Small walnut side table with drawer

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Mortice time.

Like I said at the beginning, on this project I'm mostly following dimensions from a magazine article by Chris Schwarz. Dimensions are important - this doesn't need to look clunky - so I've not strayed far. The legs are really quite slender and there is little room for mortice and tenon joints.
In the article, the mortices are only 3/8" wide and 3/8" deep. Chris cuts them open to the end of the leg, using some sort of power tool technique, which I won't be following.
I did an experiment on an offcut, which showed me better than any drawing that these mortices (cut blind and square-bottomed) almost meet along one long corner. That seems weak with them open to the end, so I'll stop them in the usual way.
In retrospect, I'd like to have made them meet, mitred together, but having obediently assumed I'd just stick with the 3/8" measurement I have cut my rails to that size. Never mind - my offcut experiment confirmed that although the tenons will be short, they are 4¼" long and will have enough gluing area for this small, light table. There's no room for haunches.

So on with the cutting.

Here I am set up and started.

mortice_setup.jpg


You may notice that I have chosen to use a Marples ¼" bevel edge chisel from the 70s. Despite quite a long discussion, I'm not sure if this will be better or not!
It's narrower than the finished mortice and I will be paring the sides. This is not what I would do if I was making something bigger like a garden gate, but there is so little margin for error here I think it is appropriate.

After chiselling nearly all the way along I used a little Stanley 271 router to get down to depth

stanley_271.jpg


then pared down the sides to the full width.

paring_sides.jpg


Here's the finished job.

finished_mortice.jpg


For the second mortice, I switched to a "proper" mortice chisel, though still only ¼" wide.

mortice_chisel.jpg


You will see that I was still taking tiny nibbles, using one of my smaller mallets. Maybe it's because the cuts were shallow or maybe it's my eyesight, but the cut here is not very straight, so it would need clearing up whatever I did.
After the first row of vertical cuts, it was quicker to chisel horizontally, freehand - I managed not to go too deep.

horizontal_chiselling.jpg


And would you believe it, the finished mortice looks just like the one I did with the other chisel!

second_mortice.jpg


But rather than fill up the thread with identical pictures, here's a tip when you want to advance a little router like this progressively, to take a thin shaving off and work down to the required depth. Put a shim under the body of the router and drop the cutter down to rest on the bottom of the mortice. Tighten the screw, remove the shim.
You can then take a fresh cut knowing that you won't accidentally be trying to remove twice as much in one go as you wanted to.
I used a very thin steel rule, because it was handy, but a piece of thin card or veneer would do just as well.

router_shimming.jpg


That's it from me on this job for a while - I'll be back when I've done the others and then we can look at some tiny tenons. Happy Christmas to all. :ho2
 
AndyT":2vp61kae said:
I did an experiment on an offcut, which showed me better than any drawing that these mortices (cut blind and square-bottomed) almost meet along one long corner. That seems weak with them open to the end, so I'll stop them in the usual way.
In retrospect, I'd like to have made them meet, mitred together,

Swings and roundabouts.

It's true that having meeting mortices and mitred tenons gets you an extra square centimetre or two of glue surface. But it also brings with it a penalty in that during the glue-up you'll get glue flowing from one mortice to the adjacent mortice. If you're gluing up in stages (which I'd strongly recommend unless you're very slick and experienced or using a slow setting UF glue) that glue contamination may cause problems. I appreciate you're using scotch glue, but most people will use a modern bottled glue, and these rarely stick very well to cured versions of themselves. Plus if there are big lumps of dried glue in the adjacent mortice then you'll have clean it out, besides being a faff, if you use a chisel then it risks opening up the mortice so the next tenon isn't such a good fit.

I'm not saying one mortice solution is always better than an another, but it's worth weighing things up in the context of each individual project.

On a different point, in an earlier post you talked about planing the leg taper. There's a common trap that a lot of people fall into during this operation. The normal taper arrangement is something like this,

Leg-Taper.jpg


There'll usually be a gap of about 3mm or 1/8" between the end of the taper and the bottom of the apron rail. But it's very easy when planing to go sailing past that line and end up with an unsightly gap at the bottom of the apron. I always have a pencil line to delineate the end of the taper, but then I have a second pencil line about 6mm or 1/4" further down towards the bottom the the leg. I try to preserve both pencil lines until near the end, and only then do I run a couple of through planing strokes to take out the lower pencil line. The fact is the taper isn't a joint surface, so it only has to appear reasonably straight and reasonably square, the priority when tapering is to preserve that final pencil line rather than put in plane stroke after plane stroke aiming for engineering levels of straightness and squareness.

