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.

Dining/Game Table - #24 More Finishing, Applique Size Problem, Masking, Stain Color & Installation

The applique pieces will be glued on after the rest of the table is finished so I need to provide a lacquer free area for good glue adhesion.  This is accomplished by masking off an area prior to spraying the lacquer.  To speed up the process I made some templates to accurately mark where the tape goes.  This is the one for the top of the legs along with the masked result.

Template & Masking 

There are 24 applique pieces on the four legs plus one on each of the outer rails.  Here they are with the masking done.  As a joke I sent this photo to my son asking him what he thought about going with blue applique pieces.  He replied that lime green one’s would probably look better.

Masking for Applique Install

Spraying Outside

I got a lucky break in the weather so moved outside to give the legs their first couple of coats of lacquer.  It took me maybe 45 minutes to set everything up mix the lacquer, spray the pieces put everything away and clean up.  Way, way faster than using the air-brush.  In the photo the leg is sitting on a lazy-susan.  It easily allows me to turn the leg as needed to keep the light just right for spraying.  Three coats later they were done.

The dye, stain and lacquering of the Outer and Top Rails went smoothly.  I did put four coats of lacquer on these pieces as they will be subjected to more wear and tear than the previous parts.

That left just the top.  After the problem with the tiny hills and valleys on the face of the Outer Rails I gave the tops another sanding with the 220-grit paper then gave the faces a close inspection looking for any potential problems.  Seeing none I started on dyeing the hidden faces first.  Sure enough on the second leaf a whole series of fine scratches appeared.  They were very small, even smaller than the pores in the wood and I just could not see them until they were highlighted by the dye.  Reality is they are probably only a few thousandths of an inch deep but the dark dye just highlights every little imperfection.  Solution is to pull out the sander and sand until they are no longer visible, probably only a couple minutes work.  The dye is reapplied and blended into the original application.   All told in the 8 faces I had probably three instances where a problem showed up.

Small Scratches in Leaf & Repaired Piece

This is the setup I used for spraying the leaves.  Only difference is when I was spraying the garage door was open.  As you can see there is a lot of light from different directions on the surface.  I need that because I use the reflections to judge when I have applied an even “wet” coat.  Remember the lacquer is clear so the indicators of when the right amount of material is applied are pretty subtle.

Leaf  Spraying Setup

While waiting for a break in the weather I checked the applique pieces to make sure none had warped but some just did not seem right.  They looked a little wider than what I remembered they should look like.  I did some measuring and yep all 24 pieces that go on the legs were the wrong size.  Earlier in post seven I had done some testing and decided to narrow the applique pieces by 1/8”.  Well, that change never made it to my drawings so when I checked them for sizing I had the old measurements.  Fortunately, they were too big rather than too small.  Simple matter of ripping them to the right size, routing a new round over on the cut edge and sanding.  Not a huge problem but it took about 2 hours of work to fix.  To double check I taped a couple of the pieces on the leg and they looked like what I remembered.  So here I was waiting on the weather before I could finish spraying the leaves, a photo of the leg with neutral colored applique pieces, a comment from my son that that lime green would look good as an applique color and Photoshop all just waiting to be used.  A sure recipe for a prank with the result being a doctored photo of a leg with lime green applique pieces as my son had requested J .  His reply was, "Okay, I think we can safely eliminate the lime green option at this point.  Goodness does that hurt the eyes, hah!”

I finally got my break in the weather and over a couple of days gave the leaves their last coats of lacquer.  A few days later an 8,000 grit wet sanding pad did the final polish work and they were done.

In post #20 I had devised a way to seal the leaves against spillage using weather-stripping.  Now that the mounting strips are done and the finish has had a chance to cure I added the peal and stick weather-stripping.

Top, Test Weather-stripping for Leaf Joints - Bottom, Actual Application

A more realistic set of tests for the applique pieces followed.  They consisted of the body dye mix with various quantities of black added.  The best two were stained with gel and given two coats of lacquer.   From those two the best was selected and temporally taped on one of the legs.  A final review with my son, his OK and at last all the color decisions were done. 

I could now start the dye, stain and lacquer finishing process on all 28 of the pieces.  Here they are dyed, stained and ready for lacquer.  When I sprayed lacquer on the small test piece like those on the far right rather than spraying a nice even coat on the HVLP sprayer blew them across the room.  Funny now, not so much at the time.  I fixed that problem by taping them down to the scrap piece they are setting on.

Finished Applique Pieces Ready to Spray

All in all, with working around the weather and the sheer number of pieces the finishing process took the better part of a month and more than a gallon of lacquer.  I am happy with the results but it sure took a long time.

With the applique pieces finished I could start attaching them.  Using some simple jigs for consistent placement I glued and pin nailed them into place. 

Jig for Installing Applique Pieces

The pin nails are only about 22 thousandths of an inch thick but the shiny reflection off their end stood out against the dark finish.  A dab of dark putty killed that.

Here is what a leg and the outside rails look like with the applique pieces applied.

 

Applique Pieces Installed

This completes the last bit of work on the table before delivery which will be after it warms up in Arkansas.  Below are all the parts and pieces except for the playing surface/pad.

