Greene & Greene End Table - #21 Plugs Completed & Making the Handle

With the ½” square plugs cut I could move on to the 3/8” and 7/16” square plugs.  They follow the same process as the ½” ones so that does not need to be covered again.  Once they are all cut a small bevel is sanded on the end to be inserted into the mortise so they are easier to start.  That only leaves the ½” by 1½” plugs to complete the illusion of through tenons on the front and back bottom rails.  The drawing on the left shows where two of them go while the drawing on the right is an enlarged version of the plug.  The quirk with these pegs is the outside face of them taper to match the taper of the legs.  That means making them is a little more challenging.

The first step is to cut the exposed face at same angle as the leg taper.  I could have measured the angle then set the chop saw up to cut that angle but the angle is small and there is plenty of room for error.  The easy way is to use one of the tapered off cuts from when the leg was tapered.  In the photo you can see the narrow end of the wedge is against the fence so when I make the cut the new edge matches the taper of the leg.  The “BOT” note on the blank will be the bottom of the finished plug.

Next is to mark all the bevels on all four sides of the plug then sand them.  Here the top photo is ready to sand and the bottom one has the sanded bevel.  These are easy to do as the face being sanded is 90 degrees to the sanding disk.

The other two edges are a different story, they are tapered.  To sand the same exact angle all I have to do is use the same tapered wedge used to make the cut earlier.  I just have to remember to reverse the wedge when sanding the bevel on the second side so the angle matches.  The photos below show what I mean with the wedge.

Last is cutting to length.  That’s done with a stop whose end matches the taper of the leg in this case that's a cutoff from the original leg whose end matches the taper.  The pencil line is square to the blank and will be where the plug is cut.

Here are all the finish plugs including the extras beveled and cut to length ready for the next step.

All of the finish plugs get either stained or dyed black and then sprayed with lacquer.  When they get installed the part of the plug that gets glued into the mortise needs to be bare wood.  That’s done two different ways.  First, the square plugs are pressed into a mortise in a scrap piece of plywood with only the finished area exposed plus 1/32”.  That way the glued part stays unfinished.  Second, for the rectangular plugs blue painters’ tape is used to cover the glued area minus 1/32” so it stays unfinished.  The 1/32” additional finished area over what’s exposed is a cushion to make sure no bare wood shows.  Here are all the plugs ready for finishing.

The India Ink used to “ebonize” the cherry plugs is applied with a small brush.  The container is nearly empty and thickens up a little when setting so it’s thinned with denatured alcohol.

Here’s all the finish plugs either “ebonized” or stained and ready for the lacquer to be applied.  There is another reason besides keeping the bottom of the plugs unfinished the plugs are set either set in mortises like the square ones or screwed down like the rectangular ones.  That’s to keep them in place when I spray on the lacquer.  Otherwise, when hit with the spray they would blow all over the place.

The finish plugs are set aside for a bit and making the drawer handle is next.  The original table has two drawers and mirrored handles as shown in the top photo.  Using just one of those handles would not look right so the handles were merged generally keeping the original form.  The drawing on the bottom shows that. 

Below the drawing shows a closer view of the handle and the bottom photo shows it laid out on the blank.

After layout the handle is roughed out using the bandsaw.  The rough surfaces and arcs are smoothed using the oscillating drum sander.  A fence and offset blocks are used to guide the handle past the drum to give a straight surface.  The offset blocks are needed since the diameter of the drum is bigger than the recess in the handle.  Once the straight surfaces are smoothed and the rough edges left from the bandsaw are removed the drum is replaced with a smaller one to sand the arcs smooth. 

Hand sanding to a finer grit than what’s available on the drum sander is next.   Also, any irregularities in the flat surfaces are sanded out using a flat sanding block.  Here is what the handle looks like before the edges are routed.  The handle is still about 2 ½ inches long.  Light pencil marks about an inch or so in from the ends marks the final size.

Routing a radius on most of the edges is next.  The top photo shows the basic setup.  The bottom photo shows the view from the back with the push block in place.

Cutting to length on the chop saw is next followed by slightly rounding the just cut edges then staining.  Last is to add a couple of screws and blocks in preparation for finishing.

Next is to take the drawer apart and do final sanding on it along with the false front.  Finishing the drawer and its final assembly is done in steps and I will go through them as I get there.  The last bit of work before starting to finish the base and drawer is to remove the ebonized cross supports.  They need to be labeled so they can be put back in the same place and taping the glue joint locations is next.  The photo shows when that work is done. 

Next Up – Lacquer Small Parts, Top & Shelf Final Glue-up plus Cutting to Size