Shaker end tables build

[William Fretwell]

Need to make a pair of Shaker end tables for a daughter. Found my cherry, tidied up a bit. Started with the tops. The top is 18” square, I cut two lengths 18 1/4” from the board and put a straight edge on one side with my #7. After that I cut the peice in half and glued up the halves. Easier to get a straight edge with the longer peice.
Some cupping but it’s too thick at 1” and needs reducing to 5/8” eventually.

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[Bill McDermott]

Cutting big boards into small baords in order to glue them into big boards.
Odd hobby we have here.

[Richard Jones]

Keep us posted on the build!

[William Fretwell]

Took the tops out of the clamps, one was more cupped than the other. Lots of wood to plane away however so both end up flat. My BU LV jack worked the best with the grain, my bailey style worked across the grain or skewed but not so well with the grain. This is old very dry cherry.
I could plane in any direction without the wood moving, quite a good workout and not over yet. The grain at the joint blends very well and the grain overall is beautiful. One top is far redder than the other, all from the same plank, that's wood for you.

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My target thickness is about 5/8" but can live with 6/8", from 1" starting.
Should have more time this week....

[Graham Haydon]

Keep it coming, nice to see a Clifton in the mix!

[William Fretwell]

Finished flattening the tops with the #7. Grain on one superb, the other average with one small knot to fill.

Turned to the legs and stretcher sides and the rails above and below the drawer.
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Used the #7 for the legs, was rewarded with lovely grain, knot free.

On to the stretchers.
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There was some cup to all of them, cup down to start, used the LV BU Jack along with the 5&1/2. Ended up with 6 pieces arranged the grain between the two tables so the boring grain at the top where not so visible and the good stuff down.

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Then just the small stretchers above and below drawer.

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Popped up a few dogs and cut them to length. Fun day and next the mortice and tenon.

I was eyeing up some spalted maple in my shop, lots of worm holes to fill with bronze powder and epoxy. Would be a cool drawer front but not so traditional. Have to think about that!

Very happy with the leg grain especially.

[William Fretwell]

Got some stretchers made. One inch tenons on the ends. Marking knife then a knife wall with a chisel. Sawed down with a 12” dovetail saw and split off the waste. Cleaned up with a chisel and then my large shoulder plane.
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Next the small stretchers above above and below the drawer then cut the mortices after adjusting the tenon lengths.

[Phil Mueller]

William, that’s interesting that you split off the waste for the tenon cheek. Never thought of doing it that way vs. sawing. Is that your normal method?
Thanks for sharing the build...

[William Fretwell]

Yes Phil, for small tenons with straight grain it is much faster and very accurate. I did saw one but it took much longer. For large tenons such as on the bench build I saw. With 6 inches of wood or more you never know where the grain will go.
I split half the waste off to start, watching the grain, then to the line if all is well. I only had one knot that required extra chiselling.
Paul Sellers has a video describing his technique for this.

[William Fretwell]

Organized by leg wood grain. The top face stretcher is held with a dovetail, the lower stretcher below the drawer a mortice and tenon. For some reason I left the top stretcher a full inch, I had planned 5/8”. To keep the drawer size the same I lowered the bottom stretcher 3/8”. The side and back stretchers bottom edge will be 3/8” higher but I doubt that will be too troubling visually.
Used a new dovetail saw for the top joint, need to practice more! Luckily the full 1” works in my favour making a strong tight joint and it’s not visible in the end product.
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Cutting this joint involved a 45 degree angled cut, then careful chiselling out from the front. The tail vise held it very solidly for chiseling the bottom of the socket flat then splitting off the waste gradually. Need to be careful not to stress it too much or the top of the leg can split. Fit the tail carefully, not too much stress for the same reason.
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The lower stretcher had shouldered mortice and tenon and less caution required to fit it. The legs are not large so fitting has to be careful.
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I did plane the lower stretcher down to 6/8” before making the tenons. The swirling cherry grain meant I had to saw all the cheek cuts.
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Two face frames produced. I can now modify the tenons on the side and back, mark out the mortices and chop away!
I was using a recent Kijiji purchase a small set of Japanese chisels. Two chipped their edges quite badly with minimal levering so had to mostly use my Ray Isles for the clearing out. I have some pig stickers, some use here but mostly overkill. Spent some time recovering the edges on the Japanese chisels. I like the fact they are shorter for some things, better control and very sharp.

[William Fretwell]

A lot of careful chiselling later....Had to plan my tenons very carefully. The bottom rail of the face frame is the weakest joint so I made the rear tenons down low for maximum strength. The other tenons followed on from that.
Had up to 10 chisels out at once but mainly used 4 for the mortices. Here is the tenon lay out:
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The tenons will be draw pinned with dowel in such a way that the dowel also holds the lower stretcher without tenon. You don’t get to see those once assembled!
Assembled one to check it out:
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No glue yet...rear right leg tenons need some attention. The legs will be tapered on the 2 inside faces, it makes the piece look lighter and more refined. That is the fun stuff after all the mortice work. Each tenon is 7/8” long, the legs are 1 & 1/4” square roughly.
The better top grain wise is an absolute joy, can’t wait to put oil on it, that also gets tapered at the bottom edge for a lighter look.
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Need to get these glued up then on to the drawers.

