Bedside Table (Night Stand)

[Derek Cohen]

A few weeks back I built a bedside table as part of a demonstration of hand tool use at the Perth Hand Tool Event.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Bedside%20table%20for%20Jamie/Table3_zps3080fa54.jpg


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Furniture/Bedside%20table%20for%20Jamie/Table1_zps08ba8db3.jpg


It was completed in the shop at home, and it occurred to post this to the forum for two reasons. Firstly, this is something that many here have built (I have built several), and it would be great to look at the various ideas and concepts that others come up with. So post your versions here.


Secondly, this is a fantastic exercise if you wish to practice your joint making: stub tenons, blind mortices, tapered legs, sliding dovetails, half-blind and through dovetails, drawer construction, rebates for breadboard ends, and drawboring.


There are a couple of different design elements I used (for me at any rate), and the build can be seen on my website: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ShakeStyleBedsideTable.html


Here is the finished table I gave my son, completed in a Shaker-style ...


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ShakeStyleBedsideTable_html_m605a64a8.jpg


Wonderful pink curly Jarrah ...


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ShakeStyleBedsideTable_html_13dc7cf3.jpg


The drawer extends fully without drooping (method in the article) ...


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/ShakeStyleBedsideTable_html_m1142cb1b.jpg


Post your pieces.


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Brian Holcombe]

Gorgeous! The wood chosen for the top is exquisite.

I have a question concerning the breadboard ends. I've always fixed them in the center, and just the center, and my understanding is that it will allow the wood to move without hiccup and always has for me. However, I've seen other people peg every board and now this with pegs in the center and the ends. I don't know how the other methods work out in the end, but my question is; what brings you to this style of attaching the ends?

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Brian

It's a good question.

The aim is to create a tight fit (hence drawboring) but that can move laterally. The drawbore hole on the inside was calculated in the usual manner (in this case, about 1mm inside the outer hole), however instead of a round hole, a slot (widened hole) was bored at the centre and at the rear. This should hopefully encourage expansion towards the rear of the tabletop. Glue is used only at the near ends.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Brian Holcombe]

Interesting, thank you for the explanation. Makes perfect sense for a table with a drawer to have it shrink only at the back.

[Frank Drew]

Very nice work, Derek; I love the look of the Jarrah under finish. Figured woods are one of the wonders of the world.

[Phil Thien]

Hi Brian

It's a good question.

The aim is to create a tight fit (hence drawboring) but that can move laterally. The drawbore hole on the inside was calculated in the usual manner (in this case, about 1mm inside the outer hole), however instead of a round hole, a slot (widened hole) was bored at the centre and at the rear. This should hopefully encourage expansion towards the rear of the tabletop. Glue is used only at the near ends.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Ohhhh, that is brilliant.

[Judson Green]

Nicely done, Derek.

[David Weaver]

Very nice derek. How do you like working pine after working all of those hard woods? Any time I ever try to make something out of wood that soft, I always manage to dent it before I get halfway through the project.

Top shelf construction, as usual. The top wood looks great.

[Tony Wilkins]

Hitting the like button (if there were one) :)

[Winton Applegate]

Wow !
Real wood curls (rather than power tool dust).
Great wood (top and drawer front).
Built for a good cause (edification).
Built by a real wood worker (understands, makes and uses hand tools; not just a power button pusher).
Using real joinery (furniture that will last and last for generations).
All viewable from my couch.

Things just don't get any better than this.

Thanks Derek !

Q: For all reading this. As I understand it this table type ; four legs (rather than three/candle stand), is called various things.


a lamp stand, when the candle was being replaced by the superior but more dangerous oil filled lamp which dictated an unobtrusive table that was more robust and stable.
a work table (sewing table).
a bed side table.

I was surprised to never see it referred to as a lamp stand in the Winterthur American Furniture books. From other reading I have done in magazines and maybe from the TV show "Find !" (I miss that show with the Keno boys) this table in the antiques world is most often referred to as a "Lamp Stand".

Is there a difference in the three ?
Does it matter ?

A most useful gift in any case.
Derek your son is a lucky man.

PS: I never press any buttons. Especially not when I am on the couch and on Sawmill Creek. Ha, ha,
http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/72608772-1bf6-4e79-b9c7-08869f769f81_zps93b50db4.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/72608772-1bf6-4e79-b9c7-08869f769f81_zps93b50db4.jpg.html)

[Steve Voigt]

Very nice, Derek. I enjoyed the article as well. As you say, the grain on the top is lovely.

[Tony Wilkins]

Timely too as my wife just reminded me she is waiting for a little shaker table to go next to a love seat in our living room.

[Christopher Charles]

Thanks Derek for another build thread. Your speed and finished products are always inspiring. Speaking of build threads, how's that chair coming along?

Cheers,
C

[Derek Cohen]

....How do you like working pine after working all of those hard woods? Any time I ever try to make something out of wood that soft, I always manage to dent it before I get halfway through the project. ...

