A little advice before I begin...

[Jon Agnew]

So, I thought it best to bring this to you guys before I start. Get a little advice, some suggestions, warnings, etc. There's a lot of experience and wisdom in this forum that I could really benefit from.

I'm building a coffee table for my mom based on a "Potty Barn" table she likes (see it here: http://www.potterybarn.com/products/hyde-turned-leg-coffee-table/?pkey=ccoffee-tables-values). I'm making a few changes to it, adding a shelf underneath, making straight legs tapered on two sides below the shelf, and building it out of...*drumroll*... actual wood. While this won't be a strictly neander project (only using a bandsaw for some milling), I would like to do most of it by hand. I've never done breadboard ends before, so I have a few questions. Most of the research I have done has the panel fit the ends with a kind of half tongue and groove, half mortise and tenon. Is it not recommended to use only a tongue and groove? Would that cause problems with wood movement? Also, I don't have a shoulder, rabbet, or router plane. Am I asking for trouble by trying this with just chisels and saws?

Next question: When I went to Potty Barn to look at the table in the flesh, I found that the table top was not glued together as a panel, but were loose planks secured only by the breadboard ends. Is there any particular advantage or disadvantage to this kind of construction? It would seem to me that, left loose, each plank might move differently, resulting in gaps in the top. Am I wrong?

Last question: Finishing....of course. I'm building this out of cherry to try to match my mom's other antique cherry furniture. Will giving it a suntan get it close enough to the color of 150+ year old cherry, or should I consider something like some garnet shellac and a suntan to give it the right look?

What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance.

[Jim Koepke]

Hopefully others will supply answers to questions my answers do not address.

It should be possible to do the breadboard ends with just saws and chisels. A shoulder plane or a skewed rabbet plane would help, but is not absolutely necessary.

At the bread board end itself, one needs to consider that the wood will move across the grain. This means the mortise in the end piece needs to be a bit wider than the tenon from the top. I have seen these attached with one dowel in the center and then there being slots in the tenon out from the center with a dowel. This keeps the piece from moving in one direction, but allows the wood to move in the other.

As far as the top planks being loose, my thoughts are that it was less work to make it this way. I think it a bit tacky. Any time a drink gets spilled on it there is a chance of gooey gunk dripping through the top to down below.

jtk

[Bob Jones]

I would not bother with the sun tan. Based on mu limited experience it will not do much for the color in a few days/weeks but it can warp your boards pretty effectively.