When Does it Matter?

If you are building a set of storage shelves for your laundry room, worrying about the figure of the wood is an unnecessary step. Your concern there is strength and usability. (Can it hold all the laundry detergent and can you reach it?)

In the same way, the interior and back of a cabinet or chest of drawers are often not seen and as such don’t benefit from a fancy figure. That’s why those components are regularly made from a less fancy secondary wood such as poplar or pine, because while they are structurally sound, they are also less expensive.

Where figure comes to the fore is in exposed areas that are the show faces of your furniture, such as the top of a table or sideboard, the drawer fronts on a chest of drawers or the doors of a tall cabinet. That is where you want to help your project show off and draw the viewer’s attention. It has the effect of a nice shirt and tie worn over a white cotton undershirt.

Other Considerations

Once you become aware of the different types of figure available, even within a species, it is a great way to spice up the look of your projects. But just as food can become too strong to eat with an overload of spice, so too can excessive figure overpower a piece of furniture.

A large project constructed entirely of wood with a crazy wild figure can come off visually as a bit over the top. To keep that from happening, builders will often use exceptional grain in a specific area of a project only — say the top of a chest of drawers or the doors of a tall cabinet. And they will offset that feature with subtler figured wood of the same species to extend a sense of harmony throughout the design. This is one area where handmade furniture has a huge advantage over production pieces: you can choose where to accentuate with figure.

Another place where intense figure is not best used is where there is a lot of machining or carved detail. Using quartersawn white oak in the carved panel on the opposite page would have the figure fighting with the shape of the carving.

You are the Boss

You may have noticed that the directions here have been in the form of guidelines as opposed to rules. All of these choices are subjective, and there are likely no right or wrong decisions. Experimenting with the options is the best way to find your preferences. As stated earlier, this is one of the ways to truly enhance handmade furniture. Learning about figure in lumber is a fun way to advance your skill in the craft.

Lead Illustration by Ian Kirby.

The post Figuring Out Figure appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Once the rests are positioned and the magnets are turned on, tightening the bolts on the rests holds the wheels in place against a bowl or spindle. The system works great, and it can easily be retrofitted to any lathe.

– Al Fletcher
Mahtomedi, Minnesota

The post Magnetic Homemade Steady Rest appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

I use this method when I need to create a lot of mitered frame parts, because it really speeds up the slot-cutting process.

-Dan Martin
Galena, OH

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“Across the country there has been a significant increase in our customer demand for quality lumber to support home improvement, woodworking and other DIY project needs,” says Joe Kester, Rockler’s vice president of retail.

In many stores, these expansions of lumber inventory are significant. For example, in Maplewood, Minnesota, the store’s lumber area has increased from 800 square feet to 2,600 square feet. The Sandy Springs, Georgia, store has also expanded its lumber display from 800 to 2,600 square feet. In Seattle, Washington, the store now offers 1,800 square feet of floor space for lumber — up from the previous 400.

So what’s on the racks? Shoppers will find hardwood such as walnut, hard maple, cherry, red oak and poplar, plus exotic species like mahogany, padauk, purpleheart, zebrawood and black limba. An expanded selection of high quality Baltic birch plywood in several sizes is also available for cabinet construction and small projects.

Rockler now carries more live edge slabs for one-of-a-kind tables, an impressive variety of turning blanks for pens, handles and bowls, and a diverse assortment of veneer, including many flitch cut book-matched varieties.

More Lumber Services

These new areas are staffed by lumber experts who can help customers plan their material lists and select the right species and boards. Stores will also cut boards to length for free, so customers pay for only what they need. If additional milling is desired, the staff can rip or plane the lumber to the desired size for a fee.

Rockler is also expanding its online lumber offerings at rockler.com. If you haven’t visited a Rockler store, a locator on the website can help you find a location near you.

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Getting Started

Plane 3/8″-thick stock for the arms, the center layer of the three-part base and the light’s mounting plate. Hardwood such as oak is best to make the articulated arm sufficiently rigid, and heavier stock in the base keeps the center of gravity low.

The base platform is 12″ wide, while the vertical base components measure 14-1/2″ wide, so glue blanks up from multiple pieces. This not only gives you the needed width, but carefully arranging individual pieces also helps to avoid warping in the completed components.

