Competition entry WIP: Cherry bedside table - FINSHED

[frugal]

My daughter currently has a small box from B&Q as a bed side table with her light and clock on it. I wanted to make her a proper table to go along side the head of the bed in the small gap between the head of the bed and the edge of the alcove.

The sizes of the table were determined by the space available. 16"x11" for the top and 18" high to bring it to the top of the mattress.

the legs are 1 1/2" cherry. I have never used cherry before and it planes to a glass like finish.

The top is 3/4" thick cherry made up from a 1 1/2" board ripped down the middle to give a book matched top.

Next to do is make up the aprons for the sides and put the mortices into the legs.

 

[OPJ]

Nice to see another English Cherry project on the forums - I think that's two within the last week now! :wink:

If you use a sharp scraper to finish the top, it'll really accentuate the grain. I don't think even 1000g abrasive paper would give the same results.

 

[mailee]

I do like the bookmatched top. I have never tried this with my bandsaw and have often wondered if it is capable of it? It is looking good so far.

 

[frugal]

After... erm... 6 months I have enough to post an update. In fact I have been fiddling around with this in between doing other things (like failing to learn to turn).

Since the last update I have cut out the aprons for the sides and back as well as a matching piece for the drawer front. The front and back are 6" x 3" and the sides are 11" x 3". I even managed to remember to leave enough extra to cut the tennons out of :wink: . I decided that as this was a learning piece as much as a competition piece I was going to cut both the moritices and tennons by hand rather than using some kind of jig.

Having read everything I can find online and in the stacks of magazines around the house I am armed with the knowledge to perform this operation. I follow the perceived wisdom and cut out the mortices first. As my aprons are only 1/2" thick I decide that the rule of thirds is going to go out the window and the tennon is going to be 1/4" thick with 1/8" shoulders. This is confirmed by the uncovering of the one mortice chisel I own being a 1/4" (no, I have no idea why I have a rather nice Robert Sorby mortice chisel as I have never cut a mortice in my life before). So I carefully mark out the mortices and then chain drill most of the waste away. This is made somewhat problematic by the discovery that my pillar drill is a pile of junk and the drill point moves a good 1/16", so I have to make the holes a lot smaller than expected. then I clean it all up with the mortice chisel.

Now it is time to cut the tennons to carefully match the mortices (Each mortice has been given a letter A-F, so that I can match up the joints later on). So out comes the Dozuki and the veritas dovetail saw (for the rip cuts). The tennons are all cut to size with the saws which goes remarkably smoothly. As desierd they are all slightly oversized, so that I can pare them down with the chisels. I set to work with a song on my lips (thus ensuring that I am left alone - no one wants to be around me when I am singing).

After some hours (this is my first set of mortice and tennons joints after all) I have finished. The joints are all snug and when pushed together thay stay together. I can see the competition prize before me... then I put 6 joints together for the first time... It turns out I got everything right except for the angles. It looks like a right dogs dinner. The prize is quickly replaced by a wooden spoon

So after some thought, out comes the router. The 4 legs are clamped togehter to give me a wide flat surface to work from and I clean up all of the mortices by making them wider until the sides are straight. Unfortunately the tennons now rattle around in the moritces, so I have to pack them out with pieces of veneer cut so that the grain direction runs in the same way as the apron.

After some time getting the joints to fit snugly I discover that when I clamp it all up the legs do not run parallel. What seems like acceptably close to 90 degrees at the joint end is hugely magnified by the 18" long legs. So it is out with an engineers square and a sharp marking knife to make sure that the shoulders are exactly 90 degrees.

After a number of attempts my aprons are about 1/4" shorter than then were when I started, but they all fit properly. I know see why people invest in jigs to get it right first time.

 

[frugal]

The next thign to do was to make a drawer slip. This was to provide not only the shelf for the draw to run along, but also provide some more stability for the sides. As the front is only 3" high I have decided (possibly foolishly) that I will not have an apron along the front at all, just the draw slip.

After a first failed attempt where I got too clever for my own good (a strange thing to try after my aborted attempt at hand cutting the M&T joints I know) I decided to try again with a more straightforward approach. I took some more cherry and ripped it down to 3/16" thick. I did not want it too thick as I only have 3" to play with and this is going to be a draw for a 5 year old (well hopefully she will still be five when I have finished). So I took four 3/16" thick pieces and after squaring them all up routed out a rebate along one side to fit into a groove along the aprons. I cut half lap joints in the ends of each of them.

At this point I would like to say just how much I love my wife for buying me the veritas dovetail saw for Christmas. I know it is a dovetail saw, but as it is cut for rip cutting I figured it would be the best bet for cutting and 1/8" thick piece in half lengthwise, and it was.

