# Oak table - competition entry



## Paul Chapman (29 May 2007)

This is my entry for the competition (both parts). It's a round, oak table being made for a relative. It's based on an existing table which was made in Holland and which I saw, but several years ago. It's to go in a 16th century cottage which is full of oak beams and dark oak furniture, so the finished piece will be stained dark oak and lightly distressed.

Here's my drawing:







I've showed only three main dimensions, height 18", diameter 36" and thickness of top 1 3/4". I anticipate that the legs will be 3" thick, but will probably make them up in softwood first to see whether that thickness looks visually right.

The top will be fitted to the cross rails with buttons.

The cross rails will be fitted to the legs with loose tenons, pegged with dowels. I will use this method rather than traditional mortice and tenons because of the angles involved. I reckon I will achieve a more accurate fit by shooting the ends of the cross rails than by cutting traditional tenons.

Apart from use of a router to prepare the grooves for the loose tongues to join the pieces for the top; to cut the circular top; and cut the mortices for the loose tenons and buttons, all the work will be done with hand tools (because I don't have any machinery).

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## DomValente (29 May 2007)

Good Luck Paul, your write up alone makes it sound good  

Dom


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## Paul Chapman (29 May 2007)

Thanks Dom. Only hope I can make it look as good as it sounds  

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## woodbloke (29 May 2007)

Paul - table looks good....... good job the top is round 'cos if it was square it's just the right height to remove knee caps if you caught a corner walking past :lol: . The angle on the shoulder is easy enough to work out if you do a full size drawing on a bit of A4 or A2 paper and then set your bevel gauge to the angle on the paper, lock it and then don't reset until all jointing has been done. I'd also be inclined to make the legs just a bit thinner.... 3" or 75mm is the thickness of fence posts and the legs on the design are only 18" or 450mm high. Personally I'd go for about 60mm or 2.5 inches as you have a fairly chunkable top....remember I made the same error about leg thickness with the Elm Chest and a slight reduction in thickness will lighten the whole thing. It's a very good idea IMO to get hold of some A2 paper and draw out one corner of the table full size and then you'll see exactly what the proportions look like...have a natter about it with you on the 09 Jun - Rob


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## Paul Chapman (29 May 2007)

Thanks Rob, that's very helpful. The thickness of the legs is the one thing I'm very undecided about and is why I'm toying with the idea of a mock-up in softwood. Get it wrong and it looks awful. I'll be making the top first, so plenty of time to mull it over - but I think I'll take your advice and do a full-size drawing rather than my usual back-of-a-fag-packet approach :roll: 

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## woodbloke (30 May 2007)

Paul - as you know, an accurate full size drawing(s) is something that I like to do for each piece I make, doesn't take the place of all the 'fag packet' sketches that are equally as valuable but it does help to settle the mind when you're trying to sort out proportions and final dimensions and even then it's possible to get it slightly wrong as I found out with the Elm Chest :x but which was easily resolved at the time - Rob


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