Creating the Arms and Base

Rip a 40″-long piece of 3/8″ stock to 2-1/2″ wide to make the upper arm and one of the two lower arms. Cut another 2-1/2″ x 24″ piece for the second lower arm. The longer workpiece allows you to mark a continuous taper from one end of the two-part arm to the other, starting at 2-1/2″ wide at the bottom of the lower arm and reducing to 1-5/8″ wide at the top of the upper arm. If you prefer, plot patterns onto your stock.

Now draw the rounded ends. The compass’s pinpoint (see Drawings) marks the exact spots for drilling bolt holes later. Separate the two arms from the longer piece then cut just the upper arm to shape.

The most efficient way to process the lower arms is with the workpiece you’ve laid out atop the other unmarked workpiece. Join them with a single 23-gauge pin nail though the compass points (or use carpet tape), then cut and sand at the same time to make identical workpieces. Afterward, pry the pieces apart. Pull out the nails with pliers.

The base platform is just a trapezoid that measures 3-1/4″ wide at one end and 12″ at the other. Mark it to shape and cut it out. Create a paper or cardboard pattern, using the gridded as your guide, to lay out two outer bases and one inner base piece. Cut these to shape, but don’t cut the top end of the neck round just yet.

To minimize sliding, glue and clamp the inner base to just one of the outer base pieces. Allow the glue to set, then glue and clamp on the remaining outer base piece. When it dries, use sanders to refine and smooth both base components.

Now drill 1/4″ pivot holes through the arms on your compass marks. (Again, stack the lower arms to do this.) To get the lower pivoting action correct, lay a lower arm component along the top of the base so the arm’s wide end lines up with the center of the base’s extended neck. Pencil a mark onto the neck through the pivot hole, then use a compass to mark the round end of the neck for cutting. Cut it out and drill a 1/4″ hole through the neck on the layout mark.

Making the Light Plate

Mark and cut out the light mount plate and the two sides of the light mount swivel. Stack the swivel pieces and drill a 1/4″ hole through them, per the pattern. Glue them up with a 3/8″ x 3/8″ spacer at the bottom. Keep the bolt holes aligned when clamping the parts. When the glue dries, center the light mount swivel on the light mount plate, and glue and clamp it into place.

Final Assembly

Center the base on the base platform 2″ in from its rear edge, and mark the location. Lay out the base’s bottom face for three installation screws so you can drill countersunk pilot holes for them.

Drill pilot holes in the corners of the base, and attach the casters with screws and washers. Now apply glue to the bottom of the base, set it atop the base platform and secure it from underneath with 2″ screws.

Give everything a final sanding before applying a finish. Then assemble the arm and light mount swivel with 1/4″ x 1-1/2″ bolts and star knobs. Install the lower arm on the base with a 1/4″ x 2-1/2″ bolt and star knob.

To secure the light itself, apply hook-and-loop tape to the back of the light and to the face of the light mount.

I chose this particular battery-powered light because it’s very bright with two settings (120 and 900 lumens), weighs only 3.6 ounces and there’s no power cord to get in the way. If you use a different light, adjust the size of the mounting plate accordingly. If the light you choose is heavier, you may need beefier bolts and knobs, and perhaps some thin neoprene washers, to keep the arm tightened in position.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Versa Smart 900-Lumen Utility Light (1) #65546
2″ Black & Blue TPU Swivel Caster (3) #63728
Rockler Easy-to-Grip 4-Star Knob, 1/4″-20 (3) #59277

The post PROJECT: Rolling Task Light appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

You’ll notice in the opening photo that I’ve shaped the wide front apron and bottom shelf with a “wave” style edge to create a sense of visual movement. That same shape is repeated across the top of the bench’s slats by using a large template to cut and rout the slats from a glued-up blank. But all these curves aren’t necessary. Straightedged timber would also work for the front apron, top slats and shelf. That’s the version of the project shown in the Exploded View Drawing. How artsy you want your bench to be is up to you!

Getting Started with Stock Surfacing

I use roughsawn western red cedar for almost all of my outdoor projects, because it stands up to the outdoors well and I love its color variations. But it needs some initial surfacing to make it suitable for this bench. So my first step was to run the stock for the 1-1⁄2″-thick parts across my jointer to flatten one face, then send it through my planer to smooth the other faces and reduce the boards to correct thickness. Do the same to your cedar if you’re also starting with thick, rough stock.

