The table legs are longer than 24” which is the longer
than my longest precision metal ruler so I need to use something else. The typical tape measure comes to mind as the
first choice but I do not use them except for rough layout or where being a
little off is not a problem. In an ideal
world the hook at the end of the tape would slide back and forth equal to its
thickness giving the same measurement regardless if the tape is hooked over the
end of a board or up against a flat surface.
My tapes don’t live in an ideal world and the result is they give a
slightly different measurement depending on how the end hook is used. Here you can see that there is about 1/32”
difference. Not a lot and most of the
time it would not matter but here where I am trying to get the table legs and
rails to match up perfectly I don’t know which to believe when I am setting my
stop block on the chop saw to length.
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| Metal Tape Measuring Difference |
What I do use is an old school wooden folding ruler.
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| Wooden Folding Ruler |
Next up is to cut the long and short leg sections that
have the rabbits. I have a “T” track
inset in my workbench that allows me to clamp a stop block in place. That way I can very carefully set it up once
and then cut pieces all day the exact same length.
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| Sliding Compound Miter Saw & Stop Block |
With the wide set of leg pieces all cut to finished size
I could lay out the rabbits on each side.
Here is the L1-S (Leg1-Short) piece marked up. The rabbits are marked out pretty close but
not exact. They are a really a general
guide to help me make sure I cut in the right place rather than an exact cut line. I will use a dial caliper and the pieces that
go in the rabbit to get a precise fit.
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| Leg with Rabbits Marked Out |
Here are the wide pieces with some of the rabbit layout
work done.
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| Pieces to be Rabbited |
When I finished marking up all the pieces I swapped out
the rip blade on the table saw and set up the stack dado blade. The rabbit I am going to cut is a little over
¾” wide and about 9/16” deep. I suppose
I could cut it in one pass but that’s turning a lot of oak into sawdust at
once. I decided to take a little strain
off the saw and me and do it in 2 main passes with a final cleanup cut. A little calculation shows that by the time I
get done cutting the rabbits I will have converted over 370 cubic inches of oak
into sawdust. Odds are I will have to
empty the table saw dust collector during the process. The dado stack set I am using has three 1/8”
thick blades and one 3/32” thick. That gives me a total slightly over half the entire cut so I have a little overlap. This is my setup, note the yellow feather
board beyond the cut. It applies just
a little pressure on the board to keep it snug against the rip fence. I make two passes on each cut, the first hogs
out 99% of the material and the second takes care of any variation during
cutting so I end up with a clean, straight, flat bottom cut.
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| Table Saw Setup for Cutting Rabbits with Dado |
Adjusting the fence to take another cut then running all
eight pieces through the saw gets me very close to the final depth as confirmed
by a test fit.
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| Second Cut & Test Fit |
Moving the fence once more to make the final light cut
gives me the fit I am looking for. When
clamped up tight it’s just a couple thousands too deep as you can see when you get
really close.
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| Tiny Lip on Cut Rabbit |
Having that little lip means I can lightly sand the
overage and get a perfectly smooth joint for routing a round over on the edge
later on. My goal is to have the leg look
like it’s made out of a solid piece of oak.
That’s why I am taking so much time to match the grain and precisely cut
the joints.
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| Final Test Fit |
Now it’s time to rip the rest of the pieces that make up
the center column in the leg. They need
to be cut so that when installed the column is a square. I want all corners to be exactly 90 degrees
and the sides as close to being equal width as I can. This is so when the time comes to install the
two bands of mitered trim wrapping the leg the pieces should be the same or very
close in length. Time spent now will pay
off in not spending lots of time individually cutting and mitering all 32 of
those trim pieces. With the inset pieces cut to size I can do a test assembly to see how all the careful material
selection, layout and cutting come together.
Here are photos of the bottom part of the leg along with a close-up of
it. As you can see the joints are pretty
unobtrusive.
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| Dry Fit of Leg |
Last step here is to cut the inset pieces to
length. It’s the same process as before;
squaring one end, measuring, setting a stop block and making the cuts, with one
exception. Before I decide which end to
cut off I have to check for grain flow and how it matches up with the adjacent
pieces. This is how the four leg parts
look all done and ready for the next step.
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| Leg Pieces Ordered for Grain Flow |
I have been looking at various biscuit joiners for when I
do the top and saw this tag at the local Home Depot regarding a Ryobi Biscuit
Joiner. Take a look at the second box
from the left (circled in red). It says
10,000 Amps. I got a real laugh out of
that since it’s about 50 times the power capacity of the entire house. I believe the first number of 6.0 Amps is
right and the 10,000 should be RPM’s.
Still it was funny, I guess I am easily amused.
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| Funny Home Depot Biscuit Joiner Sticker |
Next Up – Leg Foot Blocking, Glue-up & a Problem
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