Thread: Kuffy's Hall Table. WIP

I finished off the drawer dovetailing today after early finish Friday at work. Trim router to hog away the waste in the half blind dovetails and then I chopped away the remaining waste with chisels. All of the dovetails are pretty neat, not perfect. A bit of bog and she'll be right mate.
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Not much left to the hall table now. A few structural dutchmans for the top panels when there are some thru n thru sun checks. A groove in the drawer components to house the ply drawer bottom. Shape the front of the drawer fronts with a curve to give the overall hall table some depth from front view. And then slip slop slap on a few coats danish oil and then ship it almost out the door.

I glued up the two drawers during the week after work. Uneventful, slip, slop slap it together type glue up though I did blue tape the internal corners beforehand so that glue squeeze out didn't make me cry like a baby.

I spent today getting the drawers to fit in the cavity by removing some drawer height with a block plane. They are still fairly sticky, but a bit of wax will solve that after finishing. I figure the drawer height is at its fattest that it ever be at the moment because it has been rather humid for the past month. Now with the drawers fitting, I could gauge how much curve I could put on the drawer fronts to give the overall piece some depth. It turns out I actually made a mistake when machining the drawer fronts. I started with a 40mm thick rough piece of redgum and planned on planing it to 34mm thick, but it ended up at 30mm thick for some reason as if I do a lot of tops at 30mm, cest la vie.

I made a template of the drawer front curve on a piece of 3mm ply and rough cut it on the bandsaw and smoothed the cut with a block plane. Then I used the template to trace a line top and bottom of the drawer front and rough cut +1/2mm on the bandsaw. I made sure to keep the marks on the template to the outside corners and to mirror image the two drawers so that any error in my template making still ends up with symmetry in the finished piece. I didn't want to cut right on the line with the bandsaw because I can only see the top of the drawer when cutting and I didn't want to end up with the situation of having undercut the bottom edge of the drawer front, in hindsight I cut perfectly dead square/plumb so I could have saved myself a heap of work, ah well.

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Then I setup my oscillating spindle sander to smooth out the bandsaw cut and remove the extra 1/2mm but I quickly gave up on that idea, too slow, too inconsistent. So I used my block plane, which has a flat sole, to plane across the grain of the drawer front to get me pretty close to the line. It was picking out a few small chunks of redgum which is to be expected since I was using a low angle plane with a ~25° bevel, but surprisingly it wasn't spelching out the bottom edge as the plane exited the timber which removed the need for some proper technique. Then to smooth out the faceting from planing across the grain on a curved surface I used the block plane with the grain and just followed the curve as best I could. It was quite a deal easier than I was expecting as the cut was making that point of the plane follow the curve. Then I sharpened up a couple of scrapers and removed any of the tearout and cleaned up the surface. I will smooth it out properly starting with some #240 sandpaper just before I apply finish. It was at this point I was buggered so I went to KFC for lunch even though I already Maccas brekky for the day.

Then I came back and buggerised around for a bit working out where I will put some dutchmans/butterflys in the top as there is a through n through check running down the center of the top. I decided on using 7 dutchmans, 2 in the left panel, and five in the right. I cut these out on the bandsaw and then called it a day. Tomorrow I will house the dutchmans and then maybe if I can be bothered smooth all of the surfaces and start finishing the piece. But it is the finishing in which I lose any and all interest in the job so I will probably fart around making something on the lathe

I think the curving of the drawer fronts was a stroke of genius. Without it, it looks much too flat faced. I really like the timber used in the drawer fronts. The tiger stripes are cool of course, but there is also a blonde streak running horizontal through the fronts which looks awesome. Hopefully the finish doesn't remove or hide it.
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Macca's and KFC on the one day! Better keep using all those hand tools Kuffy!

Lol, I am just heading out to get some fush n chups. My physique doesnt just happen overnight ya know

