Federal table build pics

[Mike Allen1010]

These are some pictures of a federal style end table I’ve built recently. Nothing special – just thought my Neander friends might enjoy some build pics.

Here’s a picture showing the slight taper of the legs narrowing towards the end and re-sawing.
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Mortises cut for the aprons. Now cutting the corresponding Tennons.
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[Mike Allen1010]

A solid fit on the show faces.
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I have always liked sliding dovetails for horizontal dividers, however as you can see, I suck at execution. This is a picture of the first attempt which looks pretty horrible. I bought an ECE dovetail plane because I thought it would help me make these joints. My experience is that given you’re removing so little stock, saw/chisel are actually better.
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Final dimensioning of the tabletop. I crosscut with a Disston # 16 – as you can see the tip is extremely narrow. Many saw buyers avoid these kind of saws – in my experience the reason the plate is so narrow is that several generations likely made a living with the saws. Personally one of my favorites – very light and maneuverable.

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Here is the collection of parts – tabletop, legs, aprons etc. prior to assembly.
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[Mike Allen1010]

The next step was to create the “cuffss” on the table legs. The table is made of cherry. The cuffs are Bocote – I thought the contrast between the lighter and darker colors might be helpful. I used a guide block with a chisel to trim the margins where the cuffs joint legs. I’m sure you could create the guide block with a miter/chop saw – for me much easier just to draw the lines and saw accordingly.
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Here is sawing the cuffs to the appropriate angle. For cuts like this I’ve really like a Japanese saw. I tried to build these based on an article in Popular Woodworking. The article indicates there is some kind of sequence that is most appropriate to glue on the cuffs – I confess I couldn’t really follow the sequence. Something about leaving a portion of the adjacent end grain, so that the miters complete – frankly too much for me.
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After the cuffs are glued up, the overlap is trimmed. Here’s a picture of the final results – frankly better than I expected.
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To get the legs to a final consisent length I used a shop built “cut off” jig that worked well.

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[Mike Allen1010]

The next step is building the drawer which is a focal point of the piece. I am a big fan of using these sliding dimension sticks from Lee Valley to get true measurements of the width of the drawer both front and back.
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If you look closely, you’ll see here that I screwed up the orientation of the triangle cabinet maker’s Mark to correctly orient the drawer fonts/slides/back. As a consequence I inadvertently marked the length of dovetails for the drawer front that should have been (half blind), at eight through dovetail length. Something I had to fix.
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I am a tails first guy – I like the bench mark on the vertical and horizontal face of the bench to square everything up.
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Next step was to tune up my cheesy bandsaw to re-see some pine for the appropriate thickness of the drawer bottoms. I struggle with this. A little tune-up of geometry provided satisfactory results.
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[Nicholas Lawrence]

Every hand made antique I have actually been able to put my hands on to try to figure out how it was made has had gaps in the dovetails. Either the gaps were there when they were made, or they have developed due to movement over the years. Somehow it hasn't prevented them from standing up to heavy use for a century or more. If it were mine I wouldn't let it bother me. Looks like it will be a great table.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Mike! This coming along very well. I find the same thing in shorter sliding dovetails, they're much easier off the saw than with the plane.

[Mike Allen1010]

Next I divided the length of the legs into thirds for the horizontal shelves. I suck at math – the sectors make this lot easier for me. Final dimensions are marked off the actual fit to the legs – here’s a couple pictures of the quarter-inch deep, square mortises in the legs that house the shelves.

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Next step is in laying the banding for the tabletop and adding veneer for the drawer front.
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I used store-bought walnut burrell veneer, which is really a lot thinner and I like. Because I was too cheap to lot by the larger pieces, I had to book match the veneers – here is a pic of jig for playing the veneer and square.
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Laying out the banding on the tabletop was a design question I really don’t enjoy.
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[Mike Allen1010]

I used a Lee Valley router plane to cut the recesses for the banding. This probably would’ve been a lot easier with the router – maybe next time.

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As you can see in this picture, when I was finished planing the tabletop – I planed right through the banding As you can see in this picture, when I was finished playing the tabletop – I played right through the banding – I hate when that happens! I had to add a repair. Turned out okay.

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Next step was cutting the recesses in the drawer front for the Holly string inlay against the walnut Burrill. The hardest part was slicing the Holly banding to be appropriate with. I think there is a dedicated tool for this available from Lee Valley or Lee Nielsen – something have to consider.
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[Mike Allen1010]

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Next up was creating the rabbits around the drawer front for a Bocote beading. Here’s a picture of the final results. Somehow this always takes way longer than I thought it would.
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[Mike Allen1010]

Finally, I need to turn a knob for the drawer front. I am a novice Turner. This turned out to be a real fiasco. Initially I tried to create a tenon on the stock that would fit in the chuck on my lathe. I really don’t know much about this – advice I got was to buy a four jawed chuck which is around $200 – I opted for a Jacobs Chuck comparable to a drill press which was much less expensive.

