping to go yet
setting the location of the chamfers on the leg-base
shaving away rasp markings
carving corner transitions
so many details to bring together- here the leg base is about done.
That’s it for this round- next week there will be lots of sanding, also carving and inlay work as the table finally starts to become unified. Thank you to everyone for following along, and for your encouraging comments.
surface preparation with a Stanley #80 scraper
the swirly walnut grain is difficult to plane but the scraper is able to deal with it efficiently
beginning to fit the side rails and bread-board ends
marking the end cuts with a sharp knife
then creating a shoulder along that line with a chisel assures a clean cut without tearing the grain
cutting along the shoulder with a sharp crosscut saw
a small array of saws to do this job
cutting the central breadboard tenon
coming up to the other side with a pull-saw
both ends of the table are now cut
cutting the base of the tenon “cheeks”
really no other position to accurately make this cut
cutting away the “cheeks”
the finished tenon, and a groove has been cut to receive a floating tongue to align the breadboard
laying out the positions of the mortise and tenons on the side rails and breadboards
cutting the tenon on the side rails
checking for a tight fit. the side rails are attached with glued tongue and groove joints, while the breadboards are “floating”, held in place by a tongue and groove joint and two “draw-bored” mortise and tenon joints, which will allow for expansion and contraction where the grain intersects perpendicular rather than parallel, yet holding the boards tight to the edge of the table. Two opposing corners are pinned miters and the other two are mortised. imagine the table being able to expand in width along the length of the two boards left long to see the allowance for seasonal cross grain movement.
treating the edges before the final assembly
drilling for the dowels for the pinned miter joints where the live edges come together
a brad point drill marks the center of the tenon inside
re-marking the tenon with an offset so that the dowel pin will “draw” it tight to the edge of the table. the holes will be elongated laterally to allow for joint movement.
altering geometry with violence
shaping the dowel pins by pounding the straight oak through a succession of smaller holes drilled in a steel plate until they are round and the size I need
nearly there
a batch of pins
planing a taper
the taper will allow the pin to engage the offset hole in the tenon and slowly pull it tight
pounding the pins home for the final assembly
a little help form a ratchet strap to pull the center tight
cutting away the exposed ends with a saw
a tightly pinned joint
the top all joined. there will be a considerable amount of detail work on the top yet, but first the base
Will it float?
The finished table in the shop.
In situ
The finished table installed under some european mounts.
And below is a slideshow of the second half of the build process.
Cantilevered rocking chair in Eastern Red Cedar. Yet to be oiled in these photos, but I like the softness and light on the forms of the unfinished cedar.
Middle stages of an eastern red cedar bar designed with my associate.
The School of the Transfer of Energy 