However, judging from these photos it's clear you're bringing your usual high standards to bear on this project, it's looking really good!
 

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El Barto":3dt82c2v said:
Damn that mortice is perfect! Neat trick with the router plane too.

I'm not taking anything away from Andy's craftsmanship, because you're right it does look perfect. But the thing to remember is that cutting a perfect tenon is much harder than cutting a perfect mortice. It's puzzling why there's a lot more column inches on this forum about mortices than about tenons, when consistent and accurate tenons are much trickier to achieve?
 
Thanks Custard - your practical advice is always welcome! I shall add extra lines as described. Chris Schwarz allows himself a full inch below the apron before the taper starts, so I was going to go with that and see how it looks - I shall definitely aim to stop before the joint. He suggests bandsaw followed by plane. I'm not sure whether to do that or just plane the lot.

I've done a practice tenon on scrap too - but that will have to wait while I cut some more mortices!

Any thoughts on the joints between the bottom rail (under the drawer) and the legs? I was thinking just a single short mortice and tenon, but does it need to be twin tenons?
 
AndyT":2ckji6z4 said:
Thanks Custard - your practical advice is always welcome! I shall add extra lines as described. Chris Schwarz allows himself a full inch below the apron before the taper starts, so I was going to go with that and see how it looks - I shall definitely aim to stop before the joint. He suggests bandsaw followed by plane. I'm not sure whether to do that or just plane the lot.

I've done a practice tenon on scrap too - but that will have to wait while I cut some more mortices!

Any thoughts on the joints between the bottom rail (under the drawer) and the legs? I was thinking just a single short mortice and tenon, but does it need to be twin tenons?

Hello Andy,

a full inch above the taper just looks a bit clunky and obvious to my eye, maybe compromise and call it 1/4"?

IMO it has to be twin tusk tenons for the rail below the drawer, three reasons for that. Firstly it prevents any twisting of the rail which would jam the drawer, secondly it gives an extra bit of glue surface, and thirdly it doesn't cut across the grain of the leg so much and therefore retains leg strength. It's an odd joint in that it's possibly the only example where the mortice is more difficult to cut than the tenon (purely because the mortices are small and square), it's a breeze with a morticer but if using hand tools then it's probably best to drill out most of the waste and just pare the sides flat with a chisel. An easy option is a pair of dowels.

You'll nail it though, twin tusk tenons are miles within your capabilities.
 
custard":1xwqnusg said:
El Barto":1xwqnusg said:
Damn that mortice is perfect! Neat trick with the router plane too.

I'm not taking anything away from Andy's craftsmanship, because you're right it does look perfect. But the thing to remember is that cutting a perfect tenon is much harder than cutting a perfect mortice. It's puzzling why there's a lot more column inches on this forum about mortices than about tenons, when consistent and accurate tenons are much trickier to achieve?

It's funny you mention that because I said something similar the other day on a workbench build thread here. Cutting the tenons for that were infinitely harder than the mortices and you're right, it's strange that it's often overlooked.
 
AndyT":s19ysiaf said:
I shall add extra lines as described.

There's a similar trap when it comes to spokeshaving a shallow curve on an apron rail.

Spokeshaving-An-Apron-Curve.jpg


The curve is a bit exaggerated in this sketch but it illustrates the principle. It's normally a good idea to leave a tiny flat of about 1 or 2mm at the two ends of the curve. The first reason is that avoids a short grain feather edge which might snap off. But the second reason is more subtle, like when taper planing a leg there's an almost irresistible temptation to cut beyond the line, which in this case would make the apron rail narrower at one end than the other, or if you went far enough might even expose the mortice. After bandsawing out the waste it's best to smooth off to the line with a spokeshave starting in the centre and working out to the end in shorter sections, only when you're kissing the pencil line would you make a final one or two full length through cuts with the spokeshave. Also, like the tapered leg example, it's not a jointing surface; so the curve only has to be fair to the eye. It's as if we're programmed to chase a curve that's perfectly fair and square with long through spokeshave strokes, but we don't really care about being shy of the terminal pencil line until we've gone sailing past it!
 