With that done, joint one edge of each board flat so you can use that reference edge to rip workpieces to width for the bench top slats, four aprons, lower shelf pieces, inner cross bracing and soil bin lid battens. See the Material List for these part sizes. Now go ahead and crosscut these parts to final length. I broke this stock down at my miter saw, using a stop block on my miter saw station’s fence to make sure the same-length parts would be cut accurately.

The 4x4s I purchased for the legs and bottom stretchers were already milled quite nicely, with flat, smooth faces and square edges. So I just cut the legs and stretchers to length without any further surfacing at the planer or jointer.

Making Joinery

Now it’s time to mill some mortise-and-tenon joinery to attach the stretchers to the legs. Start by laying out the tenons on the ends of the stretcher blanks. Set a marking gauge to 1-1/2″ so you can scribe shoulder lines for the tenons all the way around the ends of the parts. Then install a wide dado blade in your table saw and raise it to 3/4″ high.

I set up a stop on my miter gauge’s long auxiliary fence so all of the shoulder cuts would line up around the workpieces. Make these shoulder cuts on both ends of each stretcher, then remove the stop on the miter gauge and saw away the rest of the material in the tenon areas with more side-by-side passes to complete them.

With the tenons done, use their 2″ x 2″ proportions to lay out a corresponding mortise on each of the legs. Locate these mortises 4-3/4″ up from the bottoms of the legs, centering the mortises on the leg thicknesses. Now step over to your drill press to drill out as much of these mortises as you can. I used a big Forstner bit for this job and set the drilling depth to just a tad deeper than 1-1/2″ so the stretcher tenons would fit fully into them. Drill out the waste in several overlapping plunges.

Tidy up the mortises with a sharp chisel and mallet so their walls are flat and smooth and the corners are square. Now try out the tenons in the leg mortises; they should fit together without needing to “persuade” them into place with a mallet.

You’re nearly ready for some assembly, but first decide if you want to shape the bottom edges of the potting bench’s front apron like I did with a wave pattern. Or leave its bottom edge flat. I drew the swooping shape on a long piece of 3/4″-thick scrap to serve as a template so I would be able to trace the same curvature onto all of the bench’s sculpted parts.

Cut out the template’s shaped edges and sand them smooth. Then trace its profile onto the front apron blank, rough-cut the wavy edge and template-rout it to final form. Ease any sharp edges that are left, and sand smooth all the workpieces you’ve made up to this point.

Assembling the Bench Frame

Tenons can be challenging to cut on really long workpieces. So for ease of assembly, I drilled the inside faces of the four aprons for pocket-screw joints instead. I created two subassemblies for the bench frame by gluing the bottom stretcher tenons into their leg mortises and driving 2-1/2″ exterior pocket screws to attach the short aprons to the upper ends of the legs. I inset the short aprons 1/2″ from the outside faces of the legs. After that came the long, unwieldy front and back aprons. To install those, I first clamped them in place between the subassemblies, setting them back 1/2″ from the faces of the legs as well, then drove their pocket screws home. Working alone as I do, long clamps sure made this step easier!

Next you can install two of the five inner cross braces between the aprons near one end of the bench. I positioned these to straddle the tapered sides of Jonathan’s galvanized steel soil bin (see the Inner Cross Brace Locations Drawing). The bin simply wedges between these cross braces and hangs from them. Position the braces so the rim of the bin will be even with the top edges of the aprons. This way, the bin’s rim will support the removable soil bin lid when that is set into place. Again, I turned to pocket screws to attach these two bin cross braces to the aprons.

Creating Wave-shaped Artisanal Top Slats

The key to recreating the author’s optional wave-shaped details on this potting bench’s top slats, front apron and bottom shelf boils down to basic template routing. A single long template with the sculpted profile on both edges is all you need to trace, cut and rout this shape over and over again. Here’s how it works.

Draw the wave-shaped profile along both edges of an 8-ft. piece of scrap plywood, MDF or solid stock to serve as a template. Cut the template to shape and sand its curved edges smooth.

Trace the template onto the front apron, glued-up top panel (for top slats) and bottom shelf piece shown here. The same template is used for every shaped part.

Use a jigsaw or band saw to cut the wavy profile into each workpiece. Cut about 1/16″ outside of your layout lines. Make sure to have outfeed support in place for band sawing long stock like this.

Pin nail the template to the workpiece so the rough-cut edges extend beyond the edges of the template. If you don’t have a pin nailer, double-sided carpet tape works well, too.