All Table Pieces Ready to Pack

Next Up – Packing & Installation

Dining/Game Table - #23 Resolving Stain Problem & Starting the Finishing

After thinking about how to fix the unstained pores I had an idea and decided to do some testing.  For my test material, I decided to use the Alignment Guides.  They are wide enough to give me a good sample and if things don’t work out quite right they are under the table and hidden from view behind the Outer Rail.  Here I am ready to start staining.  I will pour out some of the stain from the glass jar into the smaller plastic container.  That way when, not if, I eventually knock things over I will lose only a small amount of stain not the whole mixed lot.

Staining Setup & Materials

First, I stained the Alignment Guide assembly and when I examined it sure enough just like my large sample there were unstained pores here too.  

Unstained Pores

Before I go further I want to touch on the stain itself.  I have been using stain to indicate the finished mix of dyes and alcohol but that’s not really right.  A stain is an opaque pigment that for the most part remains on the surface of the wood and in it’s pores.  A dye on the other hand is a translucent material that penetrates deep into the wood and provides color from within.  I like to use dye because it is translucent and does not mask the character, figure or chatoyance of the grain.  Also, in this case I had several colors of concentrated dye and could easily custom mix the color I needed.

For the test, I am going to take advantage of a gel stain’s property of packing into the wood’s pores.  Here’s the sequence I used and observations:

1. On the left half I rubbed a dark walnut gel stain that has the consistency of pudding into the pores and wiped as much off it as I can.  It filled the pores but also slightly darkened the entire treated half.
2. I then gave the whole piece it’s first coat of lacquer, let it cure then lightly wet sanded with a 1,500-grit pad to remove any dust nibs.   The left half looked quite good while the right half still had the unstained pores.
3. On the right half that had just the dye mix and lacquer I rubbed the dark walnut gel stain into the pores and wiped off the rest.  Because the one coat of lacquer had sealed the non-porous surface but not filled the pores the only area impacted by gel stain was the pores.
4. A second coat of lacquer was sprayed on the whole piece.

The next day I gave the second coat of lacquer a light wet sanding using a 4,000 grit pad.  Going in I thought the stain (dye), lacquer, gel stain and lacquer would give the best results.  To my surprise, it did not.  The best was the left test; stain (dye), gel stain and lacquer.  The result is a richer slightly deeper color even better than what we had decided on using.  A silver lining to a problem.

Left, Dye/Gel Stain/Lacquer - Right, Dye/lacquer/Gel Stain/Lacquer

With the stain mix and finish application for the body of the piece settled (color of applique pieces are still under discussion) I could start the finishing process for real. 

The lacquer spray mix is a combination of satin lacquer, lacquer thinner and a small amount of retarder.  I mix it in a quart plastic container then pour into the 8 ounce cup used on the spray gun. 

Lacquer Materials

I decided to start the finishing by spraying 2 coats of lacquer on the MDF.  It will be hidden under the pad but because if MDF gets wet is swells up and loses structural integrity I wanted to provide some protection in case of a major spill.   It will also give me a chance to refresh my spraying skills before I start on the oak itself.  No stain is needed and I use the HVLP spray system for the application.  Setup is simple, the HVLP turbine goes in the shop plugged into the radio controlled on-off switch for the dust collector.  The 1” air supply hose gets run outside to the spray stand that consists of two sawhorses and a set of pyramid risers.  That’s it, once pieces are sprayed they are brought into the shop and set on blocks to dry.

Spraying Lacquer

Once sprayed and cured overnight the MDF is lightly sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to knock down any roughness due to dust.  I don’t want a really smooth surface but one with a little tooth to help hold the pad in place.  The oak will follow a bit different process because I want a really, really smooth surface. 

MDF Sealed with Lacquer

I started the actual finishing by completing the stain work on the alignment pieces then dyed and stained the oak sub-structure for the MDF.  Most of the individual components are not very wide which does not lend them to the HVLP sprayer.  Also, the weather has not cooperated much forcing me to spray in the shop.  Those two considerations have meant a number of the pieces have been sprayed using the air-brush.  It is quite a bit slower but gives the same quality and is more in tune with the constraints noted above.  I gave them two coats of lacquer wet sanding between coats with a 2,100-grit pad and with an 8,000 grit pad at the end.  This completes the hidden pieces so from now on I will be working on the visible pieces.  I know if you are on your back on the floor under the table you can see the sub-structure parts but most of the time they will be out of sight.

The legs went fine as did three of the four Outer Rails.  When I applied the dye to the last piece I noticed a series of vertical lines (scallops).  They are caused by tiny hills and valleys on the face.  My guess is they were a result of sympathetic vibrations when I ran that piece through the thickness sander.  Because they are so small I did not see them when doing the final sanding and preparation for staining.  Unfortunately, the only way to fix the problem is by sanding the piece flat then re-staining.  Leaving them is not a good option because when I spray the piece with lacquer they will just get more pronounced.  After sanding and re-dying it looked just fine.

Sanding Scallops

Here is an in progress shot with a bunch of different pieces dyed and stained.

Dying & Gel Stain Pieces in Progress

Next Up – More Finishing plus Applique Size Problem, Masking, Stain Color & Installation