Dining/Game Table - #26 Packing & Installation

With warmer weather arriving in Arkansas and my wife having completed our taxes I carefully wrapped and packed the table into the trunk of the Toyota.  I used a whole lot of padding since I certainly did not want two pieces rubbing against each other and messing up the finish.  Once the table was in the car we fitted luggage around that and headed out. 

You would think that living in the desert would mean a fairly rain free climate.  It seems not so much when we travel.  We got just over the San Augustin Pass about 20 miles from home and it started to rain.  It then proceeded to rain on us the rest of that day and the next almost all the way to Arkansas.

Arriving in Arkansas we carefully unloaded the pieces checking for damage.  Fortunately, everything came through just fine no scratches or anything.  With all the parts grouped together in the living room we could began the assembly process.  I sure am glad I numbered all the piece’s connection points.  That plus having all the screws bagged by assembly step and part I hope will simplified the process of putting the table together.

To take photos of the assembly I set the camera so that it would take a photo every two minutes, put it on a tripod and we went to work.  This setup yielded about 125 images from which I narrowed down to the ones here. 

The start is the existing dining area with all the old furniture removed.  

First is to bring the legs in then the attach the sliders to their bottom.  When I turned the first leg over to attach the sliders a whole lot of sawdust fell out and landed on the floor.  After we cleaned that up we took all the legs outside and emptied them.  

The rails get attached next, in the photo you can see just a little bit of glue squeeze out between the left leg and the rail.  That was cleaned up with a damp paper towel.

Unfortunately, while tightening one of the screws it twisted off.  Fortunately, there was a stub big enough to grab onto it with a pair of pliers. I could remove it and then use one of the extra screws I brought, just in case.

Here we are cleaning glue off one of the rails.  I had inadvertently put glue on the wrong side and needed to clean it off, put glue on the correct side then screw it in place.  No real problem just a bit embarrassing.

With all four rails glued and screwed on the next step it to measure the table’s diagonals and square the basic frame up.  

Next is to assemble the sub-structural assembly for the playing surface then set it in place.

After setting the sub-structure in place it is time to add the MDF playing surface base.  

There are three pieces of MDF that make up the playing surface base and 100 screws that attach them to the sub-structure.  Thank-goodness for the power drill.  

We did need to add some shims in a couple of places to level the pieces.  Here you can see me pointing at which screw my son needs to loosen so I can add the shim.

Next is to take the actual playing surface and fit it over the spacer screws in the MDF that are all around the perimeter.  They put just a little tension on the playing surface holding it flat and smooth.

The inner rail assembly is screwed together and set it in place.  

I can now drive the long screws up through the playing surface sub-structure which as I tighten compresses the playing surface and locks it to the inner rail assembly.  

Pocket hole screws are then added to fasten the inner rail assembly to the outer rails. 

The last set of pieces to be attached to the table make up the arm rail.  The individual pieces are set upside down on the table then temporarily screwed together and flipped over face up.  

Here you can see the flat plate clamp I used to make sure the faces of the miter joint are perfectly aligned and lying flat.  

With all the corner miter joints aligned flush we moved the arm rail frame to it’s final location then screw it to the table from the underneath.

Now came putting the top together and it’s final fitting.  We started by screwing the oak strips that have the weather-stripping onto the underneath side of the leaves.  If you look carefully in the lower right you can just see the brass pin in the center of the arm rail that will hold the top in place.  

Our next step was to install the wood pegs into the leaves that are used for alignment.  In order to make sure the right pins went in the right holes I had carefully numbered the pins and the holes.  However, when I stained the holes it covered up the numbers.  The good thing was that I had remembered what hole I had started with so that was not a problem.  Unfortunately, when I tried to install the pins they would not go in.  For a bit, I was dumbfounded.  After all they had fit perfectly when I had everything together prior to finishing and I could not believe the change in humidity would hit that soon or cause such a problem.  Then it hit me, while spraying the finish on I had built up enough lacquer in the holes that the pins would no longer fit.  The solution was to re-drill the holes to remove the built-up finish.  With that done they went together just fine albeit with a little persuasion from a small crescent wrench.  You know using the right tool for the job. 😊

After putting the last piece of the top in place we set the chairs around the table and christened the table by eating dinner off it.  All the fussing and working trying to get the stain right certainly paid off.  The chairs and the table go together like a set.  

