Building the 2x Side Table: Glueup & Dimensioning

It doesn't matter how many times you have done it, panel glue-ups are the beginning of a downward spiral.

This glue-up resulted in a board bowed across its width.

Probable cause : all the clamps are on one side.
Prevention: alternate the clamps up, down, up down to even the clamping pressure.
Solution: Light pass thru a planer or flatten the surface with a handplane.


With all the panels glued up its time to size the pieces to final dimensions.

For the width I use a 24-th rip blade and the fence set to 15", Blade Guard, Splitter and Over the Blade Dust Collection.

 The panel width are 15", so the SCMS (Makita with a 12" cap)  is not an option. Dust off the Cross-cut sled and put in a hi-tooth count blade for a nice cut.

If you don't have a crosscut sled, Marc, TheWoodWhisperer, does a brilliant job explaining how to construct your own in this video:

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/the-cross-cut-sled/

The one I use is from an old Wood Magazine article, and is lightweight for simple cuts.

Next up, Joinery

Building the 2x Side Table: Material Selection

     I got another order for the SYP table I featured in my last blog post and I thought some might be interested in  building their own version.  This series of posts will be for all of you .

Lets start from the top:

Material Selection:

 Go down to your nearest big box and find the longest (12 or 16 footers)
2 x 12's you can get your hands on. These will be the clearest and straightest boards.  At 9 or 10 dollars a board we can be a little wasteful and choose to avoid knots and defects.





Cherry pick through the pile and sight down each board. Its okay if all the contractors think you are crazy.  You can build this table from two 2x12x12', so why not take the time to get the best material.

What you see to the left is what we are looking for, a center cut, flatsawn board with marked cathedral grain down the center and straight grain near the edges.

We are looking to keep as much of that quartersawn material on the edges as possible. That means we will rip down the center of the board, dress our boards and when we cut to final width before glue up, we will remove material from the pith side of the board.

You may be asking yourself why even  rip down the center, well most of us have a 6-8" jointer and in order to dress these boards properly  it must be cut to fit the jointer.  

next up, get your glue.

Southern Yellow What?

Some will scoff at using construction lumber such as southern yellow pine 2x material for a furniture project, I guess they are missing out.

Side Table, 49 1/2" x 15" x 29"
Nitrocellulose Satin Lacquer over Amber Shellac

NightStand: The Prototype

Just a few pics of the completed poplar mock up.

Doing a full blown build in an easy working wood is a very liberating process, and i would argue important learning exercise.

Lessons Learned:

- Dovetail Case Construction:  pay attention to how you intend to attach your back.

 If you decide to rabbet the back of the case then choose an appropriately sized pin.You don't want to have to use a thin back because you did not leave the rear pin wide enough to support a good size back.

-Gluing Up Sub-Assemblies: clamp them in their final location during glue up.

       I incorporated stretchers to give the legs more strength and ground the design, and I glued the leg pairs to the stretcher before I glued the legs to the case.  Instead of temporarily clamping them to the case while in glue up, I just clamped them with a spacer at the top.  I ended up with some twist which could have been eliminated if I had taken the time to clamp them to the case while the glue dried.

- Cut your Joinery First:
    This is a no brainer, cut your joinery before you do any tapering. The stretcher is attached to the legs with a M&T joint.  The mortise is easier to cut when the legs are square.  Later on the tenon can be fit after the taper has been cut to adjust the tenon shoulder for the taper angle.  The handle  has a hidden tenon fit to a mortise in the drawer face.  Before shaping the handle cut the tenon and fit to the mortise, then go to town.


-Walnut does not come in a can: test your finish schedule on scrap.
   Staining poplar to a dark walnut will keep even the best on their toes.  Avoid this process.  Even with a shellac seal coat and the use of a water based dye and gel stain, blotching was still a problem on the poplar.
If I had done some test runs I would have discovered I did not need the dye and should have avoided it.
And as a heads-up the General Finish Gel Stain I used (antique walnut) contains Polyurethane,  thats the first time I had encountered a gel stain with a varnish in it.

Enjoy the pics.

Nightstand: The Design

 If we could boil the whole lot of furniture making into a single exercise, it would be:

     make a simple box.

Everything therein is a variation on the same theme.  

Nightstands have always been on the casework list of projects to build, along with their more substantial cousins: armoire, and chest of drawers.

I thought I might share my efforts in designing a piece, building a mockup and creating the final version.

The first step was to decide on the design's purpose. I wanted a design that provided a stable top surface at a suitable height and the means to accommodate a drawer.  Sounds simple enough, but there are divergent goals at play.  Table legs provide the height required for the table surface, and at the same time create a moment arm by which the piece can rack and stress the joints of the piece. How do we combine the need for height, a case for storage and a solid assembly?

Studying past designs, I found there to be 3 common paths from which most small tables of this sort are derived.

Frame and Panel - posts with grooves holding panels are joined
     with rails using mortise and tenon(M/T) joinery.

Leg and Apron - legs are joined with aprons using M/T joinery,
    along with runners and dividers.

Simple Box - various corner joinery (dovetails, rabbet/tongue, 
   box joints, dowels) is used to assemble an open box.

My solution:

Dovetails can be used to create a simple box case to house the
drawer and open storage slot below. Legs will be attached
using a lap joint and reinforced with pegs.

Open this Door.

     I go on walks quite often in our neighborhood, a by-product of dog ownership, and each house I pass by I admire the craftsmanship of the front doors.  There is something very satisfying about a hand made door; maybe its the heft of a solid wood frame and panel, the crisp details of the molding framing each of its parts, or the shape of an arch top jamb and door.


Dutch Door
    Material: Poplar
    Cope & Stick Frame/Panel
    Mortise/Tenon
    4 Glass Panels

Assemble, Assembling, Assembled

One of the shortcomings of my previous shop was the lack of the space  for an outfeed and assembly table.  I needed a solid work surface that served three purposes:  a flat surface to assemble projects, increase the capacity of my tablesaw cart, and increase the organized storage of my shop.

I looked over the design  Marc @ thewoodwhisperer.com had refined from David Marks, and its a great simple and useful table after which I modeled my table.

- 4' x 4' torsion box top with a replaceable hardboard skin.
- oak edgebanding for hard wearing edges
- 4" double locking casters for moving around
- all drawer storage below the surface. mounted on full-extension slides
- Table saw outfeed height,

Enjoy the pics: