At last, all the oak base pieces are completed and are ready for a final test fitting prior to gluing up. This is what they look like sanded ready for assembly and finishing.
During this assembly the veneer panels will be cut to size and any adjustment made to the grooves so everything fits together well. This drawing shows where the veneer panels go.
Once all the veneer panels have been ripped to width and
cut to length this is what the piece looks like from the back. The front looks similar except the center
panel will be a drawer faced with matching veneer. 
Looking ahead to how the finish is going to look I think that the veneer panels will just get sprayed with lacquer while the oak pieces will probably get a stain then sprayed with lacquer. Even though the frame is not glued together it’s not too early to think through the finishing process. The problem is in what order to do things so an early step does not cause a problem later on. After some thought here are the steps, subject to change as I go along:
- Spray a scrap veneer piece with lacquer to verify it looks good without any stain. If it doesn’t then do more testing on what stain may be needed.
- Using the completed veneer sample pick an oak stain, apply it to an oak scrap and lacquer. If it doesn’t look right make adjustments to stain and repeat until it does.
- Finish the veneer panels with stain (if needed) and apply one coat of lacquer.
- Mask out areas of the oak frame that will get glued then stain.
- Final dry fit and drilling of various pilot holes for screws.
- Glue up frame. Now this is going to be a whole different sequencing problem as there are a lot of joints that need to fit together just so and in the right order.
Here is what I use for spraying small projects with
lacquer. Since the sample pieces and
veneer panels are all fairly small it’s what I’ll be using. Starting at the back top left is the
respirator mask whose cartridges are N100 filters plus they also remove both
acid and organic vapors. It’s setting
on the gallon can of nitrocellulose lacquer.
On the right is a can of lacquer thinner used to thin the lacquer to
proper consistency. The next row on the
left has two smaller bottles that go with the large HVLP sprayer. Here I am using the left one for thinner and
the right one for lacquer. I use them as
intermediates since I am less likely to make a mess when using them to load the
small bottles on the right that get attached to the air-brush that applies the
lacquer. The left bottle gets filled
with thinner and the right bottle gets partly filled with lacquer then thinned
for application. The lines on the right
bottle let me track the ratio of the two.
On the far right are a pair of blue nitrile gloves for hand
protection. In the front on the left is
a tack cloth used to remove any dust from the piece to be sprayed. To its right is the sprayer and at the far
right attached to the spray hose is the filter/regulator. It removes any crud in the line from the air
compressor and maintains the air pressure I have set on it feeding the
air-brush.
Below on the top is the unfinished veneered sample while
the one on the bottom has a coat of lacquer.
As you can see the lacquer makes quite a difference in the
appearance. The color is good but, in
the photo, the light reflection subdued the grain effect. It’s more pronounced in real life.
Taking the lacquered test piece, I sorted through my
drawer of finish samples picking out the ones that seemed like they were
possible candidates. Below is the veneered
panel surrounded by the samples.
Eliminating them one by one I ended up selecting Golden
Oak. Here is a scrap from the project
with the stain applied and one coat of lacquer.
With the stain and finish decided on I can proceed with
spraying the veneered pieces. To
stabilize them and help prevent any warping both sides get a coat of
lacquer. The top photo shows one coat of
lacquer on the veneered face and the bottom side shows the back side with a
coat.
While waiting for the lacquer to dry on the first side of
the veneer panels I stained the oak pieces after putting tape on the areas that
will get glued to keep them free of stain.
After letting the lacquer cure overnight, they are
lightly wet sanded with an 1,800-grit pad.
This removes any dust or other flaws in the finish and flattens it in
preparation for the next coat which will be applied after the table is
assembled.
The back frame is then dry assembled, clamped and the diagonals checked. If they are the same then the piece is square. Fortunately, all the careful measuring and meticulous work paid off in that this assembly is dead on. With that bit of good news, the locations for the screws can be marked. One screw goes in each of the 14 mortises and along with the glue will lock the pieces together. To keep from marring the stained surface the assembly is done on old towels. Also, as shown in the bottom photo small wedges are placed between the leg and the clamp to prevent damage. The wedges are cut from the tapered waste offcut so the angle exactly matches.
Next is to drill the holes for the screws. Typical of the process using the spindles (in
top photo) as an example is to use a combination pilot hole and countersink bit
in the drill press to drill the hole shown in the bottom photo. Once the fence location and proper hole depth
is set it’s easy to drill the hole in each of the spindles. The rest of the holes follow a similar
process that varies with the screw diameter and length.
I did have a problem with one of the holes. The drill hit something in the wood probably
one of the hard fall growth rings that deflected the bit a little causing the
part to be pushed out of line resulting in an off-center hole. I did notice it before the countersink was
drilled so to correct clamped the part to the fence. That held it in place when redrilling
and mostly centered the hole allowing for an acceptable placement of the
countersink.
Next Up – Base Glue-up
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