Bedside Table

[martin.a.ball]

Did you have previous woodworking experience prior to taking the 5 day furniture course?
Either way, a fine table.

I've never built a piece of furniture before. I've made stuff around the house including toy boxes for the kids but I felt I needed some help to take on the joints required for a bedside table. I also had 5 days holiday to use up before the end of the holiday year at work which was fortunate.

 

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The top rail on the front has a lapped dovetail for strength. Due to a lot of concentrating I only ended up with a photo of the end result. The dovetail was cut by hand, the shoulders cut close to the knife line then finished with a chisel, same as the tenons above.

The tail was then marked onto the top of the front legs and the socket cut out. The fishtail chisel makes easy work of getting in the difficult corners.

The bottom rail on the front has another domino joint for speed.

Legs have also been cut to final length but need to be tapered next.

 

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Jig to cut taper on legs

During the build the face and edge references had been keep on the inside of the legs, so all the joints are in theory square. Before assembling the frame the inside faces were planed to a finish.

Then the glue up was a two stage process, sides first, then the full frame. At the same time the top and drawer bottom were also glued up (no photo).

For anyone wondering about the timeline, this is about halfway through the week and there is still a dovetail drawer to construct.

 

[martin.a.ball]

On to the drawer construction. As with other parts of the build, this is a bit of a hybrid as a lot was squeezed into 5 days of teaching. Having cut a lapped dovetail as part of the frame I wanted to try a through dovetail on the drawer which leads to the false front .

Tails were cut on both sides at the same time having taped them together.

Then front and sides are marked with colour dots so it goes back together the right way round.

Pins are marked using a scalpel to score masking tape.

And the end result has a test fit.

 

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Approaching the final stretch now. Drawer guide and runners were glued to frame and drawer sides checked for fit.

Grooves for drawer bottom and back were run on the router table. No need for anything clever at the front as a false front is going to cover the slot.

Drawer bottom has a raised panel profile, here being test fitted.

Finally the false front is glued in place.

Very much a hybrid of some traditional and some modern drawer making techniques but the end result is a nice tight and flush fitting drawer front.

 

[martin.a.ball]

Things got quite busy as the finishing line approached and I managed to grab less photos. The final component to finish was the top which received a 45 degree bevel all round after measuring to make sure it was centered.

The top is attached with small blocks that fit into slots in the rails (sorry no photo) and voila a finished and naked bedside table was taken outside.

Which just left a bit of time to start finishing with Osmo Polyx-Oil.