[Phil Mueller]

Nice progress, William, it’s looking very good. It makes me nervous as well, when doing a dovetail socket in the top of a leg. To add a little insurance, I clamp the leg before chopping. I do the same when chopping a mortise...maybe overkill, but it makes me feel better.


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[Dave Zellers]

Something's not right if I'm seeing things correctly. In pic #2 of post 11, the alignment of the back left corner does not match the other corners.

The stretcher on the left is set back from the leg on the front but not the back. But the stretcher on the right is set back from both legs.

Enjoying the build as I follow along. Just curious.

[William Fretwell]

Quite right Dave! I noticed the same during assembly. The tenon on each is offset but that was on the wrong side. The good news is the extra wood is on the outside and will be planed to create the balancing reveal. My bigger problem is the right rear corner needs the tenons adjusted to remove the twist in the leg, will look at that tomorrow.

[Dave Zellers]

Quite right Dave! I noticed the same during assembly. The tenon on each is offset but that was on the wrong side. The good news is the extra wood is on the outside and will be planed to create the balancing reveal. My bigger problem is the right rear corner needs the tenons adjusted to remove the twist in the leg, will look at that tomorrow.
So the stretcher will get taper planed down and the mistake gets moved to the inside where it won't be seen? Awesome! You gotta love a clean fix like that! But you'll visit it again with the drawer. No biggie tho.

Good luck with the twist on the right leg.

[William Fretwell]

Re-shaped the one mortice bottom and even with a dry fit all is well, with glue and draw boring even better.
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Next was taper planing the two inner faces of the legs, the outer faces are left straight to give solidity but the tapered legs make the piece look lighter and elegant.
The tapering gave me my exercise for the day, wiping the plane bottom on the rag in a can really cuts down on the heat generated and it just fly’s!
For the taper I started at the leg bottom and worked backwards towards the blue tape as a guide. I used a 5 & 1/2 jack plane, peeling off a thick shaving. I reduce the bottom dimension from 1.25” to one inch; even just that 1/4” makes a huge visual difference.
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Next some #4 final planing and glue up. Drawer supports, guides and top mounts next.

[William Fretwell]

Did my final planing rounded a few corners and drilled the draw bore holes. Used oak 5/16” dowel. The offset was a bit much at 1/16” it seems so had to pare one side of the dowel with a knife to get them in.
The top front dovetail I used epoxy as I wanted to fill the gap at the end, not perfect!
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On to the drawers. I would like to use spalted maple with worm holes. I plan to fill the worm holes with epoxy and bronze powder, you get gold flecks in the wood. The spalting adds an extra dimension but does not penetrate very deep, the board is a little curved also so planing might remove some spalting. I scraped out the worm holes with a point and compressed air. Any one with experience of this?

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[Mike Allen1010]

Very nice – thanks for posting! I can't wait to see the spaulted Maple drawer fronts – should be awesome.

Best, Mike

[William Fretwell]

After some more picking and compressed air I mixed up some West epoxy and added bronze powder, liquid gold is the result; not that much bronze powder is needed, perhaps 1/4 teaspoon.

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I pushed it it into all the worm holes from two directions, then 15 minutes later did it again. The gold mess that resulted was not inspiring. My concerns were when I sand off the excess epoxy I may loose a lot of spalting, it’s not that deep.
Well sand I did and was even less inspired with the dust and not seeing the spalting as I sanded.
Used a damp cloth to remove the dust and things improved. I polished the wood and bronze epoxy with fine wire wool and applied two coats of Tung oil.
Miraculous! Gorgeous! Exciting! Crazy and beautiful!

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The top top part was not treated as not needed, it does act as a comparison. Not only did I not loose any spalting it just developed it. My daughter will love how not boring it is!
Prepared the cherry side blanks today also and some maple for the drawer back (wanted weight at the back).

[Mike Allen1010]

Bill, looks awesome! I've got some wormy wood I'm working on right now and absolutely gonna try your epoxy/bronze powder method – thanks for the suggestion! Where do you get the bronze powder?

Best, Mike

[William Fretwell]

Mike I will get you the bronze powder info from the can, bought some years back. A little goes a long way. It is really copper powder but very fine. Tapered the underside edge of the tops today and finished up the drawer components. I did some final #4 planing of the tops also. One top was fine the other has become very difficult grain, really bizarre. Sharpened my planes up to 10,000, even used a high angle Japanese wood plane nothing else had a chance. It was not like that before.....the strangest thing.
Tops and carcass gets oiled tomorrow and the drawers hopefully get made. Have a deadline to meet!