Hi David

Working with these soft woods is a treat. I agree, one has to take more care to avoid damage, but planing, sawing and chiseling is just so easy. When I started this piece at the Tool Event, I spend more time marking out the position of the mortices and lines where the tapers would go than in chopping all the mortices and planing the tapers. I did not put a clock on it (I know Warren would like this information), but guestimating a 3" long x 1/4" wide and 1" deep mortice in Radiata Pine ... about 4-5 minutes each max. Position the chisel. One wack with the 37 oz mallet, and you are 1" deep.

The Jarrah top was quite soft but very interlocked. It is made of 4 boards jointed together (besides the 2 breadboard ends). This was sweet to plane. I used a Stanley #4 1/2 with the original Sweetheart blade and chipbreaker (closed up tight). The orientation of the boards, owing to the bookmatching, really tested the plane to its limit. It did OK, left some mild tearout (roughness in some sections), but nothing that I was too fussed about.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Derek for another build thread. Your speed and finished products are always inspiring. Speaking of build threads, how's that chair coming along?

Cheers,
C

Hi Christopher

Life has been in the way of the chair build. I was exhausted mentally after the first finger joint and decided to take a couple of weeks off. That has dragged out a little, partly with the Tool Event, for which I prepared by building a small bench and then this table. My wife and I are also fixing up a house we purchased to rent out, and I have been spending more time on weekends there than in my shop. The table was completed in an hour here-and-there. I am still painting walls and rebuilding kitchen cabinets. Hopefully I will be done soon and back to the chair. I hate painting! :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Christopher Charles]

Certainly know the feeling, though I don't seem to sneak in a furniture project when taking time off from a furniture project :)

Good luck with the new flat and look forward to seeing progress when you get back to the chair.

Cheers,
Chris C.

[Gary Muto]

Derek,

Very nice work as usual. I really like the bead detail below the drawer. The whole design is really nice.

I built a small Kid's dining table for my daughter that has breadboard ends. I pinned and glued the center since it has no back side really. Anyway the breadboard ends came from a design change initiated by my wife. She wanted the top to hinge up for storage. I thought breadboard ends would help keep the top flat since it is only attached by two hinges. Once it was completed, it is hard for me to imagine the top without the BB ends.

Did you employ the breadboard ends for style and/or function? I would think they are not needed functionally since you screwed the top down.

[David Weaver]

Hi David

Working with these soft woods is a treat. I agree, one has to take more care to avoid damage, but planing, sawing and chiseling is just so easy. When I started this piece at the Tool Event, I spend more time marking out the position of the mortices and lines where the tapers would go than in chopping all the mortices and planing the tapers. I did not put a clock on it (I know Warren would like this information), but guestimating a 3" long x 1/4" wide and 1" deep mortice in Radiata Pine ... about 4-5 minutes each max. Position the chisel. One wack with the 37 oz mallet, and you are 1" deep.

The Jarrah top was quite soft but very interlocked. It is made of 4 boards jointed together (besides the 2 breadboard ends). This was sweet to plane. I used a Stanley #4 1/2 with the original Sweetheart blade and chipbreaker (closed up tight). The orientation of the boards, owing to the bookmatching, really tested the plane to its limit. It did OK, left some mild tearout (roughness in some sections), but nothing that I was too fussed about.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I can only just see the tearout you're talking about (and saw it yesterday, but such a thing to bring up is rude, because it's the design of the table that dominates and not whether or not a camera flash can find such a little thing) - it is only even visible because of camera flash. The cocobolo coffin smoother did the same to me - parts of it are so soft so as to not stand up to anything at all, scraping or planing, no matter the plane or scrape.

In my desire to make my plane as fast as possible, i partially sanded mine out and then burnished the wood hard to get it looking shiny again.

But on a table like that, I'd have done just the same - one hopes the table is so well loved that it gets a burnshed surface and use marks that far exceed that almost immediately.

Strangely enough, when we talk shop with planes and I always say I've only ever had one piece of wood that was contrary, it was quartered cocobolo for exactly the same reason. It is, of course, a wood that I would not use to make furniture (the cocobolo).

Wilbur once sent me a piece that was similar - but it was sapele or makore or something, and I sent it back with some minor tearout in it because I didn't feel I should sharpen my (then 55 degree infill) to top supermax level because it would be impractical to constantly stop mid process to keep a plane sharp enough to do a large surface like that. He handed it to ron brese, who sharpened his plane to supermax level and promptly removed my tearout. Wilbur also sent along a piece that had what looked like woodpecker holes filled with popcorn. I didn't even attempt it. Whatever the soft part was, it was so soft you could've dented it with a qtip.

Not to distract from your original comment though, I think what you did and where you stopped is perfectly fitting - it saved the brightness and life of the rest of the wood to do that, which is what really catches the eye.