A side table for my mom

[Ben Ellenberger]

I made my mom a walnut chest for her sewing supplies a few years ago. She asked if I would make a low side table for it to sit on. The top of this will be 12 1/4” high and sized to be just smaller than the base of the box.

I’m making the top a mitered bridle joint frame and panel, so I’ve started with that before making the base. The panel has nice grain and I ripped the two outer pieces from one board so I could get a nice wide piece centered in the middle of the panel. It has some sap wood that I can hide on the bottom.

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I spent some time getting the rails and stiles square and straight, then came back the next day to touch them up before laying out the miters. I laid the miters out with a knife and deepened my lines with a chisel to help with getting a crisp line.

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Next I’ll have to clean up the miters and tenons to fit everything, but I think this is coming along pretty well.
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Here’s a picture of the chest that will sit on the table.

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[Mark Rainey]

Ben, nice display of hand tool joinery! The walnut is impressive. And that is a fine sewing supply chest. Keep us updated on your progress.

[James Pallas]

Very nice work. The chest looks wonderful.
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

Looking Good

jtk

[Ben Ellenberger]

Yesterday I got the miters fit and finished the panel. Every time I make a mitered frame I get partway through and question my decision-making. I always find it demanding and think I’ll end up with ugly gaps. I just go slow and use my widest chisel, and make sure to stop and sharpen if it starts to feel difficult. At some point I’ll make a shooting board or shooting board attachment for miters. I think the fitting process would be much quicker with one.

But, after the fiddling and testing I think this came out pretty well. I leveled the frame joints and scraped everything. On the panel I aimed for a very tight fit, and put just a tiny chamfer on the edges to give a shadow line. I wiped the panel down with a BLO/varnish/thinner mixture last night and came back this morning to glue everything up. I’ll let this dry today and go for a bike ride. I’ll get started breaking down the stock for the base soon.

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[Kent A Bathurst]

Your Mom loves you very much

[Mark Rainey]

Ben, those miters came out really nice!

[Ben Ellenberger]

Well, thanksgiving and Christmas came and went. Between trips, family, friends, and work this got put aside for a while. But, I got some time last week and got all the joinery done for the base. I made a template for the legs and started shaping the first one. I’m not going for anything extreme, but I may do a little more fiddling with it until I’m happy with the shape before doing all 4. New goal is to get this done in time for my mom’s birthday in February.

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[Michael J Gardner]

That is coming along great! How are you planning on doing the final attachment of the top to the aprons?

[Ben Ellenberger]

I’ll use metal clips screwed into the bottom of the top. I like to plow grooves into the backs of the aprons, which I find simpler and more flexible than chopping little mortises.

I really should have plowed the grooves before cutting the tenons, but I think either order works fine.

[Jim Koepke]

…
I really should have plowed the grooves before cutting the tenons, but I think either order works fine.

I have a note on some of my templates hanging in the shop to cut the slots and dados before the joinery or decorative cuts are made.

Yes, it can be done after the joinery or molding is cut, but it is much easier to do before.

jtk

[Ben Ellenberger]

I have a note on some of my templates hanging in the shop to cut the slots and dados before the joinery or decorative cuts are made.

Yes, it can be done after the joinery or molding is cut, but it is much easier to do before.

jtk

You are like me! I function much better when I can remind myself how things should be done.

[Christopher Charles]

Looks great and I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with for the legs. And I can sympathize with life cutting into the pace of a project!

FWIW, I take the same approach to attaching table tops with clips, though make my own buttons.

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(And don't tell- I countersunk this batch the wrong way and had to countersink again on the other side!)

Best,
Chris

[Ben Ellenberger]

I made a couple plywood templates until I was satisfied with the shape, then I shaped one leg. I used a chisel and block plane to rough it out, then spoke shaves and a rasp to tweak the shape. I finished with a card scraper. The curves look and feel fair to me. When I sight down the corners, the lines look good. I’ll look at the leg tomorrow in the daylight to be sure I’m satisfied before diving into the other three.

I haven’t really done this kind of shaping before, so I’m enjoying trying some new techniques.

If I had more nerve I’d probably do some more aggressive shaping, but I think this will give the effect I’m looking for.

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[Derek Kessler]

This looks awesome, it turned out really beautiful. I'm sure your mom appreciates it so much.

[Ben Ellenberger]

Got the legs shaped. I think they are pretty consistent, but I’ll look at them in the daylight tomorrow before moving on to the final sanding/glue-up. I eventually settled on using a chisel to get the corners down to my lines, then I used a spoke shave for the inside curve and a block plane for the outside curves. I finished off with a rasp and card scrapers. I haven’t done much shaping before, but this seemed to work pretty well. I also figured out on leg #2 to shape the insides of the leg first, then it sat on the bench without rocking as I shaped the outside.

I’ll put a little round-over on the edges of the table and gently break the corners on the legs, but plan to leave them mostly square.

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[Ben Ellenberger]

I did the final cleanup and glued it up. After an hour or two in the clamps I took it out, leveled the top and the feet and screwed the top to the base. This is the first coat of finish, just wipe on spar varnish/BLO/mineral spirits. I’ll probably do 3-4 coats, then a coat of wax. That is the same finish I put on the sewing chest, so these should match fairly well.

I’m not thrilled with the sap wood on one leg. I think it will be OK, but in the future I’ll probably be pickier when I’m breaking down stock. I’ll also work harder to get rift-sawn pieces for legs. Most of these ended up with one face quartered and another mostly flat-sawn. For something like this table, which I’d like to turn out nice, I think it will be worth having a bit more scrap to get better grain on the legs, But, overall I’m pretty happy with how this is turning out.

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[Mark Rainey]

Looking very nice Ben. Hard to avoid a bit of sapwood when working with walnut. When finished, how about a pic of sewing chest on base table?

[Mike Allen1010]

Very nice Ben! A shoulder plane is super helpful in trimming miter to get nice fit. It’s not easy to get square frame AND tight miters, but yours looks great. Look forward to seeing more of your work. Thanks for posting!

[Ben Ellenberger]

Thanks! I did these with a saw and a 1 1/4” chisel. I was really happy with how the miters came out, but I did go slow when cutting them. I’ve thought about getting a shoulder plane or a bullnose plane for those kind of joints.

[Ben Ellenberger]

Here it is. This was 3 coats of spar varnish/BLO/mineral spirits. I’ll let my mom wax it, so she can use the same stuff that she uses on her sewing chest.

I didn’t thickness the center panel, so it is slightly proud of the bottom of the frame. If you get down on your hands and knees you can see this holds the top off the legs by a tiny amount. I thought about trimming the inside top of the legs and rabbeting the aprons, but decided this will never be seen on a low table. She lives about 2 hours away, so I’ll wait until the next time I visit to get a picture with the sewing chest on it.

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