Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Coffee Table Project - Cont'd

I've managed to make a lot of progress on this coffee table project over the last weekend. Once I got through the design and shaping of the legs, I was pretty straight forward. What I had to do next was mill and cut the rails to their rough size. Once that was done, I used the router table to cut the tenons to match the mortises in the legs. I just used a 3/4" bit set to a 1/4" height; I only cut one side of the tenon, the front, since the back will be be visible and this allows me to use a larger tenon than normal. At this point, the tenon is really just a rabbet along the front side, I simply take each tenon and lay it next to the mortise to mark the points that I need to cut off.
From Coffee Table

Once I had all the tenons cut and fit, I put the whole thing together for a dry fit.
From Coffee Table

I still have some finish sanding to do, as well as round all the edges on rails, but that should not take long. I am still trying to decide if I want to add a bead detail to the rails and legs or not; I cannot decide.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Coffee Table - Continued - Cabriole Legs

Ok, so in my post a while back, I created a second blank and decided on a template that I would use for production. So I went to work milling out my leg stock from 12/4 mahogany (that's why it's take me so long to post). Once I had everything dimensioned, I then traced the profile and went to cutting on the bandsaw just like before. Here are all the legs roughed out.
From Coffee Table

The next thing I needed to do before cutting the posts or rounding the feet on the lathe was to cut the mortises for the table rails, so here is a shot of those all done. My Delta Mortiser made quick work of it.
From Coffee Table

I'm going to be spending my next bit on forming the feet and shaping the legs, so that will take some time to do them all. I would also like to get my rails all cut and dimensioned; that should not take as long.