Craftsman Ottoman - Part 4

The last time I made legs like these with mortises for the rails, I made up a custom jig for my router to cut the mortises. I used a 3/8 spiral bit and a template guide in the router. The jig worked well but was time-consuming to make and to use. Each mortise had to be cut in three steps - each cut deeper than the last. In between cuts I had to manually vacuum out the mortise as the dust collection attachment did not work with the template guide in my router. When switching legs I had to clamp and unclamp the template to each leg.

This time I decided to try using the router table and two stops to cut the mortises. By using the router table I could save the time of creating the jig, clamping the jig and cleaning out the mortises by hand.

I installed a 3/8" spiral bit in the router, then set the distance from the fence with a test piece to get the mortise centered in the 1 3/4" leg. I then clamped two stops on the fence to set the start and end of the mortise. After checking on a test piece I was ready to go.

First, I carefully marked all the legs to make sure I cut the mortises in the right place. With the router turned on I lowered each leg onto the bit, keeping the leg pressed tight against the fence, then moved the leg back and forth between the stops.

After cutting all four legs at the first depth I moved the router up to cut deeper and repeated the operation three more times until I had all legs cut to the full 1 1/4" depth.

This 3/8" Up Spiral Router Bit has cut a lot of wood and needs to be replaced or sharpened.

The first mortises I cut were for the bottom rails, 1 1/4" in length.

Each leg got three mortises cut. I was all four legs after about 45 minutes. It was much easier to cut the mortises on the router table than to make a custom jig.

Craftsman Ottoman - Part 3

A little bit more progress on the Craftsman Ottoman.

After removing the legs from the clamps, I ran them through the tablesaw to cut off the excess veneer. The finished size of the legs is 1 3/4", but I since they are glued up out of 1" boards, I had plenty of stock to remove after gluing. When I glued the veneer I had both pieces overhang one edge so the other edge would remain square.

After the tablesaw I ran them through the planer and trimmed them all down to 1 3/4" square.

I am very pleased how they turned out. The veneer will hardly be noticeable once I ease the edges.

I also dug through the wood pile to find wood for the rest of the parts I needed. I jointed, ripped, planed and crosscut all the parts to size. The wide board on the left will be the spindles.

I need two more parts - the shelf and the shelf supports.

The last thing I did was setup my router table to start cutting the mortises in the legs. I'll get that done next, then cut the tenons on the rails with the tablesaw.

Craftsman Ottoman - Part 2

Back to work on the Ottoman. I sliced up the veneer for the sides of the legs. I was able to easily get four ~3/16" pieces from the 1" board. In between slices I ran the original board through the planer to smooth out the next piece.

For the first cut I marked the line with a pencil and straight edge, for the remainder I eyeballed it and with the help of my resaw fence I was able to get reasonably consistent pieces.

After the resawing was complete I cut the legs to size. The finished size will be 1 3/4", so I trimmed them down to a little more than 1 5/8". After the sides are glued on, they'll be planed down again to get to the final 1 3/4" size.

Lots of glue and the legs are all clamped up. I could have saved 2 hours by just buying 8/4 stock. Maybe next time...

Craftsman Ottoman - Part 1

After finishing my latest marathon I'll be taking a month off from running and so will have some time to get back into the workshop.

The first project I'm working on (after cleaning the workshop) is a Craftsman Ottoman. I've already built two of these. The first one I gave away, and the second one which should have stayed with the Morris Chair has been stolen by Rosemary to use on the balcony.

Since I have some vinyl leftover from the Morris Chair project I decided to put together another Ottoman to keep with the Morris Chair. Since it requires less than 7 bd feet of Oak and I already have the plywood for the cushion it won't cost much and will be 'quick' to build. I'm hoping to use up many of the smaller pieces of wood floating around the shop as well which will help clean up the workshop.

I got started this morning by gluing up blanks for the legs. I don't have any 8/4 Oak, so I jointed and planed down some 4/4 Oak, then glued them up for the legs. It took me about 45 minutes to get from the 'find the wood' stage to the 'all glued up' stage.

The piece of wood I selected to cut for the glue ups was 4 3/4" by about 8' and the legs blanks are 16" long. After cutting out the wood for the leg blanks, the leftover piece will be resawn into 3/16" slices to cover the glue lines on the legs.

When I built the other Ottomans I did not have a bandsaw and had to use the tablesaw to resaw, which wastes ~1/8" for the blade. I now have a 14" Ridgid Bandsaw with a 1/2" resaw blade and I will be able to 'save' money by using less wood when resawing :)

Of course I had the wrong blade on the bandsaw so I had to switch over to the 1/2" blade and spent another couple of minutes adjusting the bandsaw to fit the 1/2" blade. Once I had it up and running I ran a few test pieces through and had no trouble resawing down 1/8".

Before I finished I had enough time to cut one slice from the 4 3/4" board that should provide all the veneer for the legs. I need four boards from this one piece of 15/16" and have high hopes that I can get it with the bandsaw. After each slice I'll run the remaining board through the planer to square it up.

Detroit Marathon

I ran the Detroit marathon on the weekend. Lauren and Mommy didn't come along at the crack of dawn to watch me race, but Lauren was happy to see me when I got home.