[lowell holmes]

I had forgotten, but I built two shaker tables for my oldest son and his wife. It was a fun project.
I think I will build to more and donate them to Habitat for Humanity.

[William Fretwell]

Re-sharpened my #4 on the 10,000 closed the chip breaker right down and tackled the awkward top grain again with some success.
Drawer runners carefully installed, took far longer than I thought! The drawer stop mechanism is rather complicated and requires a slope in the bottom runner down to the stop.
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Got to to use my Barr chisels putting in the slope, such a pleasure to use.

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The lower and upper guide installed, glued and screwed. The slotted hole is for the movement of the top. My winter humidity in the shop at 7% is horrendous! There will be some serious expansion.

On to the oil! Smoking hot boiled linseed oil. I use two coats applied smoking hot with extra fine wire wool. The wood just soaks it up, the end grain drinks it! After two coats I use Tung oil.
Benefits of BLO; satisfies the thirst of the wood, seals it well, anti fungal, adds colour, inexpensive.
Applied two or three times, end grain 20 times then wiped off with paper towel then rags.
One coat a day for two days then the Tung oil.

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The tops, one oiled with one coat. The bucket of cold water is essential with oil that hot, any mishap I need to plunge into cold water immediately!

before tapering the tops I did did try adding a drip edge under the tops with the Lee Valley combination plane. It worked with the grain only, but better than nothing!

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Also made the drawer backs out of poplar, no one will ever see it, 7/8” thick. Also made the drawer bottoms out of pine, like the shakers did, perfect colour and no knots!
More to come.....

[William Fretwell]

Pressure is on! Fitted the drawer fronts, after scratching out the worm holes on the inside, it needs the liquid gold treatment there also or it will look sub standard.
Fitted the drawer sides then half blind dovetail time.

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Now that’s a fitted drawer! Well the front, have to start somewhere ��.

Cutting the half blind dovetails in the shoulder vise was a challenge the end of the saw hit the back of the vise!
Had to improvise with the tail vise frame!

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Lots of chisels, Ray Isles, Japanese, to find the right sizes. All were about the same, rather liked the Ray Isles.

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Thanks Derek for the blue tape trick, I will get better at it. It does give you a line you can see!

Back through dovetails to be done but then just a groove; drawer stop mechanism, more liquid gold, Tung oil and 4 brass screws for the top, then pack it up for the plane ride.

Almost forgot; the tail vise holds the drawer front perfectly for the alignment of the tails, a real bonus. You can sight along the bench edge to check it’s at 90 degrees, before scribing.







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[David Eisenhauer]

William, I have been busy lately and just now had some time to catch up here, but wanted to thank you for the project share. Nice work with the project in general, but esp the wormy stuff.

[William Fretwell]

Fighting this Plantar fasciitis has slowed me down!

However fitted the drawer bottoms and drawer stop mechanism. Used pine for the bottoms and maple for the stop mechanism with oak dowel.
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Final fitting of the drawer after after the liquid gold treatment for the back of the drawer front.

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The shaker knobs get fitted after after the plane ride! Shortened some Shaker pegs for that. Final Tung oil and it’s done!

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Tapered legs and bevelled top give give them a light slender look but they are solid! Put them leg to leg tops between the legs at 45 degrees fits beautifully, wrapped on cardboard and being loaded on the plane as I sit here!

[William Fretwell]

Delivered, shaker knobs glued on, tops screwed, all 3000 miles from home.


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[Mel Fulks]

Nice to see such vigor on a usually plain form. They are strong!

[William Fretwell]

Thanks Mel, I know exactly what you mean. I have one I built 20 years ago on very traditional grounds. Based on useful furniture for very little wood they excel but times change and the younger people want a bit of pizas. As for sewing; we will see!

[Dave Zellers]

Gorgeous. Nice to see them fully erect.

[Derek Cohen]

Nice work, William!

The spalted drawer fronts are spectacular. And the dovetails are not too shabby either :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mark Rainey]

Yes William, yes! The whole is, indeed, greater than the sum of the parts. Fine build narrative, overcoming adversity as happens to us all. I bet when you look at pics of your table you feel no foot pain.

[michael langman]

I enjoyed following the build William. I have not seen much spalted, wormy, maple, such as what you used for the drawer front. It is stunning, to say the least. My gosh.
Your effort and craftsmanship will be enjoyed for generations, on this project.

[William Fretwell]

Thanks guys, Derek my dovetails need some practice; not up to your standards yet! My ‘out’ was liquid gold to treat the worm holes doubled to fill the dovetails at the same time, quite a bonus.
The spalted worm fronts were such a lovely surprise, they really do look even better in person. I bought two 8’ boards at a great price, I think $5 each because of the ‘rot’! For this project I chose the most extreme part of the board because the fronts are rather small.
The bronze powder came from the ‘Bronze Powder Company Ltd’ Toronto. The ‘tin’ is really cardboard and very old.

Hope this encourages some experimentation!

[lowell holmes]

Absolutely gorgeous table. You did a great job of popping the figure and color.