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custard":2ab9o0g9 said:
Hello Andy,

a full inch above the taper just looks a bit clunky and obvious to my eye, maybe compromise and call it 1/4"?

IMO it has to be twin tusk tenons for the rail below the drawer, three reasons for that. Firstly it prevents any twisting of the rail which would jam the drawer, secondly it gives an extra bit of glue surface, and thirdly it doesn't cut across the grain of the leg so much and therefore retains leg strength. It's an odd joint in that it's possibly the only example where the mortice is more difficult to cut than the tenon (purely because the mortices are small and square), it's a breeze with a morticer but if using hand tools then it's probably best to drill out most of the waste and just pare the sides flat with a chisel. An easy option is a pair of dowels.

You'll nail it though, twin tusk tenons are miles within your capabilities.

Ok, challenge accepted - flattery works!

To me, the term "tusk tenon" means a complicated joint used in flooring, where you want to join two joists at a right angle without weakening either one. Most of the weight is borne on a thick stub, with a thinner strip passing through the second joist and wedged.
That's probably not very clear, so here's a picture.

tusk_tenon.jpg


I might enjoy cutting one of those full size in a bit of 9 x3, but I'm not doing two of them in miniature!
Presumably you mean a pair of little vertical tenons, side by side. They'll need to be about 5/32" or 3/16" thick, so they could be the perfect justification for having acquired one or two narrow chisels.

A challenge for the new year, I think!

(The picture is one of the marginal notes in an old book of mine on building construction. Its first owner must have been a model student - his pencil notes are delightful, 140 years on.)

And thanks on the taper too - I'll re-mark at 1/4".
 

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AndyT":1ejth61u said:
Thanks Custard - your practical advice is always welcome! I shall add extra lines as described. Chris Schwarz allows himself a full inch below the apron before the taper starts, so I was going to go with that and see how it looks - I shall definitely aim to stop before the joint. He suggests bandsaw followed by plane. I'm not sure whether to do that or just plane the lot.

I've done a practice tenon on scrap too - but that will have to wait while I cut some more mortices!

Any thoughts on the joints between the bottom rail (under the drawer) and the legs? I was thinking just a single short mortice and tenon, but does it need to be twin tenons?

I have seen a half blind dovetail from the inside in the lower draw rail and the top rail with a half blind dovetail into the top of the leg.
It looks a very strong method of construction but I am not sure you will have enough space for a dovetail on the lower rail.

Pete
 
Enjoying this one.
I can post you the Lie-Nielsen DVD with Chris Schwarz making this table (with hand tools only) if you’d like, Andy...not that you need his help, by the looks of it!
 
cowfoot":2fmnpric said:
Enjoying this one.
I can post you the Lie-Nielsen DVD with Chris Schwarz making this table (with hand tools only) if you’d like, Andy...not that you need his help, by the looks of it!

That's a nice offer but I think now that more instructions might confuse me!
I've looked at some other articles and some Garret Hack videos of a similar build.
 
Ok, interruptions over and I'm back in the workshop. A nice steady 13° despite the hail showers outside.
I finished cutting all the mortices for the apron rails. Just to cheer up El Barto, here's a less than perfect one where I got a bit over-enthusiastic with the chisel.

imperfect_mortice.jpg


I think I will get away with it once the table is glued together, so please keep quiet about it... :wink:

Chisel spotters may be interested to know that on these narrow, shallow but long mortices I got the best results with a 1970s Stanley 5001 firmer chisel, despite its plastic handle, which I see no need to replace.

I reckon it's a good idea to accept Custard's advice on this project - or any project - but wanted to practice making a twin mortice and tenon joint on this rather small scale, before going ahead for real.

I do have a 5/32" chisel which looks the ideal thickness to use. Marking out is a bit of a challenge though! Mortice gauges only go down to about 1/4". I want to use the same gauge settings for both parts of the joint, but the front of the rail is set back from the front of the leg by ⅛"
I decided the answer was to use an ordinary single pin marking gauge but shim it out when marking the tenon. I made the first mark equal to the thickness of the chisel, then moved it over by that much to get the next setting.


twin_mortice_layout.jpg


On the tenon, the nearest thing the right size was an ⅛" drill bit. This worked better than this clumsily posed photo would suggest, but I think I will plane something flat to the right size next time.

