Dan's Hobbies

Perfect tenons

Dan — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:32:36 +0000

It’s been two weeks since my last post, but I actually have a good reason for not posting sooner. If you have ever made mortise and Tenon joints, you know they can be hard to get perfect using power tools. The most common tool used to make tenons is the table saw. You cut your boards to length set up a stop block, and then guide the board through the cut using a miter gauge. This method has a draw back though, your miter gauge must be perfectly square to the miter slot, and it can have now slop as it travels through the slot. If your set-up doesn’t meet both these requirements the checks won’t end up in the same plane, and thus one side of your joint will have a gap. If the gap is small then it’s usually not a big issues, because very rarely are both sides of a M&T joint visible.

As you would expect I first made the tenons for my end tables using the method i’m familiar with, but they had some small gaps. My end tables have several joints where both sides are visible so they need to be perfect. After a minor freak out, I started researching how to fix the issue. It took almost a week, but I found a method that i will use from now on to make tenons. The method is a derivative of the method used by Garrett Hack in this video series.

Step 1: Joint one edge(yellow) of a board, and then use that as reference face to cross-cut both ends(green) of the board. This is very easy and super accurate with a cross-cut sled. Mark the length of your tenons for future reference. If you have a marking gauge, use it, because it’s the most accurate tool for the job, and it will help prevent tearout later on.

Step 2: Using a miter gauge and a dado stack, remove the bulk of the material from both faces of the tenon. Stay shy of your line a 1/32″ or so.

Step 3: this is where the magic happens, set your miter gauge aside, and adjust your rip fence to cut right to the line. It will take a little getting use to, but you are going to reference the cut using only the end of the board(green). Since the same face is being used as a reference to cut both shoulders it’s all but impossible for them to not be co-planer. Warning a kickback risk does exist with this type of cut, so I recommend using push pads while making the cut.

Step 4: With both faces sized, cut the edges to proper depth. Again staying 1/32″ or so shy of your line.

Step 5: Clean up the waste along the edges using a chisel and a mallet.

apron templates

Dan — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:13:15 +0000

So it took almost a 5 days for my back to start feeling better, So I didn’t get as much done as I wanted.
While my back was still tender I made the two pattern routing templates need for the bottom aprons, as they are one of the things you can make while sitting on a comfortable stool. I’ve started making all my templates from 1/4″ Baltic Birch, as it holds up so much better than MDF, and is a lot less messy to use. It took about 4 hours to make both of them, and most of that was fine-tuning the shape with sanding sticks. This YouTube video explains the technique better than I can.

apron template

When my back was finally better, I started the loud and time consuming process of sizing all the stock for the aprons. I’m not exaggerating, jointing and planing Jatoba trashes most knives. My planer is probably 10 decibels louder than when I started. It took several days, because I had to buy 5/4 stock and then take it all the way down to 25/32″. Removing this much stock required 3 rounds of jointing and planing separated by 24 hour rest periods. My rule of thumb, is a 24 hour rest period for every 1/8″ of stock removed.

sized aprons

One of the things I’m trying for the first time on this project, is a continuous drawer front. If you’re not familiar with technique, you start out by taking stock wider than the final final apron and sawing it into 3 pieces lengthwise. The top and bottom pieces are narrow, and th e middle piece is as wide as your drawer is high. After you joint the freshly cut faces, you cut the drawer front out of the center piece. The final step is to glue the top and bottom pieces to the ends of the center piece, and then plane the glue up to final thickness. This Charles Neil YouTube video shows the process step by step.

drawer front

curvy legs

Dan — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:08:13 +0000

It took 3 weeks, but the legs are done except for finish sanding. The final step of making the legs was the longest, and the scariest. First I had to make a template for pattern routing, out of 1/4″ plywood. As you would expect it only took about an hour to make. One thing you will notice, is the template has a reference surface made from scrap SYP. It was needed so I could reference off the back miter edge.

routing template

To shape the legs, I double stick taped the template to the legs, and then rough cut around the template at the bandsaw. The scariest part was next. Maybe scary is the wrong word, but pattern routing 1-5/8″ thick Jatoba is not something to take lightly. It was loud, slow going and more than a little nerve racking, but I got through it using a Whiteside Down spiral flush trim bit. After I finished routing all 8 legs, I took them over to the oscillating spindle sander to smooth out any imperfections. After some hand sanding, it was back to the router table to round over the front edges. The round over has a large 3/4″ radius so it it had to be done in several passes. While as you can see the leg lookes beautiful, all that time spent bent over the router table really put the kibosh on my lower back, so it’s going to be a few days till I can get back into the shop.

Now that's a nice Leg

leg jig part 2

Dan — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:21:39 +0000

What was I thinking, it took a lot longer to make the mortises than I thought it would. It took almost a full week of evenings to make all 48 mortises, but they are done. Thankfully the second part of the leg making jig made making the mortises a low stress process. All it really is is a piece of 1/4″ plywood with slots milled into it at specific locations. When a leg is mounted into the bottom half of the jig, I screwed the plywood to it. The template bushing rides in the slots, so to cut the mortises all I had to do was take a pass, lower the bit and repeat until I reached full depth. The process it pretty strait forward, so I’ll let the photos explain the rest.

leg jig part 1

Dan — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:49:50 +0000

The first part I decided to work on for the end tables, was the legs. They are the most visually dominant parts, and one of the most complex to make. Since they are set set at 45 degrees to to the aprons, the require massive chamfers cut down their back. As you can see below, the chamfers also have mortises cut into them. These two design features posed an interesting challenge, how do I cut chamfers outside the capacity of my table saw, and how do I accurately mill mortises into them.

What I decided on was a planer sled that holds the leg blanks at the proper angle to mill the chamfers. The sled consists of two strait edges that help feed the sled through the planer, and will support the router when milling the mortises. The other key components are the triangle shaped supports that hold the blanks as the proper angle. The jig is a piece of cake to use, lock down the blank with the clamping blocks, and run the sled through the planer. when one edge is done flip the blank end over end and repeat the process.