Install a long piloted flush-trim or pattern bit in your router or router table, and adjust the bit so its bearing can roll along the template. Rout away the waste edges.

Once the author had cut and routed her bench’s curvy tabletop slats to shape, she nested them together in their final order to cut a lid for the soil bin. A track saw guided these straight cuts.

Choosing and Building the Benchtop

Now’s the time to choose either my wave-shaped “artisanal” top for your bench or go with straight slats instead. The “straight-slat” approach requires five 5-1/2″-wide boards cut to 92″ lengths. If you want to create a sculpted top, however, start by gluing up enough 1-1/2″-thick stock to create a 32″ x 92″ solid panel.

As shown above, the process for making each wave-shaped, sculpted top slat is pretty easy. Use the long template you made for shaping the front apron’s lower edge to trace a repeating pattern of slats across the panel. Space these layout lines about 1/4″ apart so you’ll have room to cut each of the slats free. You’ll see that the shape of my template enabled me to offset each slat in the layout so the wave pattern appears to “drift” diagonally across the bench’s top. It’s a nice effect!

Once the slat pattern is drawn on your panel, use a jigsaw or band saw (if you have adequate support around it) to saw the slats to rough shape. Cut just outside your layout lines. Then mount your template temporarily to each slat with pin nails or pieces of double-sided tape so you can rout the slat edges flush to the template. Use a long piloted pattern- or flush-trim bit for this task. Clean up all the top slats this way, then break their sharp edges with a 1/8″ roundover bit in a handheld router to keep splinters at bay.

Whether you’ve decided to use straight or sculpted slats, their installation procedure is the same. Flip all the slats upside-down and set them together with their ends and edges aligned. Separate them with some 3/16″-thick scraps. Then get a buddy to help you flip the bench over as I did, and position it carefully on top of the slats, adjusting for an even overhang. My bench’s top overhang was about 1-1/2″ all around. Then set the remaining three cross braces you’ve made into place inside the bench frame aprons, spacing them evenly along its length. These will support the top slats and serve as attachment points for them in the area beyond the soil bin cross braces (refer again to the Inner Cross Brace Locations Drawing). Mark these three “loose” cross braces for pairs of screws at every benchtop slat location.

Installing the Benchtop Slats and Shelf

Once my three braces were laid out for screws, I marked and bored a pair of pocket-screw holes on each end into their top faces. We flipped the bench right-side-up again so I could install the three cross braces flush with the top edges of the aprons using 2-1/2″ pocket screws. And while the bench was off the top slats, I marked them so I could cut a 20-3/4″-wide x 31-1/4″-long lid for the soil bin. When those slat portions are cut free, space them 3/16″ apart and line up their cut edges. Position the two soil bin lid battens on the bottom face of the lid segments and spread them evenly apart. Drive countersunk 2-1/2″ exterior-rated screws through the battens and into the lid slats to fasten the parts together.

With the lid now done, carefully invert the bench frame and set it on the slats again, realigning the parts. Drive 2-1/2″ exterior- rated screws into the cross brace pilot holes you drilled earlier to fasten the top slats in place.

I shaped the edges of the two shelf boards with the wave template to continue that theme there. And since the bench was still upside-down at this point, I drilled countersunk pilot holes through the stretchers so I could fasten the two shelf boards to them from below with 4″ exterior-rated screws.

You can choose to stain and/or finish your bench if you like, but Jonathan and I both agreed that it would look nice with no finish at all. It’s now aged to a lovely silvery gray color.

Download Drawings and Materials List.

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It is a valued place in most of our homes and for that reason, it makes some sense to have a quality table as the nexus of all this togetherness. This table project here is only 40″ square, so it would not work for seating a big family.

But it is perfect for an apartment — a mom, dad and a young one or two. When it’s time to progress to a larger dining table, move this one to a family room and voilà … you have a game table! One thing is certain: with its substantial white oak construction, this table will take the wear and tear of family life, perhaps for generations.

I mentioned that it is made from white oak lumber; the quartersawn stock is 1-1/4″ thick for the tabletop, the legs are 2-1/2″ in section and the aprons are 3/4″ thick. There are four corner braces hidden under the top that add significant strength to the piece. It is indeed built to last.

We borrowed the cloud lift motifs on the aprons and the gentle curves on the legs from the Greene brothers. It is not a Greene and Greene reproduction by any means, but their inspiration adds stylish details to this table’s relaxed design.