twin_tenon_layout.jpg


Sawing the tenons was just like sawing dovetails

twin_tenons_sawn.jpg


with the spare bit in the middle sawn out with my bread and cheese powered fretsaw

fretsaw_tenon.jpg


I could pare the cheeks with a nice slender old bevel edge chisel

paring1.jpg


which fits easily between

paring2.jpg


Custard suggested drilling and paring the little mortice. This needs something to hold the drill nice and vertical, while allowing slow hand control. Time for the Millers Falls No 207!

mf_drill_press.jpg


I set a special depth stop at the top of the feed

depth_stop.jpg


and made a little row of holes

holes.jpg


which I pared out

paring3.jpg


I seem to have missed out on taking any photos of the next step, which was to compare chiselling out the other mortice, so here are some pictures of the chisel I used instead

veteran1.jpg

veteran3.jpg

veteran2.jpg


After a little more paring and fiddling about, I got this far

trial_fit.jpg


then this far

fitted.jpg


I hadn't planned to, but I did take a very small trim off the tenons to make a little setback on the shoulder on top. I didn't do so on the underside, which is why it looked like this

poor_fit.jpg


which is the point of doing a trial version before spoiling the real thing, at least when picky woodworkers come round and lie under the table to inspect its hinder parts. :?

The really good thing is that the joint is plenty strong enough, even without glue, and will be fine for the table.

Back to the tenons next time.
 
Hello, I am posting as a forum newbie having not strayed out of the for sale forum before now. I wanted to say your series on the little table is appreciated. I am learning through doing mainly handwork towards being a better woodworker at present and the details are helpful. I like the little step or shoulder on your cross rail which goes under the drawer for example.
 
Tenon time!

Here we go with the six long tenons on the ends of the apron rails. I've already settled on these as being 4½" wide, ⅜" long and ⅜" thick. First step is to mark around the ends of the rails, using the same mortice gauge as before, with the pins still set on ⅜" but now centred on the ¾" rails.

mark_tenon.jpg


I then sawed down the shoulders

saw_shoulders1.jpg


but cut away from the knife line so I can plane up to it later

saw_shoulders2.jpg


Rather than saw the cheeks, I split the wood away, which was quick and easy in this well-behaved walnut

split_cheeks.jpg


I then crept up on the lines using the shoulder plane I made for myself a few years ago.

plane_cheeks1.jpg


plane_cheeks2.jpg


I'm not saying this to boast about my plane making abilities - you can see here how rough it is. I just want to stress that you can make a useful, functional tool with a few basic tools for about £25 including a bought iron. I think it's a really worthwhile tool to make if you are reluctant to shell out for a new one or can't find an affordable old one. (And making an ugly plane will increase your admiration for those who can make a beautiful one.)

I planed the shoulders as well

plane_shoulders.jpg


on the bench hook and with the wood vertical in the vice.

There was also plenty of careful chiselling

pare_cheeks.jpg


and offering up. I marked the width of the tenon from the mortice and sawed the corners off as well.
One thing that I found helpful was that I had settled on ⅜" as the length and width. It's also the thickness of my small engineer's square, so laying it alongside shows me how square the tenon is and where it needs planing down to length.

check_size.jpg


The end result looks like this

fit.jpg


and like this

fit_pair.jpg


I've completed the six tenons now which has taken most of a pleasant day in the workshop. I know other people would have made these on a router table or table saw in a few minutes, but this is something I really enjoy taking time over, and a project like this is as much about the journey as it is about the destination.
 
AndyT":3djqdc6e said:
I then crept up on the lines using the shoulder plane I made for myself a few years ago.

I'm envious. Apart from trivial stuff like scratch stocks I've never made a "serious" woodworking tool. It must add immeasurably to the satisfaction of furniture making to do fine work with tools that you've actually made yourself.

=D>
 
AndyT":r5fo454t said:
.......One thing that I found helpful was that I had settled on ⅜" as the length and width. It's also the thickness of my small engineer's square, so laying it alongside shows me how square the tenon is and where it needs planing down to length.

Nice stuff, Andy.....and isn't walnut an absolute pleasure to work with?

Just a small comment on the above. There is no great need to be accurate with the length/ depth of the tenon. The end grain contributes nothing to the glue-line strength, and is thus irrelevant to the strength of the joint. OK, with a tenon only 10mm long/ deep, you don't want to be hacking too much off, but you take my point.
 
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