Hello everyone,

This week I started on making a new kitchen table for myself. I have a
three week pause as I wait for glass for doors for the folks kitchen and I
*really* hate my current kitchen table. This is the first real woodworking I
have done for myself in *years*.

I am planning on a very simple table. About 40"x70". I say about, becuase I
don't know what size the top will really be until it is done. I bought a
huge truckload of 2" thick ash at auction a while ago and I thought that
would be the perfect material. The top stands now at just under 1.75" thick.
I also have the leg blanks done, they are 4"x4" for now.

Once I trim the table top ends I plan on adding bread board ends. The legs
will be tapered on their two inside faces. There will be a simple skirt with
an inset drawer on one of the long sides. I was showing Katarina a number of
pictures of tables on Google Images and from what I could glean, she should
like this.

I brought the ash into the basement through a window over a year ago where
it has sat stacked and stickers (it was KD). The only problem is the snow
now in the backyard and that these 12' boards will not make it around the
corners and up the stairs, DOH! Out with the cordless jig saw and I cut
several of them in half for the table top.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...cuttingash.jpg

Here they are ready to be milled up in the shop.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...milltopash.jpg

I did the usual dimensioning and glued up three blanks under 14" that would
fit through my planer. I gotta love my planer, 14" of ash, 1/8" depth of cut
and not a wimper.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...ning14inch.jpg

There was a little tear out due to grain reversal, so I sanded the three
table top sub panels.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...gashpanels.jpg

Thank god my jointer weighs 800 LBS, edge jointing these big blanks was
pretty easy.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...ointingash.jpg

I don't go to this effort very often in a glue up, but in this case I did.
Drum sanders tend to make you lazy, they can easily surface wide glueups
that were not pefect. The glue up is almost 40" wide, so it had to be right
as it wasn't going through my 25" drum sander. I made clamping cauls that
were crowned 1/8" in the middle. The bottom ones I just covered in packing
tape and for the top ones I made cut outs for the glue line. To make the
clamping cauls, I started by surfacing all four sides of the 2x4's. With the
jointer set at 1/16" depth of cut, I ran the board 1/4 of its length into
the cutterhead and lifted the caul. I turned the caul around and "leaning"
on it so the the far side was up in the air, did another pass on the
jointer. The jointer did not start cutting until mid way down the aul and I
ended up with the ~1/8" crown I wanted. I put glue on the three boards and
set them on the lower cauls 1/8" apart. I used F clamps to squeeze the cauls
and keep the three big boards in line. I then used K body clamps to "pull"
the three large blanks together.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...ashincauls.jpg

Thirty minutes in clamps and I started to clean up any squeeze out.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...squeezeout.jpg

Here is how the blank sits right now.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/theashslab.jpg

I am very pleased with the result, there is only the slightest of ridges
between the three sub panels. A very light sanding with a random orbital
sander will easily clean that up .

I hope to get bread board ends on the top this week so I can see what final
size table top I have ended up with. Based on that I will start on the skirt
and drawer.

I also managed to glue up the legs blanks. I started with four boards of
8/4x8"x32".

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/blankashlegs.jpg

I glued them up for 4x4 blanks.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...togluelegs.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/ashlegsglued.jpg

I don't know how much I will take them down, I will see how they look under
the top once it is done and go from there.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...lledsquare.jpg

Only one last little detail to figure out, how can I mount an end vise and
bore bench dog holes in it and pass it off as, "oh yah, the plans called for
it...."

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

Thanks for sharing.
Ted

Looking good David.

SteveP.

"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

This week I started on making a new kitchen table for myself. I have a
three week pause as I wait for glass for doors for the folks kitchen and I
*really* hate my current kitchen table. This is the first real woodworking
I have done for myself in *years*.

I am planning on a very simple table. About 40"x70". I say about, becuase
I don't know what size the top will really be until it is done. I bought a
huge truckload of 2" thick ash at auction a while ago and I thought that
would be the perfect material. The top stands now at just under 1.75"
thick. I also have the leg blanks done, they are 4"x4" for now.

Once I trim the table top ends I plan on adding bread board ends. The legs
will be tapered on their two inside faces. There will be a simple skirt
with an inset drawer on one of the long sides. I was showing Katarina a
number of pictures of tables on Google Images and from what I could glean,
she should like this.

I brought the ash into the basement through a window over a year ago where
it has sat stacked and stickers (it was KD). The only problem is the snow
now in the backyard and that these 12' boards will not make it around the
corners and up the stairs, DOH! Out with the cordless jig saw and I cut
several of them in half for the table top.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...cuttingash.jpg

Here they are ready to be milled up in the shop.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...milltopash.jpg

I did the usual dimensioning and glued up three blanks under 14" that
would fit through my planer. I gotta love my planer, 14" of ash, 1/8"
depth of cut and not a wimper.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...ning14inch.jpg

There was a little tear out due to grain reversal, so I sanded the three
table top sub panels.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...gashpanels.jpg

Thank god my jointer weighs 800 LBS, edge jointing these big blanks was
pretty easy.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...ointingash.jpg

I don't go to this effort very often in a glue up, but in this case I did.
Drum sanders tend to make you lazy, they can easily surface wide glueups
that were not pefect. The glue up is almost 40" wide, so it had to be
right as it wasn't going through my 25" drum sander. I made clamping cauls
that were crowned 1/8" in the middle. The bottom ones I just covered in
packing tape and for the top ones I made cut outs for the glue line. To
make the clamping cauls, I started by surfacing all four sides of the
2x4's. With the jointer set at 1/16" depth of cut, I ran the board 1/4 of
its length into the cutterhead and lifted the caul. I turned the caul
around and "leaning" on it so the the far side was up in the air, did
another pass on the jointer. The jointer did not start cutting until mid
way down the aul and I ended up with the ~1/8" crown I wanted. I put glue
on the three boards and set them on the lower cauls 1/8" apart. I used F
clamps to squeeze the cauls and keep the three big boards in line. I then
used K body clamps to "pull" the three large blanks together.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...ashincauls.jpg

Thirty minutes in clamps and I started to clean up any squeeze out.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...squeezeout.jpg

Here is how the blank sits right now.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/theashslab.jpg

I am very pleased with the result, there is only the slightest of ridges
between the three sub panels. A very light sanding with a random orbital
sander will easily clean that up .

I hope to get bread board ends on the top this week so I can see what
final size table top I have ended up with. Based on that I will start on
the skirt and drawer.

I also managed to glue up the legs blanks. I started with four boards of
8/4x8"x32".

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/blankashlegs.jpg

I glued them up for 4x4 blanks.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...togluelegs.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/ashlegsglued.jpg

I don't know how much I will take them down, I will see how they look
under the top once it is done and go from there.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...lledsquare.jpg

Only one last little detail to figure out, how can I mount an end vise and
bore bench dog holes in it and pass it off as, "oh yah, the plans called
for it...."

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

Hey David -

Nice to put a face to the guy I've been buying bits from

Very nice work - envy the space you have. Just out of curiosity - will the
completed table be able to make the journey to it's home or will you have to
finish assembly in place?

Vic