I glued up the frame and then when it was dry I cut out the 4 notches for the legs.

At this point I realised that I could have save myself a whole load of hassle if I had glued it all together first, and then cut the rebate on the finished item...

 

[RobertMP]

Nice to see someone else that makes progress as slowly as me

That certainly is some pretty looking wood you have there. Like the grain on the legs.

Keep going

 

[frugal]

Now, I have finally got to the point where I can glue up the base with the drawer slip inserted. However before I do that I need to do one final thing to the legs - taper them.

Up until now I have been working with the legs square down their length, but the plans call for the 1 1/2" legs to taper to 1" at the bottom. To do this I put the base together to ensure that I cut the tapers on the inside corner (I would hate to get this bit wrong after the amount of effort it took to get the M&T joints fitting properly).

So I have marked out which is the inside of the leg. I then mark out the 1" from the outside of the leg (just in case there is any discrepency in the sizes) on both of the sides that need cutting.

Then I carefully cut the first side on the bandsaw with a nice new blade. Then I rotate the piece to use the line that will show me the second taper cut for the leg, only to reliase that it is now on the waste that I have just cut off... bugger...

After a bit of thought I am not sure how you can cut the taper on both sides without needing to go away to mark up the second cut.

Anyway, both sets of tapers are now cut and then planed and finally sanded to 600 grit on all sides (as are the aprons).

Now comes the scary bit, the glueing up. As can be seen from the bottom left hand corner of the second draw slip photo the Evostik Resin W waterproof glue turns the wood black and stains, so I am going to try the standard green Resin W instead. (I had read in a glue article in one of the woodwork magazines and the waterproof Resin W is better on hardwoods which is why I was using it rather than any need for waterproofing).

After a final check that everything fits together snugly I start to apply glue to both the tennons and the mortices with a small brush (in a vain effort to avoid squeeze out).

Then comes the task of putting everything together. I put the sides together and then using all 3 of my two hands manage to get the draw slip in place as well as all of the M&T joints. Then I clamp it all togther.

1m bessey clamps are not the easiest thing to use when your object is only 13" long and most of the clamp is hanging in mid air, but I get there in the end. After checking, the glue up is even square first time!!! :shock:

In order to keep the clamps from squishing the open end I have put the blank for the draw front in between the two legs at the front to ensure that the gap is correct.

Which is what you can see at an angle just under the draw slip...

... And yes after clamping it all together I too noticed that I have routed a rebate on the front of the draw slip where I do not need one. However all is not lost, as I need to take the rebate back to the main part of the drawer slip as I will not have a groove in the drawer to accept it. Unfortunately as I discovered this after I had got it all clamped up and square I will have to fixe it with a chisel and a careful hand.

So now all I need to do it make the top and the drawer and get it all finished in the next 6 weeks...

 

[frugal]

Nice to see someone else that makes progress as slowly as me

That certainly is some pretty looking wood you have there. Like the grain on the legs.

Keep going

I decided that the cherry for the legs and aprons was completely different to the cherry in the table top, so I have decided that as I have just enough wood left in the piece I cut the legs and aprons from to cut the table top as well, that I am going to make it all from the single billet of wood. The top has been sacrificed to make the drawer slip and will also be used for the drawer sides

It is a glorious piece of cherry that I got from Yandles 18 months ago. It gives off the most glorious smell when you cut it, a smell of dark morello cherries.

 

[OPJ]

Nice gloat on the Bessey clamps, also! :roll:

How are you tapering your legs? As you're looking for a pencil line then, I'd assume it's freehand on the bandsaw?

A table saw jig would allow you to cut both tapers without having to re-mark the line (provided you cut the tapers in the correct order). Otherwise, you could temporarily re-attach the offcut with masking tape and cut - that's what you do with cabriole legs. 8)

 

[frugal]

Nice gloat on the Bessey clamps, also! :roll:

I picked them up cheap at Yandles in the spring. SWMBO was acting as an enabler so I spent far more than I intended. They are really nice clamps, my only criticism is that you need to apply a bit of pressure first for the clamp head to engage properly and start to clamp up, but once it does they are great.

How are you tapering your legs? As you're looking for a pencil line then, I'd assume it's freehand on the bandsaw?

A table saw jig would allow you to cut both tapers without having to re-mark the line (provided you cut the tapers in the correct order). Otherwise, you could temporarily re-attach the offcut with masking tape and cut - that's what you do with cabriole legs. 8)

I was indeed cutting them on the bandsaw freehand. Partly because I do not own a table saw, and partly because you can get quite good results freehand. I could have made up a jig for the bandsaw to taper the legs, but to be quite honest it would have taken longer to make up the jig than it took to plane out any imperfections.

