# A Pair of Side Tables



## lucky9cat (3 Nov 2007)

Right, this is my first commissioned work! Not that I went out of my way to get it; or I’d do it again unless it was really worth my while. It is a pair of side tables I made for a friend; the dimensions were non-negotiable as the tables had specific locations. The bottom drawer had to be able to store CDs. As she had previously admired some of my Stickley Arts and Crafts work it seemed good to work along these lines.







I started by doing a plan on SketchUp. It takes me a fair amount of time to do anything on SU but gets easier and it gave my client a clear idea of what to expect. We must have gone through about two or three iterations.

It was to be in European Oak, which I got at Goodwillies in Waterlooville. I spent a couple of hours sifting through the stacks with a mate and got some very nice quartersawn boards only to find when I had cleaned them up, the grain changed direction all over the place and there were large colour variations along the boards. I was pretty miffed and posted this pic to the Finishing forum to see if anyone could help me make the colour more even.






Thanks to Waka for suggesting working with the colours and using the variations to enhance the effect. I’ve now got some stunning table tops.

The wood lived in the dining room for a few weeks before I started the project. The pieces I worked on were taken to the workshop (garage) and returned at the end of the day. I wanted minimal wood movement once the job was finished. I’ve been caught out before!

I like to have quartersawn ray-fleck on each face of the legs and acheive this by gluing a 3/16” veneer to each of the plain sides and then planing and thicknessing it down to about 1/16”. As the plain sides of the legs end up hidden it allowed me to use up a board where I really couldn’t get rid of some terrible tear-out problems I was having preparing it. This pic shows the four legs in the first stage of glue up, each consisting of three pieces, the inner core being the “bad” wood faced with nicely grained wood on each side. Well I wasn’t going to throw it away!






After being cleaned up, the plain sides were veneered to achieve quartersawn all round.






I glued up the tops next. I really needed a sled of sorts to do get the first cross-cut square. Not having one handy, I used double sided taped to attach a large square to the table top and was able to run it through against the fence. I got a nice clean cut. Note my zero clearance insert, made with a bearing guided router bit using the original insert as a template. 






Next the side frame and panels. The slot to hold the panel was made in the rails and stiles with the table saw – one pass in each direction to centre the slot.










The rail tenons next. I use the table saw for the shoulder cuts, and then adjust the setting to cut the haunch.










The cheeks were cut on my tenoning jig.






The haunch was finished on the band saw.






The mortices were cut with my dedicated hollow chisel morticer. Note the clamp I’ve rigged up to save the “thumb ache” from holding the wood tightly against the fence.






The panels were book-matched using the band saw to split them before planing and then joining them edge to edge. Even though the panels are small, I find that little details such as this really do enhance the final look. The tongues on the panels were cut on the router table. Once I start to work on a thinish panel such as this, I push on and get it in the glued up frame as soon as possible just in case the wood decides to move.








St12

The frame glue ups. Simple enough but six of them (two side tables). No glue touches the panel, which is cut with some float within the grooves to allow for wood movement.






Next comes the front drawer rails. The front edges are faced with thin pieces of quartersawn wood. The top rail is held in place with hand cut dovetails.






The middle and bottom rails are morticed and tenoned into the legs. The tenons have a shoulder on all four faces – I feel this is cheating a bit as it can hide imperfections in cutting the mortice. The mortices are hand cut as they’re not a regular size and are also offset towards the front.






The frames for the drawers to run on were made next, again held together by mortice and tenons. The front drawer rails form part of these frames. I had saved up some of the not so good looking wood for these frames.










I had previously glued the legs to the side frames using biscuits for alignment. The drawer frames were to be supported at the back of these sides by biscuits. The biscuit slots were then cut.






Now I could finish the glue up. You’ll notice in the picture a couple of holes in the middle drawer rail. This is to enable me to screw the top to the top drawer frame and get easy access with my screwdriver. The middle frame has two more holes in each side rail to enable six screws in all to hold the top down. I’ve spent too much time trying to put screws in inaccessible places to get caught by this again! Of the six screw holes in the top frame, the front two enable the top to be fixed securely whilst the other four are slotted to allow wood movement.






Next the drawers. Beech was used and the dovetails, half blind at the front, are hand cut. I like to start by cutting a shallow rebate (done on the router table) on the inside tail piece to aid aligning the wood when transferring the marking out to the pin board.














