Small Table

[John15]

Did a glue-up for an end rail this morning. It shows the detail for the 45 degree leg set-up that was discussed at the end of one of my recent posts. Thanks everyone for your advice on the clamping method. I used dowels (4no. x 10mm dia. per joint) which is one of the options advised by Custard. It seemed a slow and awkward process compared to a regular square mortice and tenon but the result is good tight no-gaps on the angled joints so I'm very pleased about that.
In case you are wondering about the dowel showing on the top face of the legs, the legs(originally 40 x 40mm square) are from an old table and they had been extended at sometime with a dowel and glue.
I'll glue-up the other end rail tomorrow and then it's onto the side rails.

John

 

[John15]

Final glue-up completed this morning with a good result. I found it difficult at times - quite a bit different to the regular square set-up with probably three times the number of clamps needed.
I have a piece of hardwood (species?) I intend to use for the top. I acquired it back in the middle sixties while working for a timber merchant in Henley-on-Thames. I screwed a set of tapered legs to it and gave it as a coffee table to my parents - they used it until they passed away about 10 years ago! It has a small cup but there is plenty of thickness so I can plane it out without any bother. I'm thinking of forming curved edges. You can just make out the pencil lines. The radius on the long sides is 14 feet!

John

 

[John15]

This piece of wood for the top, which I believe is Iroko?, is 24mm thick so am reducing the edge profile to 13mm to balance it better with the sub-structure. It is planing beautifully and is a yellowy brown colour.

John

 

[John15]

I have just completed this small side table. The design is something I’ve made up myself except for the curved top where I got the idea from a piece on Richard Jones’ website. Not sure if the legs will pass muster with the purists but the whole thing looks OK to me which I suppose is the main thing.

It’s made from three different wood species found lying about in my garage. The top is Iroko (I think), the rails are Utile and the legs are a ‘Mahogany’ type. They were all easy to work with only small areas of reverse grain. The top is 24mm thick reduced to 13mm at the edges, the rails are 17mm and the legs taper from 35 x 35 to 20 x 20 then a rounded taper to 12mm dia for the bottom 100mm which kicks out about 10mm. I used Osmo gloss for the finish. The legs were the most time consuming but once I had formed a pattern that I liked I was guaranteed they would all be identical. The 45 deg. glue-up was difficult, far more so than a standard square leg to rail joint.

John