Kitchen Table - Part 3 - Finishing

This project is a big brother to the kids table I built for Joshua and Lauren earlier this year, so the finishing schedule is the same. After sanding all the parts 120-150-220 with a random orbital sander, I took them upstairs to my 'finishing room'.

I finished the table with two coats of Watco Danish Oil - Natural, following the directions on the can. I use scraps of an old t-shirt to apply the oil and wipe off the excess.

Once the oil has dried I'll apply two coats of Minwax Quick Drying polyurethane on the legs, apron and bottom of the table. I'll probably apply at least one extra coat on the top to give it a little extra protection.

Since it's winter time in the workshop and my heating situation is not so good in the workshop, I'll apply the top coats of poly in our heated house after I've moved the table in there.

Once the bottom of the top and the legs/aprons were dry from the poly I glued up the legs and aprons.

After getting it down the stairs into my workshop - I realized that I needed a little extra support for the apron / leg connection. I added the corner braces, gluing and screwing them to the aprons. Around the inside of the apron, you can see the wooden buttons I used to secure to the top to the apron.

Kitchen Table - Part 2 - Top

It took a few tries to get everything right - but the top is finally glued up. The overall size is 48x48 inches.

I first glued up three sections, each about 16". After they dried I ran them through my drum sander to smooth them out.

Next I glued up two of the three sections, then after that was dry I added the third. I used biscuits to help line them up but the glue lines were still a little off. It's tricky working with these large panels. A better way to ensure they kept aligned would have been to use a tongue and groove joint. Maybe next time.

After the top was dry I used a saw guide and my circular saw to cut it square.

Lastly, a belt sander to get rid of the uneven glue lines, then random orbital sander with 80-120-180-220 sandpaper to smooth out the tabletop and all of the legs and aprons. I'm going to apply to finish to this project before gluing it up - so that's the next step.

Rosemary's Quilting

Rosemary finished up a new advent calendar just in time for the Christmas season. There are 25 pockets and each has a little treat inside for Joshua and Lauren. A couple of the pockets didn't seem very kid friendly so Rosemary replaced them with Peanuts characters instead.

It's nice to have a custom advent calendar instead of the $0.99 one from the grocery store filled with cheap chocolate.


Here's some more pictures of Rosemary and her sewing - she's only been sewing for a year but has made some really nice projects.

Here is her fancy Bernina Activa 220 sewing machine - made in Switzerland!

Rosemary working on her first quilt.

The first quilt - completed and hung up over our family room.

A nice little quilt to hang over Lauren's door.

Kitchen Table - Part 1 - Legs and Apron

After finishing off the Craftsman Ottoman, I wanted to do another 'quick' project before starting on Lauren's bed. I chose to replace our $50 kitchen table that we bought when we first got married with a bigger version of the kids table I build for Joshua earlier this year. It'll be a simple solid red oak top, walnut apron and red oak legs.

I started with the apron boards, milling the walnut to 3" x 7/8" x 46+". I left the pieces a little long so that I could have extra for testing the tenons. After milling the wood I stacked them and set them aside until I was ready to cut the tenons.

For the legs I decided to go with 2 1/2" square legs, made up of 4 mitre pieces. To keep waste to a minimum I made them up from boards that were around 8" in width, flipping them over after every mitre cut on the tablesaw. I used my planer sled to flatten the boards before cutting the mitres on the tablesaw.

I don't have a picture of the glue-up but it wasn't particularly tricky. Just use painter's tape to hold them together and a few clamps if the pieces need a little help lining up (mine did).

After the legs were all glued up, I moved over to the router table to cut the mortises in the top of the legs. I used a 3/8" spiral upcut bit for the mortises, so ripped a piece of scrap to 1 1/16" (2 1/2" - 3/8" = 2 1/8" divided by 2) to set the fence to center to mortise in the leg.

To cut the mortise I slide the leg in to the bit along the fence, which blasts the wood chips away from the leg. I setup my shop vac to catch the chips as the regular vac port on the fence doesn't catch any of these chips. A stop block clamped to the fence makes sure I don't cut the mortise to far down the leg.

The finished leg with mortises cut in two sides of each leg. The mortises cut right through the solid part of the leg into the hollow center. The tenons will be cut next and they'll be 7/8" thick to match the thickness of the leg parts.

Planer Sled

While I am in between 'big' projects, I decided to make a 'quick' kitchen table to replace our cheap table that we bought for $60 when we first got married 7 years ago. The top will be made up of solid panels, and the lumber I had for the top is not flat, so I need to flatten it before gluing up the top.

The boards are wide enough that I don't want to rip them all done to 6" to send them through the jointer for flattening. Since I lack any hand tools to flatten them the next easiest solution is the planer. I decided to make up a quick planer sled to run the boards through the planer and flatten them.

A planer sled supports the board you want to flatten as you pass it through the planer, causing the planer to only take off the 'high' spots on the board and flatten it out. If you send a cupped board through a planer, the planer will compress the 'cupping' of the board as it planes, taking off the 'high' and 'low' spots and not flattening the board, only reducing it's thickness. A planer sled will prevent the planer from compressing the 'cup' and force the planer to correctly flatten the board.

First - dig around the workshop and find a flat board that is wider and longer than the boards you want to flatten. I found a piece of melamine shelving that fit the bill. You will be fastening your boards to flatten to this flat piece and running them through the planer, so it has to be narrow enough to fit through your planer.

Next, glue, nail, screw or otherwise fasten a back onto one end of your flat board - this piece will keep the board you are flattening from sliding off the back of the sled.

Your sled is now complete - let's put it to use.

Now, place the board you want to flatten onto the sled and determine where you need to add support to the board. In the board below you can see I need support in the middle and on the left hand edge.

Now, flip the board over and add some gobs of glue from a hot glue gun. I made the gobs about 3/4" in diameter. Too much glue is better than not enough.

Flip the board back over before the glue dries and press it down in place on the planer sled. Wait a minute or two for the glue to dry, then you are ready to send the board through the planer. In the picture below you can see a bit of glue sticking out the side of the board.

Now, send the board through the planer. You can see in the picture below the planer is only removing material from the 'high' points on the board - the center of the board in this case. If I did not use a planer sled, the board would have been smooshed flat as it was sent through the planer, but then bounced back up when it came out the other end. Afterwards I would have a thinner, but still cupped board.

After a number of passes through the planer I have one side of the board flat. I can now flip the board over and run it through the planer to flatten the other side.

To separate the board from the sled, use a old chisel to pry it off, then use that same old chisel to pop off the gobs of glue. Obviously you'll want to remove that glue before sending your board back through the planer.