TABL ES & C HAIRSTABLES & CHAIRS^113131
I couldn’t come up with a way to clamp it down and move a
router in. I removed much of the waste in the sockets with a
Forstner bit on the drill press. I could safely hold it to the drill-
press table, and this made a fl at reference surface at the bottom
to guide the chisel. There are also dovetail sockets at the top of
each leg. There, I used a small router with a fence to establish a
straight back and fl at bottom, and a few quick chisel cuts defi ned
the acute corners where the circular router bit wouldn’t reach.
I spent a few hours over the weekend refi ning the curves of the
top and shelf with some rasps followed by a cabinet scraper. It
was a lot of fun. I worked out on the patio, enjoying some fresh
air and not annoying the neighbors (at least with my woodwork-
ing). The band-saw marks disappeared rather quickly, I recog-
nized that many of the curves matched the profi le of the rounded
side of the rasp, and the scraper left a very nice surface. I thought
about the old man who thought power tools were the answer to
everything, and wondered how he would shape this edge. Later
today, I’ll be shaping the legs. They’ve been rough cut on the
band saw, and I’ll use a template (shaped and refi ned with my
rasps) and a router to make them all symmetrical and identical.
Then, I’ll fi nish carving the top by hand, scrape the fl at surfaces
smooth and gently round all the edges. I’m still up in the air
about that last step; I might use a router and I might use a rasp.
Woodworking is like solving a puzzle. Between the raw mate-
rial and a fi nished piece, it’s all about choices: how to do this,
why do that, what will create the best result in the least amount
of time. If you eliminate half the options before you start, you
eliminate half the fun.
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