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As you can see, all of my turning blanks disintegrated in the Lathe – pretty scary for me. My next step was to drill holes in the turning blanks for 3/8” diameter dowels – I had Poplar dowels on hand. All of these failed. Finally, I got some 3/8” diameter Oak dowels which turned out okay. In the long run, I need to get a tenon cutter that will make this a lot easier.
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These are some replacement rosewood knobs I turned for a foot locker I built for our oldest son, with original hand shaped knobs that didn’t survive.
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[Mike Allen1010]

Here are some final pictures of the project completed. I opted for a maple pull.
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Thanks for looking.

All the best, Mike

[Phil Mueller]

Beautiful table, Mike. I'm fairly new to this and appreciate the step by step pics and explanation...and even the stuff that doesn't go so well. That I can relate to! Gives me inspiration to try a few new things on my next project.
Thank you for sharing.
Phil

[Brian Holcombe]

Gorgeous! It has a wonderful fineness and quality to it.

[Lori Kleinberg]

Very nice table, Mike. I really enjoyed the step by step description, thank you.

[Joe Bailey]

Thanks for this Mike -- much appreciated.

[Judson Green]

To get the legs to a final consisent length I used a shop built “cut off” jig that worked well.

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Good job on the table looks fantastic!

Could you perhaps explain your jig a bit more? I think I understand how it works, but how do you keep the hooks from moving?

I think I need one.

[Will Boulware]

Fantastic craftsmanship! Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Way cool.

Appreciate the time you spent with photos and commentary.

Also - your honesty in pointing out the occasional screw-up: those are an integral part of every one of my projects.

[Bill Baethke]

Thanks for the documentation of that project. It is a very interesting build, and the results are spectacular.

[Mike Allen1010]

Good job on the table looks fantastic!

Could you perhaps explain your jig a bit more? I think I understand how it works, but how do you keep the hooks from moving?

I think I need one.





hi Judson,

I think the pictures below my show what you're asking about;
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The shop built cut off Jig has an aluminum channel on top that the stop block slides in and is secured in place with the twist knob – this lets me at adjust to the length of the crosscut I'm looking for. The length of the fixed "bench hook" part is about 18 inches. For longer cross cuts, there is a sliding maple bar that's captured in a rabbit on the back of the jig that lets me extend the stop block for longer cross cuts. A thumbscrew in the maple block secures it in place.

I could have just gone with a miter box, but I wanted something smaller/lighter that I could stash under the bench and just grab when I need it.my primary need is just for crosscutting first components to length. When it comes to angle, miter cuts I sort of just go with marking knife, sought to the line and cleanup at the shooting board.

All the best, Mike

[Phil Stone]

That's fairly brilliant, Mike. I like how it takes advantage of the (assumed!) flatness of the front of the bench to be accurate even for long cutoffs.

[Mike Allen1010]

Way cool.

Appreciate the time you spent with photos and commentary.

Also - your honesty in pointing out the occasional screw-up: those are an integral part of every one of my projects.


Thanks everyone for your generous comments.

Kent, I certainly make more than my share of mistakes. Over the years, I just fret about them less and have gotten better at hiding them, however some are so bad they scream for a "do over". For example the misfit of the sliding dovetails for the horizontal divider was so bad I couldn't live with filling the gaps and and simply remade the horizontal divider with a better fit. I would really like to get better at making these sliding dovetails – they're one of my favorite joints, but I struggle with getting the right fit so there are no gaps, but at the same time not making them so tight that the leading edge chips off when I press them together.

As Brian mentioned earlier (and executed beautifully in his cabinet build thread); for little sliding dovetails like this, my best results come when I simply pear them with a chisel. This makes it easier to shave off a little bit of the leading edge of the joint so that it fits together easily but snugs up to a nice tight fit when pushed into final position.

This was my first attempt at inlaying "cuffs"on the table legs. I first saw them in some of Garrett Hack's pieces and they struck me right way as something I'd like to try. I'm a big fan of Hack's beautiful work - Love the way he takes simple, shaker-style furniture forms and turns them into art with beautiful wood selection and details like inlay etc. These actually turned out much better than I thought they would. It took me quite a while to execute these this first time around, but I think next time I should be able to do it more quickly.

The banding on the top was straight off the shelf at my local Rockler. This was my first attempt at cutting the recesses for the banding strictly using hand tools. In the past I simply used a trim router with a fence to cut the recesses and frankly that is waaaaay easier and and probably for me more accurate than the Neander way (provided you got a router bit that matches the width of your banding). Between you and me, next time I want to use some banding, I'll probably go back to the trim router.

Although I do get a certain amount of satisfaction from learning a new hand tool skill, one of these days, I think I would be smart to quit trying to learn/execute "new" hand tool techniques and just go with what I already know. Now that I think about it, I guess that's what separates an amateur like me from the pros; they already know all the hand tool skills, while I'm still doing "on-the-job training", while at the same time trying to end up with a finished piece that isn't a total disaster.sometimes it works out, some days not so much :) !

Cheers, MIke

[Judson Green]

awesome Mike thanks for sharing.

[Andrae Covington]

The table turned out well, and I also appreciate the detailed steps, including the mistakes and how you fixed them. Like Judson and others, I was also intrigued by the cut-off jig, so thanks for sharing additional photographs. I have a Millers Falls miter box which works well, but it's a heavy monster which I have to lug from a storage spot to the bench, and not really suited for cutting small pieces. You've given me some ideas for a smaller, lighter jig built around a tenon saw.