At college I have started making a shaker table with one small drawer made from European Oak and Sapele. For the legs, sides, front rails and back oak will be used, I am making the drawer sides and backs from oak, also I am thinking of making the drawer bottom with oak, and the draw front is made with sapele. I chose oak and sapele because for the legs I wanted a lighter wood and the other option was pine and I would prefer using a hard wood.
The first thing I did
was mark out the tenons (for the hunched mortise and Tenon) on the legs, this
was done using a dual marking gauge on the sides and back of the table. Then I
cut them out using a Tenon saw, I then cut out the haunch on the top end of the
Tenon. After that I marked out the mortise using the Tenon and a dual marking
gauge, some people used the mortise machine, but I decided that I wanted to
make mine as machine free as I can, however I know that I will have to resort
to machines sometimes. So after marking out I used a 6mm mortise chisel and an
18mm bevel chisel to chisel out the mortise. This took time and I do understand
with the machine it would be faster but I like the handmade furniture
sentiment. I then chiselled out the haunch from the mortise and chiselled it
down until it fit in perfectly.
The next thing I did
was cut down the rails down. For the bottom rail I made a 2 pin stopped Tenon
on each end and then I marked out and mortised the mortise hole. I made a
stopped dovetail joint on each of the top rail and made the dovetail housing at
the top of each front legs.
After that I made a
stencil that tapers 10mm in from 10mm where the sides are, and then marked out
on the joint side of the legs. This is where I went wrong because on one of the
legs I marked it out on the wrong side, and started cutting down the wrong leg
using a band saw, however when I spoke to my tutor he said I would have to
start the whole leg again, but I found a way of fixing the leg by putting a
long thin piece of oak in the gap, I fixed this by gluing and clamping it until
the glue dried. When I was back on track, I band sawed the rest of the legs and
planed the tapers with a jack plane.
Then I glued the sides
up using P.V.A wood glue, and sash clamps, I also measured the top and the
bottom of the legs to make sure it was square. While that was drying I started
the box. When it was dry I glued the front and back. When that was dry I planed
and scraped what glue off using a smoother plane and a scraper.
The next thing I did
was start the drawer so I got some sapele and measure the whole for the drawer
and made it the same size. I made the sapele in to the size of the hole where
my drawer goes. Then I made the sides and back out of oak and dovetailed the
drawer together but before gluing it together I had to make the base. For the
base I got a piece of 6mm ply and veneered it with walnut veneer using P.V.A
for the glue and a veneer press. After that I used a table router with a 6mm
router bit and made a 6mm deep groove on the inside of each side of the drawer
for the base to slot into. After that I tapered the edges of the base using a
block plane.
I then clamped the
drawer together using sash cramps for a dry fit to check for fit and
square-ness using a squaring rod. Then when I was happy a glued it up. Then I
glued the runners into the table and making sure the drawer fits. Then I added
a front to my drawer that over lapped the drawer to stop the drawer from going
too far in.
Then I did the top, I
used a 35mm strip of sapele in the middle for the top and 2 oak pieces at the
side of the sapele, that I glued and together using 4 Sash-cramps (2 on top and
2 underneath) and P.V.A glue. Once it was dry I used a steel scraper to scrape
off all excess glue and to smoothen it top out so it would lay flat on top of
the legs. After that I did the moulding for the top using a router table. Once I
was happy with the top I screwed it from the bottom to attach it.
Once I had finished the assembly, I coated the whole thing in a thick coating of Danish oil and left it for 6 hours to soak in, then I took the excess off and applied a thinner coating every hour or 2, 3 times. Once this was done I did it with wet and dry sand paper to make it smooth.
Once I had finished the assembly, I coated the whole thing in a thick coating of Danish oil and left it for 6 hours to soak in, then I took the excess off and applied a thinner coating every hour or 2, 3 times. Once this was done I did it with wet and dry sand paper to make it smooth.
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