Templates are the Key to Success

Making multiple matching curved pieces like these legs and aprons is best done by employing templates to guide your cuts, be they on the band saw or with a guided router bit. Use the gridded drawings to make your own.

Soon Rockler will have templates for this table for sale as well. However you start, making these templates accurately from MDF will get you a long way down the road to success.

Selecting Stock, Harvesting Parts

I ordered my supply of quartersawn lumber surfaced on two sides at 1-1/4″ thick and in random widths and lengths. I was disappointed with the amount of sapwood I found in the boards, so part of my stock preparation was avoiding the sapwood as I harvested pieces for the legs and the tabletop. Unfortunately, I was not 100 percent successful in my goal. The leg’s final dimensions are 2-1/2″ square in section and 29-3/4″ in length. I ripped enough stock to make five legs, because if a flaw or a significant machining problem were to come up, I would not have to go back and glue up another one. I was glad I did this for a couple of reasons I’ll share later.

I ripped the stock to 2-9/16″ wide and a hair longer than their final length. I glued them up two at a time using Titebond III for the job. I like its longer open time and the fact that it is a bit darker in color, perfect for white oak. Of course there was the fifth leg to glue and clamp by itself.

Selecting the pieces for the tabletop had its challenges. First, there was the sapwood to avoid. Next, the figure of the boards varied significantly in terms of how dramatic the medullary ray flakes presented. A couple of boards had very pronounced flake figure, one had less and another had almost none. So I decided to put the highly figured lumber in the center of the top, use the less figured stock on either side of those pieces and arrange those with little flake at the edges.

I would have preferred a uniform flake pattern across the entire top, but that was not to be, so this was my best option. After I had cut the pieces to rough length, squared up the edges on the jointer and removed the sapwood, the top was about 3/4″ too narrow. (Sometimes a guy just can’t buy a break!) So I processed another piece of stock, ripped it in two and located those pieces just inside of the outermost boards in the glue-up. The pattern of symmetrical figure looked good to me.

Even at just 40″ square, this thick tabletop weighs a good bit, so I chose to start the assembly process by gluing up two halves of the top. After the joints cured, I flattened and sanded them smooth. Then I glued the two together to complete the blank. That allowed me to only have to align one glue joint for the final clamping step — much easier. Working smart is something I have learned to appreciate over the years.

Trimming the tabletop down to its final size was a two-step process. First I marked a line at 90 degrees to one edge of the table. Then I used a track saw to cut the marked edge. If you don’t have a track saw you could use a handheld circular saw with a fence clamped to the tabletop, or even a handheld router guided along a fence. With that done, I hefted the tabletop over to the table saw and cut the opposite edge parallel.

I took a few moments to use a 4″ x 24″ belt sander to clean up the center glue line and ensure the top was flat by sanding across the grain. I then sanded the top up through the grits to 150 and set it aside to move on to the legs and aprons.

Shaping the Gently Curved Legs

The shape of these table legs suggests Greene brothers design. The Greenes were strongly influenced by the Asian exhibits they found at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. The sweeping curves in their work has a distinctly Asian feel, and these table legs evoke the same.

I began the machining process by squaring my glued-up leg blanks. I ran one edge-glued face of each leg over the jointer to create two clean 90-degree faces per leg. Then I stepped to the planer so I could clean up the other joined face and square the legs perfectly. Using my leg template to set up a stop on the miter saw, I cleaned up each end of the legs by cutting them to length. Then it was time to start shaping them.

Start forming the two long curves on each leg by scribing the template shape on two adjacent leg faces and toting them over to the band saw. Then, as you would when making a cabriole leg, carefully cut just outside the lines on one of the leg faces. I installed a 1/4″ blade in order to make these cuts accurately, especially the tight curve at the top of the legs. With the first cut done, grab the waste piece you just removed, and tape it back in place. Then cut the second marked face in the same manner. Repeat this process for all four legs to ready them for some template-routing.

Flush-cut Routing in Two Stages

One challenge with shaping the legs on the router table is that my longest bit for the task had a 2″ cutting limit. However, including the 3/8″ thickness of my template, the overall thickness I would need to accommodate for routing was 2-7/8″. My 2″ bit literally would not cut it. That’s why shaping each face required two operations. Start by chucking a 3/4″-diameter, 2″ pattern router bit (with the bearing near the shank) into the router table.