There is also a slight amount of drift on my new blade (I can feel the weld going through the guides) so I prefer not to use the fence if possible as it is not adjustable. I need to make up a single point fence for the bandsaw, especially as Steve has put plans in the latest BWW

As once I had cut the first taper I still had two square sides to mark up the second taper against there was no problem (The freshly cut face was uppermost when I was cutting the second face so there was no problems with alignment).

 

[frugal]

I decided that I would wait for my thicknesser blades to come back from sharpening before I tried to finish the top. So I moved onto the drawer.

I took some of the Cherry that I got a the Auction at Pughs last year and cleaned up one face with a hand plane and then ripped it down to just under 1/2", which gave me 3/8" after cleaning up the second face.

Of course the first thing I did was injure myself I have inherited a very simple bench that was used the the previous owner as a work bench for repairing cars with a rough OSB top. As I went to pick up a bit of wood I slid my hand under the piece I was lifting and got a large splinter of OSB under my fingernail... That smarts, I can see why the chinese used to do it to people they did not like :?

Then the second mishap of the evening. I discovered why the wood was cheap at auction, it has had woodworm at some point in it's life. There are no bugs or worms or anything to indicate that I brought any wildlife into the workshop with me, but the wood is no use for furniture as it has tracks all over it.

Oh well, I will make up the drawer frame as a test piece as I have never done dovetails before. I carefully marked out the pins with a marking knife taking into account the width of the joining piece of wood. then I carefully cut down the lines with the lovely Veritas Dovetail saw SWMBO got me for Christmas. Then I used a coping saw to cut out most of the waste and cleaned it up with some freshly sharpened chisels.

Then I realised that I had removed the pins and left the waste

Right, good job that this is a trial run then :wink: . Cut off the end 1/2" of both sides and then squared them up again. This time it went a little better, although the joint was not what I would call exhibition standard, it was slack in parts and tight in others. One down and three to go.

After a couple of hours I managed to get all 4 joints cut and fortunately each one was a better fit than the others. Just to practice the whole thing I glued and clamped it up so that I can see what it looks like after I have cleaned up the joints. I will try to remember to post a picture of the joints when I clean them up.

I am now waiting for the thicknesser blades to arrive back from the saw doctor so that I can clean up the rest of the cherry and find out how much of it is usable and how much is firewood :?

 

[Ironballs]

Coming along well, you've got some strong grained cherry there, should look good. In my limited experience of doing leg tapers I've found it best to cut and plane the first and then mark up the second once the first is complete.

Judging by your level of progress my slowness crown seems to be safe and intact

 

[frugal]

Some of this update was done a while ago, just before I hurt my back, but I completely failed to get any photos done.

I am quite glad that I found that the a lot of the cherry I had was full of woodworm as it meant that I had some thicknessed stock to make a trial run of the dovetails. I have never cut dovetails by hand before, so this was going to be a new adventure for me. My lovely wife bought me the Veritas dovetail saw for Christmas; I acquired a Veritas dovetail marker at Yandles in the spring; and a couple of Ashly Isles dovetail chisels fell into my basket when I ordered some turning chisels. So I have no excuses about the tools not being any good

Here is the first joint I did. It took about half an hour to do this one, the rest got slightly quicker, but I am still no Rob Cosman :wink:

... and here is the forth joint on the trial:

The joints got progressively better and better as I went along which is a good sign.

Once I had done the trial I had a go at the real thing. Of course I had to make a mistake and I routed the groove for the drawer bottom first, which meant that I did it all the way to the end of the front and back pieces so that the groove was visible from the outside when it was put together. So I needed to use the last of the spare wood to make up a new front and back piece.

The second time around it was a lot better. I still need to work on the fitting a bit and paring the pins with the chisel.

The pins are not all exactly the same, and there are a couple of marks where the saw went a fraction to far, but for a first attempt I a really proud of them.

 

[Mr Ed]

I reckon they're pretty good for a first attempt at dovetails. Personally I would make the tails bigger in relation to the pins, but the layout of dovetails is a matter of personal preference so theres no right or wrong.

Ed

 

[frugal]

After cutting the dovetails for the drawer I cut a groove for the drawer bottom using the router table with some indicators as to where I needed to start and stop so that the groove was not visible on the outside of the drawer.

Then I made up a panel for the bottom of the drawer by jointing together 2 pieces of 6mm thick cherry to make a wider board. As the groove in the sides of the drawer was only 3mm wide, I needed to chamfer the edge of the panel to make it fit. When I assembled the drawer I made sure that the chamfered edge was facing down so that the inside of the drawer was nice and neat.

