The peg holes in the legs are really for screws that will
get run into the plywood sides. To that
end I need to drill countersunk pilot holes centered in them. The drill press with a fence is used for
centering the bit in the existing peg hole.
A depth stop controls the countersinks depth so all the holes are a
consistent depth.
Here is what they look like finished.
The bottom rails need the bottom profile cut. To make sure the rail’s left and right sides
are a mirror image I started with taking the dimensioned plan then transferred
it to a ½” thick piece of MDF. However,
once drawn the arcs beginning and ending transitions looked a little stiff to
me. A few minor adjustments made the
full size MDF layout look better.
My next step is to cut out the MDF pattern. Not surprising once cut out the transitions
still did not look right. Making little
tweaks using a disk and drum sander I beat it into submission and finally got a
nice flowing profile. With the pattern
complete I traced its outline onto the rail then flipped it and did the other
end.
A trip to the bandsaw cutting about 1/16” outside the line and most
of the excess material gets removed. The
curves are pretty rough since the bandsaw has a ½” blade on it and does not
make very tight curves.
Using the disk sander to clean up the angled edge between
the end and the arcs is pretty easy as is using the oscillating drum sander to
clean up the arcs and their transitions.
What is not so easy is to get a flat and square surface between the arcs
that are parallel to the top edge of the rail.
Most of the power tools are not to good working in a recess or will not
give me the straight edge I want.
Neither will any of the hand tools I have access to. What I ended up using is the oscillating drum
sander with a very coarse sanding sleeve and my 4’ level as a straight edge
clamped to the sander’s table. Process
is to set level so drum takes just a little off then run the rail back and
forth against the drum until the bottom of the rail rides against the
level. Making slight additional
adjustments to the level allows me to sneak up to the line to get a good smooth
straight edge. When it looks good a
little hand sanding gets rid of the rough drum sanded surface. This piece will act as my pattern for the
other three rails that need to match.
To use the pattern the first step is to clamp it to the
rail blank so the ends and edges are flush then mark the profile with a pencil.
From there it’s back to the bandsaw to cut away most of
the waste.
When that’s done the pattern is placed face down on the
work bench with the bandsawn blank face down on top of it. The ends are aligned flush and a router with
a ball bearing trim bit is used to make an exact match of the pattern profile. The top photo shows the setup where I have
started routing from the left and made it about 1/3 of the way across the
recessed flat. Bottom photo shows a
closer look. You can see better here how
when the ball bearing on the bottom of the router bit runs along the pattern
the carbide cutting edge of the bit follows cleaning up the bandsawn edge and
matches the pattern’s profile. Once the
routing is done a little light sanding cleans up any roughness and the piece is
done.
Repeat the process three more times and all four of the
bottom rails are done.
One last detail on the back legs needs to be taken care
of. When I cut the groove for the back
panel it ran the full length of the leg.
The short section of the groove running from the leg end to the start of
the tenon will be open so I need to cut a small plug about ¼”x ½” then glue it
in the groove. Here are the top and
bottom ends of the leg showing what I mean.
After a blank is made to fit the thickness and just a little
taller than the groove, I just need to cut it to length. Rather than use a pencil I like a marking knife
for its precision.
Once marked the plug is cut to length on the chop
saw. Below you can see how the marked
line is set right at the saw cut edge in the fence.
Next the plugs are glued and clamped in place. I let them cure overnight and the next day
all that’s required is a little work with a small hand plane and some light
sanding to bring the plugs flush with the face of the leg. Here you can see how they look when done.
With the legs and rails completed (I think) working on
the top is next. Taking out the pieces
that have been setting for quite some time I checked them for any movement and
surprisingly given the way this group of Oak has moved around they were all
flat, square and true. As the top is
going to be roughly 17” wide I will have to glue it up out of three
pieces. Here is what the test clamping
looked like once I got the boards selected and matched for grain and color
flow. I also checked the joints to make
sure they matched up with no gaps.
Next is to glue up the first joint and clamp it. The clamps along the joint are to minimize
any mis-alignment that could sneak in during the clamping. I could have glued up all three pieces at
once but wanted to take my time in making sure the faces of the joint are as
closely matched as possible. The better
they match the less work and time I will have to spend flattening the blank.
Next up – Finishing the Top Glue-up & Sharpening a
Scraper
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