Attach the template to the leg blank with double-sided tape and carefully remove the material with a slow, controlled pass. Take extra care at the tight radius near the top of the leg. One of my legs fractured during that cut, breaking off about a 1/2″ chunk of oak. The extra leg blank then came to the rescue! (I could have repaired the tearout, but it would have been time-consuming.) Template-rout both contours of each leg this way, then switch to a flush-trim bit with the bearing at the tip. Use it to trim off the small bit of remaining waste with the bit’s bearing rolling along the routed portion of the first passes.

Next, I used a benchtop belt sander to smooth the legs and remove the machining marks. Be careful to keep a clear break where the leg’s curve transitions to the square “foot” of the leg. After they are sanded smooth, set the legs aside.

Making the Cloud Lift Aprons

The first order of business when making the aprons is to cut the stock to length and width. Since I had purchased all of my lumber at 1-1/4″ thick, I needed to resaw them to their 3/4″ thickness. You can see that with the aid of a “point” style fence on the band saw, removing the extra wood was an easy task. I completed this thicknessing and cleaned up the sawn face of the pieces at the planer.

The tabletop will attach to the aprons with metal tabletop fasteners. To make that possible, I plowed a 1/8″-wide, 5/16″-deep saw kerf the length of the aprons while they still had flat edges. You can find the location for this kerf in the Drawings.

Shaping the aprons will repeat most of the same steps you took to form the legs. Prepare for template routing by tracing the apron shape onto the boards. Make sure the saw kerf is properly located when you draw the template. It needs to bisect the top cloud lift.

Move back to the band saw and rough out the shape of the aprons. Cut about 1/16″ outside of the pencil lines. Then head back to the router table one more time so you can trim off the waste using the same flush-trim bit you used to machine the legs. Attach the template to each leg with double-sided tape for this process. You’ll find this operation is less of a heavy lift when compared to the legs — thinner stock makes the template-routing process more manageable.

Joining the Legs and Aprons

To attach the legs and aprons, I tried out the latest version of Rockler’s Beadlock jig and used the premade tenon stock. I was able to form the mortises with the new jig pretty effortlessly. I chose to use the 3/8″ thick tenons for these joints, and they were really solid when I was done. Here’s how to use the jig.

With Beadlock you use a standard twist drill bit to drill out the mortise waste in a series of side-by-side holes, guided by a metal bushing in the jig. In this regard, it’s very much like the Kreg pocket-hole system. Here, the bushing is held in the jig by two bolts. There are two positions — A and B — and you start out (in the case of the 3/8″ tenon stock) by drilling three 3/8″-diameter holes. There is a depth stop that you locate on the drill bit to control the depth of the mortise. After you drill the three holes at position A, you shift the guide to position B to drill out two more holes. This second step clears out the remaining material left between the three original holes to create a multi-ridged mortise that perfectly fits the shaped tenon stock.

The Beadlock kit includes shims of differing thicknesses that allow you to place the mortise where you need it in stock of different thicknesses. Here I centered the mortises in the 2-1/2″-square leg tops and 3/4″-thick aprons simply by switching out the shims. For this table, it is important to align the top of the apron’s center cloud lift with the top of the legs. This will allow you to tightly secure the tabletop to the base using the tabletop fasteners. To do that, I bumped the top of the legs up to a long straightedge that I had clamped to my workbench. Then I put the apron against the straightedge, mimicking how The it should align when assembled. With that done it was easy to properly locate the center points of my mortises for registering the Beadlock jig. And here’s another important note: Be certain to place the mortises on the proper faces of the legs. There are two outside faces of the legs — the shaped ones — and two inside faces — the flat ones. Please don’t ask why I am making such a big deal about this…

Other loose-tenon systems such as Festool Dominos would work on this table, as well as dowel joints or any other joinery methods you are comfortable with. But I did find the Beadlock system to be accurate, easy to use and affordable.

Final Steps to the Finish

With the mortises drilled, you are nearly done with the machining process. I thought it prudent to dry assemble the leg set at this point in order to make certain the joinery was sound. With the legs and aprons clamped together, I went ahead and made the corner braces and temporarily mounted them on the aprons. I marked the inside of each apron and cross brace so that I was confident they would go together smoothly when it came time for final assembly.

Looking at the tabletop, I decided that I wanted the edges rounded over slightly, so I used a 1/8″ roundover bit chucked into a handheld router to complete that task.