Hacking out the half blind tails to leave the pins – first with an angled saw cut and then by chisel. Note the grooves cut in the back of the drawer on my router table to take the dividers for the CDs. I find that any imperfections in the dovetails (and there are a few) are best fixed with slivers of wood tapped down into the joint once it is glued. I do this so that the slivers have their end grain showing – laborious, so with time I aim to get it right first time!






Gluing up the draw. I cut the pins about ½ mm short so that I can use clamps to pull it together without the pins protruding and getting in the way. The whole thing fits together pretty tightly so I can remove the clamps, measure the diagonals to check for square, clean up, and then leave for the glue to set.






The wood clamped to the bench is a useful way of holding the drawers whilst cleaning up and adjusting their fit - this is one of the reasons I haven’t put the bottoms in yet. The bottoms will be marine ply and the CD dividers beech.






I finished all but the front face of the drawers with sanding sealer and then a light coat of beeswax. The rest of the piece received three coats of boiled linseed oil ragged on and then wiped off a little later. Well, actually I used paper kitchen towel. The tops received four coats of Liberon finishing oil, again, raged on and wiped off pretty much immediately. After each coat of finishing oil was completely dry the surface was rubbed down with the finest grade of Webrax to de-nib it and get rid of the gloss finish. Everything was then given two coats of beeswax, again applied with Webrax, with a polish in between. I like the natural linseed oil and beeswax finish best as you can still feel the grain. I only add the finishing oil to the tops to protect them from coffee cups and spills.


























All in all, I’m pleased with the way they look. The drawer pulls were chosen by the client and I think they look the part. If I had the option I would keep them for myself but as it is, I’m happy to have the house space and build something else! 

Right, What’s my next project …

Ted


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## Philly (3 Nov 2007)

Very nice, Ted! Congratulations!
Look forward to your next piece  
Philly


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## Slim (3 Nov 2007)

Lovely pieces Ted and a very good write up.

The only thing I would say is that the drawer pulls spoil them, but thats just my taste.

Congrats.


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## seanybaby (3 Nov 2007)

Great stuff Ted  

Good WIP as well. Looks like a good first commission. It's something i think I'm ready to do, just need some customers, with cash to spend :lol:


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## wizer (3 Nov 2007)

wowee, beautiful. Agree about the pulls, but then that's what makes a piece individual.


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## Lord Nibbo (3 Nov 2007)

Excellent piece of work, and great WIP pics  =D>


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## motownmartin (3 Nov 2007)

Great thread Ted, easy to follow and an excellent piece at the end of it, well done that man.

I like your thinking with getting the quartersawn look everywhere possible :wink: 

I noticed that you have made your tenon jig to fit your saw fence, I wish I had done that but it would have been difficult as my saw fence is not square, it has a slight slope on it, I thought this was done to minimise the risk of kickback, it would be nice to hear other peoples views on this.

The other thing I noticed was the way you cut the tongues on the panels, cutting from the top, myself I would cut from the bottom using a featherboard on top as a hold down, would I be doing it wrong, I only ask cuz I am quite new to this.


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## John McM (3 Nov 2007)

Hi Ted,

You did your client proud. I love oak. Stout, solid, simple, great.
Where abouts in Hampshire are you and would you recommend Goodwillies?

Regards


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## gwaithcoed (3 Nov 2007)

Excellent project, I think they look great. Thanks for the WIP pics.

Alan.


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## Fecn (3 Nov 2007)

Superb work and a superb write-up. I very much like your technique for getting nice looking grain showing in all the important places. I reckon the drawer pulls look good too. Thanks for taking the time to take the pics and do the writeup.


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## stewart (3 Nov 2007)

Lovely work. Thanks for the walkthrough and pics - inspiring stuff.


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## Mcluma (3 Nov 2007)

very nice work, and a superb write up


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## houtslager (4 Nov 2007)

nice work, even better write up.

hs


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## Imperial (4 Nov 2007)

Really nice work and attention to detail, but having a "Scrit" moment here regarding the cutting of the panels and why the bit is exposed while your pushing the panel though? Surely you'd only want to raise the bit a little and run the panel over the top of the bit so as not to take the chance of a slip and your hand or fingers touching it! I've never seen anyone do it that way before, maybe it was just for the photos? With regard to the Veneers over the legs to expose the grain all the way round, mitering the edges makes a better job see here for an explanation, 

http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/mSin ... Table1.asp

look at page 2

I'd liked to have seen how you cut and fitted the dividers too?


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## Corset (4 Nov 2007)

I like those and the wood is lovely. Thankyou for taking the the time to amke a WIP.
Owen


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## OPJ (4 Nov 2007)

Very nice work, Ted, and I'm also impressed with the SketchUp skills and quality of your write up.

