American Oak dining table

[Karl]

Hi folks

SWMBO has dictated that our new dining table MUST be completed before I can make a start on my competition entry....

I had a trip to the timber merchants with Brad today, and came back with this little lot:

I haven't done a "proper" sketch - I have the picture in my head, and you will see it progress over the next few days. I should have this finished by Sunday. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, the timber is a mixture of 1", 1 1/2" and 2" American Oak. We checked with the timber yard, who cofirmed that moisture content is between 9-11 %. So i'm happy to get on with machining straight away - no acclimatising for this little lot....

These 4 pieces will form the rails. I will be putting a cross rail underneath the table top between the two long rails, joined with through wedged mortices. The joints between rails and legs will be pinned mortice and tenon joints

The timber was nice and flat - no twist or cupping/bowing. So I passed it straight through the thicknesser. I then edge jointed each piece by hand

The Veritas twin screw vice is great at this sort of stuff - the piece in the vice is 6' long and it held it more than securely enough to joint the edge.

I then set the table saw for ripping to width - mainly to remove the small amount of sapwood present.

Treated the Metabo to a new Freud combi blade. Wish I hadn't bothered - it doesn't perform nearly as well as the one supplied with the saw, and the dust extraction has gone AWOL. :evil:

Anyway, onwards and upwards as they say.....

Ripped to width the rails were put to one side, and I turned my attention to the legs.

These pieces of 1 1/2" stock are to form the legs. I first crosscut the pieces to length

I was being a little lazy here - the stock was too long to be put on the saw for all crosscutting, so I did the first cut by hand on the bench, and the second on the table saw.

Once all pieces were thicknessed, jointed, ripped to width etc I ended up with 4 sets of these

Each leg will consist of 3 pieces laminated together. Therefore each glue surface was hand planed to remove twist, snipe, cupping/bowing etc. Ended up with all pieces planed and ready for clamping

I only managed to get two glued up - ran out of bloody clamps....

And that's as far as I got today. Tomorrow - glue up the other two legs and cut all four to size. Cut the mortice and tenon joints on rails and legs. Hopefully get the cross rail piece done.

Now it's time for one of these

Total time spent on project today - 6 hours

Cheers

Karl

 

[Ironballs]

Looking good Karl and nice quick work. In fact the only thing I have issue with is that headache in a bottle masquerading as beer

 

[TrimTheKing]

Hey, slow down Flash!

If my missus sees this she'll start asking all sorts of awkward questions about the speed of my output, so to speak

 

[Paul Chapman]

Good progress, Karl. Will watch this one with interest.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[OPJ]

Looking good, Karl.

Most people find Freud blades over a significant improvement over any supplied blade from the manufacturer... Perhaps you would have been better off with a dedicated ripping blade? Keep the combi blade for sheet materials and cross-cutting.

 

[MikeG.]

So Karl,

are you the chap who shares a workshop with the legendary Brad many-names Naylor?

My minor concern about this project (apart from the show-offy speed :wink: ) is that the timber will not have had any chance to acclimatise. Aren't you a bit worried about movement?

Mike

 

[Karl]

Morning guys

Mike - no, i'm not the guy who Brad works with. I met Brad through this forum. I have been working over in Stockport, so we went to the timber yard he normally uses to introduce me to the guys, and so that I can get his special rates on timber. Cheaper than the supplier I was using before.

I'm not overly concerned about wood movement. It was already dried down to 9-11% moisture content, and will be placed in a dining room away from the radiator.

Olly - the reason I got the Freud was because it said on the packaging that it was ripping and crosscutting, but only for cutting sheet materials (seriously - they use those smiley faces for rating the product). Very dissapointed with it.

I might not get as much done today as I intended - i've got to go out working this morning, so won't get back on the project until lunchtime. Will post update this PM.

Cheers

Karl

 

[yetloh]

What made you choose American oak Karl? I can see the advantage of reduced wastage from square edge boards but I have always thought European oak so much nicer.

Jim

 

[woodbloke]

What made you choose American oak Karl? I can see the advantage of reduced wastage from square edge boards but I have always thought European oak so much nicer.

Jim

I've made one or two bits and pieces in kilned AWO and I've found it awful...English or european air dried stock is far better to work with IMO - Rob

 

[newt]

Karl interesting project. I have found my electra beckem eg matabo blades that came with my PK200 better than any of the replacements I have tried.

 

[frugal]

Looking good Karl and nice quick work. In fact the only thing I have issue with is that headache in a bottle masquerading as beer

Well, he wouldn't want to drink anything with actual alcohol in it in the workshop would he :twisted:

 

[Karl]

Frugal/Damian - I would just like to point out (before I have the safety brigade crawling all over me) that I didn't actually open that beer until I had turned all machines off.... :lol:

Jim/Rob - I chose AWO over European stuff primarily on cost. I looked at the oak which Brad uses in his shop (he's got a big project on the go at the moment) and it looks the same as European Oak to my eyes.

