I feel ever so humbled by the quality of some of the projects posted here and am a little hesitant to post my own efforts, but here's the result of a recent project to "disguise" an ugly radiator in our hallway. I was galvanised into action when SWMBO came home saying she had found exactly what she wanted, and it was "only" £595. Being in need of a new tablesaw, my previous having packed up, and my first p/t - I could see a window of opportunity!
So off to Atkins & Cripps to buy some American White Oak. This was enough to complete the job and came to £102.
Having just invested in a new TS and P/T I was anxious to get started, but had to work outside due to a Robin nesting in the garage. I much prefer working outside anyway!
Impetuosity rules. Tried out the p/t by assembling the tabletop. I should have known better as I've never used one before and had all sorts of problems. Can be seen propped against the garage door in the background. Followed up by assembling the legs. These were laminated from 2 pieces as A&C didn't have any 6cm stock.
I wanted 2 shelves, but not solid, so made up 2 slatted shelves. Mortises were cut in the rails with a handheld router and the tenons cut on the t/s.
I had never cut dovetails before so armed with a copy of FWW (Aug 2006) I decided that if I started at the back of the drawers I would learn enough cutting 4 sets of dovetails so that by the time I came to cutting the ones on the front I would have reached an acceptable standard. I cut the drawer backs and sides long so that if my first efforts ended in failure I could just cut off the pins and tails and still have enough to try again. I don't own a dovetail saw so with a bit of rummaging I found an old razor saw from my aeromodelling days which was adequate if not perfect. Not really man enough for the job in the long term, but it was OK on this occasion.
Of course I could have cut through dovetails on the back of the drawers, but as the aim of the exercise was to learn how to do the half-blind dovetails for the front, that's what I chose to do. Reasonably happy with the result for a first attempt. If I was doing them again I would think ahead a bit more and position the tails so that the groove for the side hung runners went down the center of a tail.
I now had a table in "kit form"!
And here's the finished article. Finish is 2 coats of Patina.
The baskets underneath is SWMBO's idea 'cos that's what the one she saw in the shop for £595 had!
This is my first furniture project for years and I've really enjoyed it. All things considered I'm reasonably happy with the result. Even more importantly, so is SWMBO. Given that my garage is a glory hole and I'm allergic to working inside during the summer, all work was done on a 30 yr old BD workmate, but I've been drooling over Lord Nibbo's bench and I feel a winter project coming on.
Some of the m/t joints are not as tight on assembly as I would have liked in an ideal world which is largely down to lack of clamps. Also the 3 pieces that comprise the table top are slightly different colours despite coming from the same stack. If I was doing it again I would assemble the top from pieces cut from a single length of stock.
So off to Atkins & Cripps to buy some American White Oak. This was enough to complete the job and came to £102.
Having just invested in a new TS and P/T I was anxious to get started, but had to work outside due to a Robin nesting in the garage. I much prefer working outside anyway!
Impetuosity rules. Tried out the p/t by assembling the tabletop. I should have known better as I've never used one before and had all sorts of problems. Can be seen propped against the garage door in the background. Followed up by assembling the legs. These were laminated from 2 pieces as A&C didn't have any 6cm stock.
I wanted 2 shelves, but not solid, so made up 2 slatted shelves. Mortises were cut in the rails with a handheld router and the tenons cut on the t/s.
I had never cut dovetails before so armed with a copy of FWW (Aug 2006) I decided that if I started at the back of the drawers I would learn enough cutting 4 sets of dovetails so that by the time I came to cutting the ones on the front I would have reached an acceptable standard. I cut the drawer backs and sides long so that if my first efforts ended in failure I could just cut off the pins and tails and still have enough to try again. I don't own a dovetail saw so with a bit of rummaging I found an old razor saw from my aeromodelling days which was adequate if not perfect. Not really man enough for the job in the long term, but it was OK on this occasion.
Of course I could have cut through dovetails on the back of the drawers, but as the aim of the exercise was to learn how to do the half-blind dovetails for the front, that's what I chose to do. Reasonably happy with the result for a first attempt. If I was doing them again I would think ahead a bit more and position the tails so that the groove for the side hung runners went down the center of a tail.
I now had a table in "kit form"!
And here's the finished article. Finish is 2 coats of Patina.
The baskets underneath is SWMBO's idea 'cos that's what the one she saw in the shop for £595 had!
This is my first furniture project for years and I've really enjoyed it. All things considered I'm reasonably happy with the result. Even more importantly, so is SWMBO. Given that my garage is a glory hole and I'm allergic to working inside during the summer, all work was done on a 30 yr old BD workmate, but I've been drooling over Lord Nibbo's bench and I feel a winter project coming on.
Some of the m/t joints are not as tight on assembly as I would have liked in an ideal world which is largely down to lack of clamps. Also the 3 pieces that comprise the table top are slightly different colours despite coming from the same stack. If I was doing it again I would assemble the top from pieces cut from a single length of stock.