Before assembling I finished the inside faces of all of the pieces down to 600 grit and the two coats of Shellac sanding sealer and the two coats of Briwax.

As I had no intention of trying to make half-lapped dovetails on my first attempt at making dovetails I used a piece from the same batch of wood as the rest of the carcase as a false front. The first thing to do was place the drawer in position in the carcase, and then offer up the drawer front to ensure that the front was in the correct position.

I then turned a drawer pull from a cherry branch that had been sitting around the workshop for a couple of years. This was probably the trickiest part of the whole project as I am not very good with the turny thing yet. The pull is about 12mm in diameter where it touches the drawer and there is then a 8mm diameter tenon that goes about 15mm into the drawer front. By some kind of miracle I managed to get this turn to the exact diameter of my 8mm drill bit, so that I could push it 3/4 of the way in by hand and then pushed in tight with a strong clamp. I know that I should use some kind of mechanical fixing from behind, but I can not see how this is going anywhere and has the advantage that there is no screw in the back of the front piece.

Now the drawer is done and fitted, all I need to do is the top and finish it all.

 

[frugal]

Originally the top was made with a piece of cherry from the last autumn, rather than the cherry from Yandles, however after making up the panel I realised that the auction cherry is a different species and it is much lighter in colour. So I recycled the top and used it to make the drawer sides and base.

I had just enough of the Yandles Cherry to rip in half and make the board for the top. However as with the rest of this project nothing was easy. The bandsaw blade had some drift on it and I ended up up going off of the line. I had to make up a single point fence from MDF following some of Steve M's instructions. Once this new fence was in place the ripping went a lot more successfully.

Unfortunately due to the problems with the bandsaw fence and then needing to thickness it to clean it up some more, the book matching was not as good as I had hoped for. I tried all sorts of arrangements, book matching and slip matching to try and get the best pattern of grain. In the end although the book matching was not perfect, it still looked the best of all of the arrangements.

After thicknessing the boards and jointing the long edge I glued them up with a simple rubbed joint. After curing the combined board was run back through the thicknesser to ensure it was even.

Once the board was prepared I rand a simple cove around the edge to give it a bit of interest without being too fancy as the rest of the design was quite simple.

The top had two coats of Shellac sanding sealer applied with a brush, cut back with 600grit Abranet and then the underside had two good coats of Briwax added. to protect it (and to ensure that the finish was that same as the top). the top will be waxed when it is all put together.

Now I just need to attach the top to the carcase and finish it all.

 

[frugal]

The final stage. The carcase also has two coats of shellac sanding sealer applied, each cut back with 600 grit Abranet. then two generous coats of wax.

The reason that it looks like it is floating is that there is a furniture tack in the end of each leg to raise it up a little bit so that I can finish all the way to the bottom of the leg. the round head furniture tacks are great because they allow you to move the piece around and they do not catch on small obstructions.

The top was attached with small angled brackets. I could not find any small ones that with oval holes to allow the wood to expand, so I took some with round holes and spent ten minutes with a round file to expand them before I used them.

Of course I then realised that the drawer would now catch on the brackets as I pushed it in, so I needed to take the block plane to the top of the drawer at the back and take a little bit off of the top.

The whole piece was then finished with two coats of wax and buffer with a piece of soft cloth. You can not see it from these photos, but there is a satin finish and a slight reflection in the flat surfaces.

Now I need to take some photos against a white background and try to condense this whole process into 350 words for the competition :wink:

Then I get to show it to my daughter and see if she likes it. After all of the work I put into it, I am sure that the response will be underwhelming :wink: She is 5 after all.

 

[wizer]

Lovely work. This absolutely stinks of victory =D>

 

[OPJ]

That's some nice-looking English cherry. You mentioned the problem with woodworm, which is very unfortunate but, did you find some of the boards split quite badly? 1in. boards are not renowned for their stability as the wood dries... :?

I agree with Ed's thoughts on the dovetails, which look fine otherwise. I do think you were right to glue the knob/drawer pull in though. Can't see anything wrong with that, I also hate to be able to see screws anywhere!

 

[frugal]

I reckon they're pretty good for a first attempt at dovetails. Personally I would make the tails bigger in relation to the pins, but the layout of dovetails is a matter of personal preference so theres no right or wrong.

Ed

Ed, The base of the pins was as small as the width of the smallest chisel I have available to clean them out. I have never figured out how people clean out the waster between the tails when the pins taper to just a saw kerf thickness.