There won't be much done on it today - i've only just got back from work, and the weather is too nice not to miss this opportunity to put my little BBQ table to use! So I will just be gluing up the two legs which I didn't have sufficient clamps for yesterday.

Legs/rails and mortice and tenons tomorrow. Maybe a little peak at the plans for the table top too....

Cheers

Karl

 

[Karl]

Aside from gluing up the final leg, I thought that I would clean up one of the legs and apply a coat of finish, as I was a little concerned at the apparent colour variation in the timber

Ignore the light colouring at the bottom of the photo - that is just the effect of the flash.

Anyway, I checked with SWMBO and she was happy with the colour variation. "It shows that it was hand made" - yeah, right :lol:

This was the most offending leg, so it will be placed at the "back" of the table - one side will sit more towards a wall. V pleased with the laminated joints though - they came out really well.

I also did a little mod to my table saws riving knife, but i'm going to put up a separate post about that.

Cheers

Karl

 

[JonnyD]

The laminating looks like it turned out well. One thing I often do when laminating up table legs is order in 2inch wood 8-9 inches wide and cut the plank in half and join them together to get a 90mm square leg. The faces that join are in effect bookmatched and there is little colour variation.

Jon

 

[Karl]

Jon - now why didn't I think of that? Would have been fewer joints to laminate and hand plane too.

Next time......... :lol:

Cheers

Karl

 

[BradNaylor]

What made you choose American oak Karl? I can see the advantage of reduced wastage from square edge boards but I have always thought European oak so much nicer.

Jim

I've made one or two bits and pieces in kilned AWO and I've found it awful...English or european air dried stock is far better to work with IMO - Rob

I don't know where all this air dried timber you go on about comes from, Rob...

As far as I am aware virtually all European oak is kiln dried at some stage. It just doesn't make financial sense for a timber merchent to have stock lying around for years on end air drying.

The AWO that Karl bought is of fantastic quality and dry enough to use straight off the truck. It is also little more than half the price of European oak given the relative current exchange rates.

I would challenge you or anyone else to distinguish a piece of this AWO from European. The only time I would use European oak at current prices is if a client specifically requested lots of 'interest' in the figure. AWO can be a little bland.

Cheers
Brad

 

[JonnyD]

I tend to use european oak on kitchens but recently the price has been going up almost monthly. I have done a few jobs recently in AWO and have been impressed with the quality of the timber much better than I remember. Most clients dont know the difference and dont care as long as the finished furniture looks good so I may well be using more AWO in the future.

Jon

 

[Chems]

What made you choose American oak Karl? I can see the advantage of reduced wastage from square edge boards but I have always thought European oak so much nicer.

Jim

I've made one or two bits and pieces in kilned AWO and I've found it awful...English or european air dried stock is far better to work with IMO - Rob

I don't know where all this air dried timber you go on about comes from, Rob...

As far as I am aware virtually all European oak is kiln dried at some stage. It just doesn't make financial sense for a timber merchent to have stock lying around for years on end air drying.

Brad

I don't understand it either I always thought Kiln dried was ok? I've only ever used Kiln dried mixed with a bit air drying and its been perfectly stable. Rob I'd be intrested to see a little test between Kiln and air dried if you had some about?

 

[OPJ]

My minor concern about this project (apart from the show-offy speed :wink: ) is that the timber will not have had any chance to acclimatise. Aren't you a bit worried about movement?

I would also share some concerns but, in the real world, where you would have to make money in this game (time is everything!), it isn't feasible to leave wood lying around for three months - especially when you don't have the space to store several jobs-worth of wood at one time! :wink:

American timbers are dried to the point at which they're almost 'bone-dry' before being stuffed in to a container and sent overseas - this helps to keep the weight and costs down, basically. This wood is bound to have picked up some moisture from the salt air during its travels but, it's still likely to be drier than anything that was originally grown in this country.

Normally, I'd rough cut all the components over size and try to leave them for a few days - the big risk with any timber that's been kiln-dried (and I'm sure Rob was alluring to this! :wink is that there will be some moisture 'trapped' in the centre, which can create tensions and lead to problems such as case-hardening. This is more common with thicker, wider stock, usually 3" thick.

I'm getting in to the habit of not worrying too much about frame components. They're relatively small and, unless they're 'green', any movement should be minimal and barely-noticeable at worst. It's the top I'd be most concerned with; the last thing you'd want is for that to start jumping around once you're finish goes on! :shock: But, that should have some time to settle while you work on the frame.

Now, I'm really looking forward to seeing this one finished so we can see whether Karl was right or wrong!! :twisted: (...Only joking! )

 

[Karl]

Olly - I understand your points. The stock was nice and flat to start with, so minimal skimming of the surface was required. Even the bigger timbers for the top won't have a great deal removed - it isn't going to be a top in the traditional sense, but more of that tomorrow.

If it goes **** up and it has all warped in a months time, i'll show you the piccy's after i've "done a Rob" :lol:

Cheers

Karl