So it's not on time, but I didn't do too bad either! That's Rapid. Fire. Blogging.
With a piece of wood straight from the store, the first task is to mill it up into over-sized versions of the future pieces. The chair and desk each required full sized drawings and then templates...I don't have that here and that is so great. Every piece is straight and square, so I can go right to the bandsaw, jointer, bandsaw, jointer then planer. The redundancy of that sentence was intentional...milling requires such a pattern of machining. A few hours of work got me here:
With a piece of wood straight from the store, the first task is to mill it up into over-sized versions of the future pieces. The chair and desk each required full sized drawings and then templates...I don't have that here and that is so great. Every piece is straight and square, so I can go right to the bandsaw, jointer, bandsaw, jointer then planer. The redundancy of that sentence was intentional...milling requires such a pattern of machining. A few hours of work got me here:
That half day gave me eight square r/i/f/t sawn pieces of maple, and with four I'm making the frame for the table top. Because the table surface will be glass, all I need to do is make a frame to hold it. That means joinery only at the corners. Traditional mortise and tenons would work, but the best joinery would be a miter joint...two members brought together at a 45 degree angle. For strength, I'm making it a through-tenon miter joint...which I've drawn here. Note the cute little drawings.
Best place to start is with the mortise, because it's easier. First step is to make the 45 degree cut. Simple.
Next, I make the mortise with our new super heavy duty vertical tenoning jig. It's a mega-baby. This contraption holds a piece of wood upright on the table while pushing it over the saw. Keeps the wood stable and your hands safely away from the non-sawstop blade.
There it is...one half of the table top frame! This table is going to come together fast...or it better.
Next is the tenon, more difficult because I can't miter cut through the whole thickness of the piece. I start by cutting the negative space away...sawing each side at the same height, leaving only the thickness of the mortise.
And with that, the joinery is done and the maple looks just like the drawing!
I don't have a good shot of the frame together at this stage...so that will be the big reveal for this weekend. Or maybe Monday.