Dutchmans done and that's just about all I did. First I positioned them and marked around each of them with a knife. Then I use a black sharpie marker to mark a big fat black line 1mm inside the knife line so that I can clearly see it when I use my trim router to hog away the waste without colouring outside the line. The top panels are ~22.7mm thick, so I cut the dutchmans ~15mm deep into the top surface. 15mm deep is a good bit past half way so they are now structural rather than just being there for good looks.
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Then I chopped away the remaining waste with chisels and smasher. Somehow in the process I stabbed myself in the belly with a freshly stropped chisel, insta blood but only requiring one band aid. Luckily the belly has a bit of give in it, kinda like popping a partially inflated balloon, it doesn't pop so easily I installed each dutchman one by one because there is a chance that if I make them too tight, it will crown the top surface of Myrtle top. Which I did slightly ~0.3mm over 280mm, it will get flattened before finishing so I'm not worried.
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The glue was/is still uncured but it is good enough to level the Redgum dutchmans to the Myrtle top using my sportscar and then card scrapers to remove the remaining thin spread of dried glue. It's been a while since I used the sportscar, I had forgotten how unbelievably good it is. 60° bed angle and one of HNT Gordon's 6mm thick tool steel blanks allows it to cut through the Redgum with ease. I really want some of HNT's planes, perhaps one day.
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I still need to cut the top panels to length and straighten the back edge. Also I will be putting an undercut bevel on the ends of the two top panels to give it a little more lift away from the frame below. I am still unclear as to what I will be doing for drawer pulls. I brought the redgum up to the top with the dutchmans, so the I will bring the myrtle down to the redgum drawer fronts via the drawer pull, but I can't figure out what design. I am thinking something along the lines of two dowels/posts which protrude out of the drawer front with a turned myrtle spindle as the handle. But that design will allow clothing to catch on it as you walk past it. So perhaps I will have to hand shape a 'bent spindle' so it won't catch on clothing.

Coming along nicely mr kuffy.
And very glad to see the full sick sports car out drifting.
(Box hill rsl ?)

Cheers Matt


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It was drifting, skewed cut worked nicely. I will try and remember Box Hill tomorrow. The plan for tomorrow, for what it is worth, is work like an underpaid flea bitten dog all day until 3pm'ish, and then to flatten the top panels and apply the undercut bevel. And then there was something else, which must be incredibly important because I have forgotten all about it.

I decided not to flatten the top. I figure when I smooth the final surface, I can just hit the high spots an extra couple of licks and she'll be all good. I did get the top panels straightened along the back edge which in theory should match up nicely when it is butt up against the wall, but ya know what carpentry is like +/- a football field with straightness! And then I cut the panels to length making sure to remove ~8mm on the inside gap so that all of the grain pattern align as if the 20mm gap was solid timber still, and then I docked them to 665mm x 2 + 20 = 1350mm overall.

Then I was feeling ambitious, so I applied the undercut bevel on the two ends of the top panels the hard way using hand planes. It took some doing, but in reality it was some fun braindead but hardwork time. The next pic is half way using the sports car to hog away the material because both my awesome #4 stanley and pretty average veritas #6 are both set for smoothing. The sports car just requires a knock with a hammer and it changes from super smoother to hogging plane.
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And then both panels with the bevel finished off awaiting final sanding.
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And a couple of pics of the hall table with undercut bevels. The bevels don't really stand out, you barely even notice them. But when the ends of the panels were full thickness square, it looked like rubbish. Now it looks awesome. I will need to use a scraper to remove the black thin layer of bark stuff, it comes off easy enough but looks bad at the moment.
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Wow, what a slacker I am. Almost a month passes by and all I can recall doing was cleaning up a few bits here n there and slopping on some danish oil. But better late than never I guess. All done, all finished, all awesome. Well "mostly" all finished. I still need to install some drawer stops, and make some drawer pulls. I think I have committed myself to the idea of having two pillar standoffs and a carved natural stick thing bridging the pillars to form the drawer pull made from Myrtle. It should bring the live edge feel down to the perfectly symmetrical frame and also bring the myrtle timber down to tie it all together.

All in all, I reckon it turned out pretty good. A coat of sanding sealer was applied and left alone for a week. Then I gave it a quick lick with #500 grit foam backed sandpaper and slopped on coat after coat of my own mix of Danish Oil 45/25/30 poly/BLO/turps.



My photography sux, but these few pics are the best of about 100 point n shoot clicks!
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Ye your pics suck
But the table looks fantastic well done mate.
The floating top really looks great [emoji106][emoji106]

Cheers Matt


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Thanks Matt. I have a cunning plan to solve my sucky picture taking ability. Currently saving up for a better camera because my photos suck, and also my video quality seems to be so much lower than other YouTube vids. I just use a handycam camcorder, others have all sorts of gadgets hanging off their cameras like lenses and microphones, spare battery packs etc etc. Based on this I reckon "more $$$ spent = more betterer pictures". I think that is how woodwork works also

I love a cunning plan
Bolderick (Can't spell) would be most pleased


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Hmm, google is no help to me. "Bolderick" went straight over my head. Sometimes I wish I was taller.

Baldrick, from Blackadder?

Regards from Perth

Derek