Here is a picture of the one I am going to attempt. It has 3 drawers which wil give me some practice doing those.
More as the project progresses.
Also in queue in the mind are a Mission Morris Chair, some A&C table lamps, and some end, coffee, and sofa tables.
Who knows? This may be the beginning of whatever large project is actually going to occur.
Stay tuned...
gg
19 Feb 2014 update -
The sacrificial oak drawer side has been turned into thicknessed board stock.
After a number of hours with the digital micrometer, thickness sander, table saw, and miter rite I have the pieces for the table and the frame supports for the drawers.
Next step is mortise and tenons where needed.
It has some hidden mitered tenons, and some through tenons both
of which should be interesting.
Stay tuned..
20 Feb update-
Started on tenons.
Was pleasantly surprised that once the tenons were cut that the shoulder to shoulder measurement was just what the reduced plans called for.
Most of the tenons are cut. There are still a few more, back top rail, and drawer separators and guides.
Next are mortises, which will be interesting to figure out. As I recall, drill bits this small tend to follow hard grain and wander off... maybe I will just have to grind out some thin mortise chisels - will need them anyway later on.
stay tuned
Feb 21 update -
Today I explored various methods of doing mortises. I ended up filing out a small mortise chisel . After marking the length of the slat mortises on one of the top side rails I used a scratch marker to designate the width lines. It will improve with further practice I hope. I also tried a Dremel saw blade which seems to do ok, but is just barely too wide a kerf for the slat mortises. I think I will look into bits used in guitar inlay.
Repurposed broken dental something for a mortise chisel. I narrowed the angle even more after this photo was taken.
Not the straightest mortise cut I have done but it will improve with practice.
The uneven mortise edges are well hidden by the shoulders of the slat.
More to follow...
23 Feb 2014 update -
After a couple more raggedy mortises I decided to go to the Dremel drill press with the elevating table and a #61 bit. By marking the width then scoring the center of the intended mortise I had a spot for the drill bit to begin. I set the depth stop at just past tenon depth (for glue clearance) and clamped the piece in the vise which I moved along a bar held with double sticky tape parallel to the mortise marking. I have since replaced the taped bar which tended to slip with a guide bolted to the table with wingnuts. Running it at next to lowest speed I was able to drill a series of fairly straight holes. The first couple I then cleaned up with the chisel and a blade.
The next couple I drilled the holes then slowly raised the table a little bit at a time and used the spinning bit like a router bit and cleared the slots cleanly.
24 Feb 2014 update -
This made the mortises much easier to do cleanly.
After doing all the leg mortises and the through mortises in the bottom side rails I dry fit it together to see what I had, how it fit and what adjustments might need to be made.
The top boards are not joined as yet but just set on for appearance. One thing I have to do is check the shoulder to shoulder distances on the lower shelf and the rear upper rail. They are apparently not exactly the same (minus the exposed leg to bottom rail distances) and the legs splay out a bit at the bottom. Once the legs are square I can take the measurements for the drawer support frames from the rail shoulders. The original plans have the frames joined to the table with biscuits... not something I want to try here, so it may just be glued in place.
There are spacers that go on each inside top rail to make up for the distance from the leg edge to the shoulder width. A pair of them go in the mortises on the back rail as well. I am not sure why the plans have them on the rear of the top rear rail and may reverse it before I go to glue. It seems that it is a detail that if visible on the back, should also be on the side rails.
I am quite pleased with the progress thus far. The through tenons look good, and will look better with mitered edges. Slat interval distances will be corrected in final side assembly.
stay tuned for more.
27 Feb -
I tackled the top today. Glued it up as shown below.
I have decided to add breadboard ends because I like the more complete look with them. I cobbled up a slitting saw and after much finicky adjusting got the ends mortised. I will set the router back up tomorrow and make the long tenons on the table ends.
It will look good when fitted and finished.
I am going to have to deal with the drawer support frames soon,,, As I am not going to attempt biscuit slots I am thinking of tiny splines, but may just butt join with glue. It is not like the drawers are going to be full of heavy junk.
gg
Feb 28 -
Table tongues routed to fit the grooves in the end pieces.