My next design step is entirely optional. I decided to put some accent inlays in the corners of the tabletop. They are a very basic shape — I’ll call them a stretched diamond, but some cheekier members of the staff call them the carrots. They are fairly easy to inlay the old-fashioned way. But once again I decided to give the Shaper Origin a spin on this table project.

I chose 1/8″ wenge I found at Rockler for its dark contrasting color along with the red highlight it displays. Truthfully, I think the table would look just lovely without the inlays. So don’t let them throw you off if you don’t like how they look.

Once the stretched diamonds were glued in place, it was time for more sanding. I sanded the table all the way up to 400-grit. While others may think that’s excessive, I prefer to have a super smooth surface to finish. I broke the edges of the legs with 320-grit by hand to remove the sharp edges.

I chose to apply the stain and finish to the table components before assembling them. Working on individual pieces is so much more controllable and you can inspect them very closely as you work. I find it avoids drips and errors. To make that happen, I masked off the mortise areas on the legs with painter’s tape. I mounted the legs on a scrap piece of plywood by driving a single screw up through the plywood into the center of the bottom of the legs. For the aprons, I temporarily put short Beadlock tenons in one end and then clamped the tenon stock between two boards. Then those boards were clamped to another piece of plywood. It may sound like a lot of prep work, but it wasn’t hard, and I think I got great results because of the extra effort at this stage.

I applied Old Master’s Red Mahogany wiping stain to all the pieces and let it dry. Following that I brushed on two coats of Zinsser® SealCoat shellac. Having taken the time to sand the surface so finely, the shellac laid down really well.

When that cured — and shellac dries fast — I wiped on three coats of polyurethane. I think the stain, shellac and poly combination finish makes this table look like a million dollars.

So that’s it. Considering that it’s a fairly basic table, it was still a pretty intricate build and a truly enjoyable experience. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, while the table is compact, it is substantial and built to last. If you work carefully and patiently on it, generations of your family will be able to sit at this beauty and enjoy all the ways we fellowship around a table, whatever those may be.

Click Here to Download Drawings and Materials List.

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Benchtop Tool Cart: Jobsite table saws often suffer from poor (or no) workstands and limited outfeed support. This handy four-drawered cart will combine your saw with a full-size router table that can act as a support surface for sawing. It could be a tool marriage made in heaven, and it’s a great beginner’s cabinetry project.

Cedar Potting Bench: Create an attractive all-weather bench for potting plants and carrying out other gardening tasks. While this build includes a few mortise-and-tenon joints, most of its construction is simple pocket-screw joinery and screwed butt joints.

Rolling Task Light: Here’s an articulating, rolling shop helper that can shed some raking light on your finishing tasks or other shop efforts that could use a few more directed lumens.

Cloud Lift Dining Table: Our publisher puts his router table and Rockler’s updated BeadLock Jig to good use constructing this handsome white oak dining table. It’s sized right for smaller living spaces and built to last.

Woodturning: Carbide-insert turning tools offer easy entrance into general woodturning, and they require no special sharpening gear or skills. Our expert offers his thoughts about where these tools excel and where traditional gouges and scrapers might still have the leg up.

Tool Tutorial: Adequate shop lighting is essential for working accurately and safely. When overlight lights seem to come up short, the right task lights around your shop could really shine. A.J. Hamler shares some of the options.

Tool Preview: Castle USA has been building industrial-quality screw pocket machines for a long time. Their new 110 Pocket Cutter is a rugged home-shop option with the heart of a router.

Hardworking Woods: Longleaf pine is more commonly used as framing lumber than furniture wood. But, don’t sell it short. It could be a beautiful option for your next project.

Shop Talk: One of our staffers helped build school desks for distance learners last winter and shares her experiences. Rockler now is expanding its lumber inventory substantially in select stores.

Getting Started: Roughsawn lumber is a more affordable option for buying hardwoods, and it’s common to specialty yards. We’ll help prepare you for selecting and purchasing it like an old pro.

Buying Lumber: A home center isn’t the only place to find the wood you need. Here are four more shopping alternatives that can save you money and expand your range of species options in a big way.

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Download the Pattern and Drawings Here.

The post Cloud Lift Dining Table Templates and Drawings appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Rockler Dust Right Stacking Dust Ports

General International’s 850 SMART Auto Digital Table Saws

General Finishes Enduro-Var II

Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig 720

Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig 720PRO

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