I also like the look of your workshop and share the same morticer as you. I'm planning on making a similar holding jig to what you've made, only, I plan on using a couple of 50mm fixed rubber wheels, so I can still slide the timber without having to release a clamp each time.

I might also have to consider a wooden facing or shimming to the existing fence as it's parallel to the chisel along half it's length, but not all of it.

Your improvised idea to tape a large square to the panel is a smart idea also.


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## lucky9cat (4 Nov 2007)

Thanks for the comments and feedback.

To those that mentioned not being too keen on the drawer pulls, I would have chosen something different myself. As I said, this was the first piece of furniture I've made for anybody and it does feel strange working to someone else's taste :?

I've called this a commission whereas in reality it's more of a favour to a very good friend. For commissions to be worthwhile money spinners I guess you need someone with loads of money. Anyway, I shall buy myself a LN block plane with my spoils to remind of the project  

Hi Martin, I actually built my tenoning jig to help make raised panel doors. The fact that they cut tenon cheeks is a bonus! I don't fully understand why your rip fence is sloped but as you say it may be something to do with kick back but what happens if you need a tall fence like I did for a panel:? Yes, cutting the panels with the router bit on top  I wouldn't have normally done this but the panels were ending up thinner than I really liked bearing in mind that I started with 1" stock and re-sawed it. Out of the six panels, the thinnest was just under 3/8" and I didn't want to thickness them all down to this. With the router bit on top, I could cut all six panels with one setting leaving a 1/4" tongue to fit the grooved frame.

I live in Gosport, John. Must add it to my profile. Goodwillies are good and have a large selection of woods and I think their prices are about average. It's a good idea to know roughly how much it's going to cost though - last time I was there someone made a mistake and it was double what I had anticipated and I successfully queried it. I few years ago I wouldn't have had a clue.

Bloonose, I hope I've already answered your panel query. Yes, I did feel a little exposed when making the cuts  As regards the veneers, I thought I might have a go at mitering the next time I met a similar situation. It looks a lot more tricky though. Being a bit of a coward I'll no doubt end up saying again, "What worked for Gustav Stickley one hundred years ago when making his Art and Crafts furniture is good enough for me". Well, his stuff is still about and intact, and his glues are not as good as ours :wink: I'm up for the challenge though. Thanks for the link, it looks like a really interesting site. The dividers are just slotted into rebates which I cut in the front and backs of the drawers. Not glued just in case they needed to come out one day. The rebates are shown in one of the pictures above and I did them with a 1/4" slot cutting bit on the router table. For each divider, the fence needed to be marked for where to stop the cut on one board and marked again for where to start the cut using a plunge on the other board.

Olly, I've found the morticer works well but is so much better for the holding jig. It's pretty important to keep the same pressure on the wood otherwise the cut can vary it's position. Rubber wheels seem like a neat idea. I also needed to face the fence and shim it to get it accurate.

Cheers, Ted


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## motownmartin (4 Nov 2007)

lucky9cat":1sgtepf5 said:


> Hi Martin, I actually built my tenoning jig to help make raised panel doors. The fact that they cut tenon cheeks is a bonus! I don't fully understand why your rip fence is sloped but as you say it may be something to do with kick back but what happens if you need a tall fence like I did for a panel:?
> 
> Cheers, Ted


I'm going to have to look into this, but then again my blade tilts the other way so I use the tenoning jig on the other side of the blade.


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## BradNaylor (4 Nov 2007)

Personally, I've never been comfortable with the American practice of cutting tenons and raising panels on the table saw with the guard and riving knife removed. The very action of passing your hands over an unguarded spinning blade goes against all my instincts of self-preservation.

It is also illegal in a commercial workshop - so I don't do it.

Anyway, the job can be accomplished more easily, more safely, and to a better finish on a spindle moulder or router table. 

And why machine a rebate with the cutter above the work instead of below?

Nice tables, though! How long did they take?

Dan


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## lucky9cat (4 Nov 2007)

Hi Dan

I tend to agree with you about working with an unguarded blade. I first used the jig on my previous project to raise a couple of panels. My first instinct was to buy a router cutter but I couldn't buy one with an angle as shallow as I wanted so the jig came into existence.

Before I had the jig I used the router table to cut tenon cheeks. Now that I've used the jig for one project the next time I cut tenon cheeks I'll consider which method I feel best using. I don't think that this jig is particularly dangerous but anything that adds to risk should try to be avoided.

As regards cutting the rebate with the bit over the workpiece, please see my post above.