The fit is OK, and will look good when glued and sanded to my usual 3000 grit after boiled linseed oil finish.
gg
4 March 2014 update -
After a busy weekend at the Seattle Miniature Show I returned to this table project. The top breadboard ends were glued, the table side pieces glued, the drawer support frames completed along with the dividers. The rear rail was installed to the top drawer frame with its spacers. For strength while I handle the assemblies I used super glue, which led to obvious glue areas. Hopefully these will not be visible once it all comes together.
I then routed the drawer guide pieces which straddle the above spacers and on the ends. They have a 0.030" slot for a drawer guide to be inset, per plan .030" X.060". The guide strips are proving to be a challenge to cut...
Once I get the guide support strips inset I will do a final carcase glue up and assembly. OH.. I still have to half lap some center drawer slides in the center of each of the lower frame openings.
The next step is dealing with drawers. I have to build a finger joint jig for some tiny finger joint joinery.
stay tuned...
5 March -
Dry fit of components -
Gluing drawer frame slide mounts -
Gluing drawer slide inserts
Drawer frame assembly glue up.
Dry fit of table assembled -
Drawer guides for bottom of drawers, half lapped so raised above and flush with bottom of frame.
Final glue up is underway as I write. Tomorrow should see the desk assembled. I did get good news via email today - the scale dovetailer I ordered is in the mail and just in time to attempt dovetails on the drawers which are next up on the build.
stay tuned -
12 Mar update -
The dovetailer works great! (See the dovetailer entry). The three drawers are together, needing fronts and final fitting followed by hardware. The process was as follows.
Drawer height strips of oak center slotted on one side, and edge slotted for the bottoms.
A side and an end are placed into the jig face out, end on top and butted up against the side.
Running the jig against the spinning bit produces tails on the side, and pockets on the end piece that do not extend all the way through, hence the term "half blind".
I am using a 1/16" thick piece of spruce for the drawer bottoms which are rabbeted and fit in the slot on the inside of the drawer pieces.
Nice and square...
The drawers are together, and the one on the right already has the guide slots started. I still need to set up an overhead Dremel router to do the center bottom slot and some final fitting and clearance sanding before I do the drawer fronts, but it is coming along.
13 Mar update -
Drawer fitting done, nice and smooth with enough friction they don't just fall out. I am going to paraffin the glides for further smoothness.
This leaves the drawer fronts which will hide all the drawer guides and the hardware which still has to be fabricated.
Drawer fronts gluing with paper spacers.
And now to the hardware pulls which are described as hand hammered. I torched up some coat hanger wire and pounded it on a vise anvil til required width was reached which produced a nice thickness, as well as texture and coloration.
Now to see if it will cut and drill. I am going to glue the scaled photo print of the plates to the wire before drilling.
First attempt at the rings for the pulls are out of government copper. I would like to do a solid pull ring and fold the bail over it into the plate. This solves the problem of making the post and pierced bail as well as the weakness of the ring where it passes through the bail. A split ring stands a chance of opening up if used to pull the drawer.
OK... so the penny rings turned out to be too difficult to get three identical rings... and to save bandwidth I am deleting those pictures and putting up what I went with.
What I did was cut some slices of brass tubing and filed off the rough edges, bent them into partial ovals, filed some 1/3 round notches on one side to fit the bail.
I took some small iron wire, filed a flat on one side and used that on the outside of an eyelet bend in the end of the wire. After inserting the ring I completed the compression of the loop.
Drilled bail mounting holes in the steel flat coat hanger wire, and then trimmed the three individual plates.
I measured and drilled mounting holes in the drawer fronts and placed the pulls temporarily in place as below.
I am altogether pleased with the future end result! Final top mounting and finishing seem to be the next rational step.
18 March -
Tis all glued together, drawer glides and sides are paraffined and slide like butter.
Only thing left to do is a coat of finish oil.
The oil makes the dovetails stand out nicely!
A couple hours soaking in time then rub the excess off, a couple of days drying time and rub it out to a
nice satiny shine. Final photos will follow.
I just noticed that I forgot the little arts and crafts winglet brace things on the original. Not sure I want to add them. I like where it is now..
What next..... what next... I have plans for a Morris Chair from the A&C period...
keep tuned.
Gary
Results from the State Fair for this little table below...
Now to include it into the larger "den" roombox for next year!
gg