Afterwards the top came off and we played a game.  The consensus was the playing surface worked great and the conversion from dining table to game table was easy to do.

I think the project turned out very well all the time and effort that went into the design plus the testing paid dividends.  However, I believe my next project will be something a little smaller.

Dining/Game Table - #25 Toy Car

I know I said the next entry would be for the Packing & Installation but things change.  While waiting for the weather to warm up in Arkansas another project came up that I needed to do.  It’s pretty short so I will include it here.  I have made a toy car for some friends sons when they turn one year old.  Their youngest will be one this summer so I thought now would be a good time to make it.  Here is a photo of the first two cars I made.  The one on the bottom is the oldest and has the most dents and dings from being played with.

I looked at the previous two cars then went to my scrap box to get material.  I want the cars to be made from different material combinations so the boys would not fuss as to whose is whose.

I already had a drawing so it is pretty simple to print out a full-scale plan to use for laying out the pieces.  Bottom is walnut for the body, oak for the fenders in the center and at the top cherry for the wheels.

The walnut was a tapered end from another project whose edge I wanted to use was rough sawn.  A couple of minutes with the hand plane gave me my smooth straight edge for the bottom of the car.  With that done I used spray adhesive attach the body and fender patterns to the wood blanks.

I will rough cut the parts out with the bandsaw.  Here is the body blank ready to be cut.

You can’t see the blade too well here but it is a half inch wide.  Given how tight the curves are I could have changed the blade to a ¼” one to get a better cut but did not want to take the time to make the change and reset the guides.  As a result the cutout is a little rough but it’s not really much of a problem.

To smooth out the curves I used my oscillating drum sander.  It has several different size drums and I have about four different grits for each drum.  Between the different sizes and grits I can get a surface ready for final sanding pretty easy.

Here is what the body and fenders look like ready to be glued together.  Take a look at the axle holes.  The axles for the wheels are 3/8” diameter.  Because they are glued into the wheels the holes in the body need to be bigger than 3/8” to allow for free play.  My regular brad point drills go up by sixteenths, more play than I wanted around the axle.  A 3/8” drill is .375” and the 7/16” is .438”.  I do have a metric 10mm bit which works out to be .394” and it is just what I needed.  

  

To do the glue up I apply a thin film of glue on the fender then hold it in place by hand for a couple of minutes until the glue tacks.  Four clamps hold them in place while the glue cures. 

Next up is to make the axles.  I squared a piece of cherry to 7/16” then turned down on the lathe until it was just over 3/8”.  I then drive it though a 3/8” steel die to size it to exactly 3/8”.  From there its back to the lathe to round the ends and here it is ready to be cut off the square blank. 

The wheels are next, below is their evolution.  I start by using a compass to draw an oversized circle and cut that out using the bandsaw.  Next is drill a centered pilot hole in the wheel blank and mount it to a hollow adapter using a wood screw.  The adapter then gets mounted in the 4-jaw chuck and the wheel is turned to the final diameter along with the edges being rounded.  The last step is to drill a 3/8” hole for the axle.

Here are all the parts, everything is completed except for some final sanding.  The 5th wheel goes on the back of the car and to make it spin I use the 10mm bit for the wheel hole instead of the 3/8” bit I used for the other four.

To get a matched amount of the axle protruding beyond the wheel can be a bit frustrating.  That’s because the wheels and axles fit together snugly.  When you add glue and start twisting the wheel on the axle the glue will grab and it’s really hard to make small controlled adjustments.  To get the fine control needed I took a couple of 1/8” thick spacers then drilled a hole through them for the axles.  A C-clamp is used to gradually pull everything tight.  When the ends of the axle hits the jaws of the clamp I know I have the thickness of the spacer protruding beyond the wheel.  Easy to do and I get consistent results.

Final step is to give the whole toy a couple of coats of Danish Oil Finish.  I use this penetrating finish instead of a film type finish like lacquer or polyurethane.  If the Danish Oil gets roughed up as the kids play with it to refurbish all I have to do is clean the surface up and apply another coat.  Think of it as applying mineral oil on a cutting board versus trying to repair a surface film finish.  I will let the toy set for a few weeks to make sure the finish is completely cured before he gets it but here it is a couple of days after the finish application.