I started the project in the beginning of July but I'm not working on it anywhere near full, or even part, time. When I am working on it I have the luxury of being able to work to my pace. For example, I will join smaller bits of wood together, which otherwise would be wasted, into usable bits for, let's say, the drawer frames :shock: I enjoy working in my shop  Having said all of that I reckon I put in about 300 hours  and I enjoyed every hour of it. Having worked it out and admitted it, I'm intrigued as to how long it would take a pro - hand cut dovetails and all :?:


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## Newbie_Neil (4 Nov 2007)

Hi Ted

I really liked the tables.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

Cheers,
Neil


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## BradNaylor (4 Nov 2007)

lucky9cat":bjzczoys said:


> Hi Dan
> 
> I'm intrigued as to how long it would take a pro - hand cut dovetails and all :?:



Well that's the scary bit, Ted!

Working on the basis that you might be able to charge around £1500 for the pair of tables, and that the material cost was around £250, a pro would have to complete them in a week.

A week sounds about right to me - but with the help of a Leigh jig for the dovetails!

Dan


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## lucky9cat (4 Nov 2007)

Well Dan, I'm gobsmacked. It just goes to show that as someone who just does it for a hobby I have no idea of the value of the work or the techniques required to do it efficiently - and I've got O'Level woodwork as well :wink: .

One thing in my favour though, the wood cost is about £100; but as I mentioned before I keep my wood waste to a minimum and waste time to achieve that. The table tops are only 18" square and the tables stand 16" tall.

Whatever, one week and £1500 - I'm amazed. I do realise that is £1500 to the right buyer i.e. someone who wanted the tables commissioned.

Cheers, Ted


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## Jez (4 Nov 2007)

Looks awesome, nice dovetails


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## BradNaylor (5 Nov 2007)

lucky9cat":1o3z7zrf said:


> I do realise that is £1500 to the right buyer i.e. someone who wanted the tables commissioned.
> 
> Cheers, Ted



This is the point, Ted.

The tables are only worth £1500 if someone commissions them at that price.

If you were to try and sell the tables you have just made you would find it heartbreaking - you'd be lucky to get £300 for the pair. This is exactly the point I was trying to make in Byron Black's recent thread on selling speculative pieces.

The principal challenge for pro cabinet makers is not making the tables, it is finding the client who will commission them for £1500!




lucky9cat":1o3z7zrf said:


> Whatever, one week and £1500



Please don't fall into the trap of equating selling price with earnings. There are a large number of costs that have to factored in before a profit figure is arrived at. I would be happy with £700 net profit from a job like this for a very full week's work.

£700 x 42 weeks in a year (allowing for holidays, illness, and unproductive days)

= £29400 per year

I would like to bet that most people here earn more than that in their day jobs.


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## ByronBlack (5 Nov 2007)

Dan Tovey":1p1rk8p9 said:


> £700 x 42 weeks in a year (allowing for holidays, illness, and unproductive days)
> 
> = £29400 per year
> 
> I would like to bet that most people here earn more than that in their day jobs.



Want to swap jobs? 

Nice tables Ted, I really enjoy reading these write-ups and like the progress shots.

Dan - you make a good point about profitibility and selling price, in my business a few years ago at first I was amazed at the 'prices' that I could sell my services for, but come the end of the year when I've had my accounts prepared I soon realised that those large cheques soon shrink!


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## TonyW (5 Nov 2007)

Lovely work and thanks for WIP pics.
You said that this was your first commissioned piece - I think you will get many others

Cheers  
Tony


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## OPJ (7 Nov 2007)

Ted, can I also ask which sort of chisels you use with your machine, if I haven't asked you already - are you happy with the cheap 3/4" chisels or have you adapted yours to take better quality 13/16" diameter?


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## lucky9cat (8 Nov 2007)

Olly, you had me scratching my head there for a minute :? . I'm currently using the 3/4" chisels as supplied with the machine and intended to move over to the better quality more expensive ones as these wore out. I've just looked at the Axminster catalogue and see what you mean now, they're 13/16". It looks like you can buy an adaptor to take it down from 13/16" to 3/4" but, obviously, not the other way. It looks like a new bushing will be required  . Do you know if they make them?

Ted


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## OPJ (8 Nov 2007)

I've had a reply from Axminster and unfortunately, they don't make or sell them. Looks like your best bet will be to have one made locally from a small engineering firm or something - that's what others have done. Doesn't cost too much either, apparently.

I bought my machine when it was on sale for £130 with only _one_ 3/8" chisel, so I decided to go with the best I can afford from the start.


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