TABL ES & C HAIRSTABLES & CHAIRS^111919
Instead, I made an angled guide block to use with my
Japanese-style saw. I’m using the fi ngers of my left hand to
keep the saw tight to the block. Once the kerf is established, I
don’t need it there and move it out of the way. The kerf then
registers the next cuts and the placement of the guide block.
After making the four shoulder cuts, I used a tenoning jig
that slides on the table saw fence to cut the cheeks. I used an
agled block to support the rail against the vertical fence on
the jig. At the start of construction, I cut a piece of scrap to
the angle of the legs from horizontal. I used it for the tenons
and also under the legs when cutting the mortises for the
angled tenons. My bench always looks pretty trashy because
I hang on to things like this, but you never know when
something might come in handy.
Here’s one of the completed tenons. I aim to get a fi t that
can be put together by hand without beating on it that will
stay together if you pick up the piece with the tenon. I usually
use a shoulder plane for trimming and tuning the fi t, but
sometimes I use a rasp on the faces of the cheeks. A couple
days after I fi nished fi tting everything, we received some cool
planemakers fl oats that I will use next time I do something like
this.
I want the shoulders to come down tight, and the cheeks to
be snug, but I leave a little room at the bottom and ends of
the mortise. I tend to put things together and take them back
apart as I go, and the space at the ends of the mortise lets me
wiggle the joint to get it apart.
Down at the bottom of the table, there are keyed through
tenons where the front to back stretcher joins the arched
lower rails. Once again, I could have cut these with the table
saw, but I thought it faster and more accurate to do it by
hand. I used another guide block for the saw, this one was
beveled to make the top and bottom shoulder cuts. Everything
looks a little rough at this point, I like to fi t the joints before
making the parts smooth enough to fi nish. Pieces can get beat
up during fi tting, and if I make a mistake on the joint I don’t
have a lot of labor invested.
Most of the mortises were made with a hollow-chisel mortiser
or a plunge router. I really don’t have a preference between
the two. I started this project intended to use the mortiser for
everything but it broke down after a few mortises and I had
to switch to plan B and used the router for the leg mortises.
The rails were too short to clamp down and get the router
in position, so I switched to plan C, wasted most of it with a
forstner bit in the drill press and fi nished up with chisels at the
corners and the rasp for the long edges.
A couple of readers have asked how the web frame is
attached inside the rails below the drawer. It’s simply glued
in place, it can go in either during or just after assembling
the base.
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