Walnut and Cherry
Hall Tables
9/16/03 - A traditional, and
very simple, hall table made from walnut scraps leftover from a previous
project. The table will be 12" wide, 28 3/4" tall, and 28" long, and the
rectangular top will have a 1/4" cherry inlay, strip 1" from the
edge, and cherry splines on the miter joints. 9/21/03 - Table, not yet
finished, but placed to get a sense of how it will fit in its designated
location. At this time it only has the first of five coats of oil/poly/varnish
finish.
20/20 Hindsight
Department: Entirely unremarkable and mostly overlooked, the table simply
sits in the entry hall and performs its intended function without fanfare or
notice. I still feel the simplicity of the design turned out well. If someone
does take notice, you can bet they are a connoisseur of hand crafted
furniture.
5/14/05 - Here are three more of the same style, two made on commission. The
walnut is "homegrown" stock, from Arkansas, and was sitting under
the crawlspace of a house for a number of years before it was presented to me
by my wife's Uncle Tete from Gurdon, AR. (... and yes, they are getting one of
the tables in appreciation of that wonderful gesture). They are all finished
with a hand-rubbed, poly/oil finish, followed by a poly/oil/wax combination.
... and another of the same style in it's final resting place.
8/8/07 - And yet
another in a similar style/vein. Made with cherry and walnut off cuts from the
Hope Chest project, this
one was made to fill a specific location at the bottom of a stair well
where nothing else seemed to fit. It was whipped out in about half an hour
using floating tenons done on the Multi-Router. I left the finishing until
this date, approximately 8 months after making the table, when the weather
finally got right for spraying ... nothing but amber shellac, cut 50/50 with
alcohol, and sprayed on with an HVLP rig.
Kitchen
Side Table (Mission Style with Granite
Top)
12/18/03 - An original design for a specific location in the kitchen. The
granite top, a finished slab leftover from another project, dictated the dimensions of the
planned table.
SWMBO wanted
this table to have a heavy, massive appearance to match the stairway newels,
which are close by. With that in mind, the legs were planned for 3" X 3" X 29 1/2" and glued up from
8/4 quarter sawn white oak stock, then jointed and planed to final thickness.
The tapers are cut on the table saw. I left cutting the mortises until last in
the event the wrong side of a leg is accidentally tapered, saving me from having to plug a suddenly
"misplaced" mortise.
12/21/03 - Mortise
and tenon joints cut in all legs, rails and spindles. Dry fit of all
components of end assembly prior to glue-up.
12/23/03 - Rear and
front rails/aprons finished and dry fitted before glue-up.
A method
for matching the grain of an inset drawer front and its apron:
The opening for the drawer,
and the drawer front itself, was cut from one solid board of 37" X 5
1/2" X 3/4" QSWO, with the goal of insuring a
pleasing grain match across the front apron and drawer.
This was
accomplished by first ripping 1 1/16" off the top and bottom of a carefully
measured apron of sufficient height to make an upper rail, a lower rail, and a
middle section between the two from which the drawer front will be cut. A 1/4"
allowance for the two rip saw kerfs was also added to the height of the uncut
apron.
The drawer
front was then cut from the middle section, leaving it and the two cut-offs on
each end.
These two
end cut-offs were then glued back into their original
positions at the ends of, and between the top and bottom rails. NOTE: A 1/16"
inset on each
end was necessary to make up for the two crosscut saw kerfs when cutting out
the drawer front.
The resulting front apron, now with
a perfectly sized drawer opening, is then trimmed to final width and tenon's
are cut in both ends to
fit the mortises in the legs.
This method
insures a perfect fit for the drawer front in the drawer opening, with an even
1/16" gap all around, and with a perfect grain match across the apron and
drawer ... the most visible part of the table.
12/25/03 - One coat
of stain applied. While drying, the piece is moved into the kitchen so it could be used
during the
family Christmas festivities. The 3" legs are 'as designed', but turned
out a bit too
"massive" for my taste.
20/20 Hindsight
Department: A 1" wide, 45 degree bevel on the inside of each
leg,
extending down to where the taper starts, would have made the legs appear less
wide when viewed from an angle.
In the "Every Project
Has At Least One Serious Screw-up" department, the 1/4" collet on
the router table router was acting up and while attempting to cut the 1/4"
blind groove in the drawer front for the drawer bottom to ride in, the bit
crept up and broke through the perfectly grain
matched, 3/4" drawer front. Another good reason to always use push blocks
when making non-through cuts on a router table. A "Dutchman"
filled the resulting oval shaped hole to the extent that it is all but
invisible.
Mission
Hall Table
1/12/04 -
A Mission style hall table
made entirely from cutoff's and scrap stock from previous projects. Table is
34" H X 28" W X 12" D, said dimensions dictated entirely by the
size of the available scrap material.
20/20
Hindsight Department: Despite its low birth and hasty
construction, this piece is turning out to be one of my better design attempts and is
much more elegant in person than the above photo suggests. In the event of a future version
I may consider a more pronounced bevel on the bottom edge of the top to
lighten its thick appearance ... that would also work particularly well with,
and complement, the adding of the bowl in the photo.
Page
1 (Bedside
Table; Kitchen Cabinets)
Page 2
(Trivet; Writing
Desk; Trad. End Table; Lamp)
Page 3 (A&C Coffee
Table; TV Cabinet; Walnut Coffee Table; A&C End Table)
Page 4 (Walnut Hall
Table; Granite Top Mission Table; Mission Hall Table)
Page
5 (708 Style Writing Table) (Mission Trestle Table)
Page
6 (Arts and Crafts
Bench)
Page
7 (New
Construction-2005 Kitchen)
Page
8 (Tool
Drawers; Stacked Tansu)
Page 9 (Plan
Rack; Door Restoration; Spice Rack; A&C House# Frame)
Page 10 (Craftsman
Chair Reproduction)
Page 11 (A&C
Kitchen Dining Set)
Page 12
(Cherry/Walnut Hope Chest)
Page 13 (Mission
Sideboard)
Page 14 (Kitchen
Drawers; Calendar Frames)
Page 15 (Corner
Cabinet)
Page 16 (2008
Kitchen Project/Trash Pullout)
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