Thread: My first serious woodworking project besides rough pine stuff and DIY jobs

Apart from an aviary I banged together, garden beds, garage shelving etc this is the first serious bit of woodworking I've done since I did a stint woodturning a decade ago (long since sold the lathe and chisels, thankfully kept the bench grinder)

Because of newborn and wife's health I got frustrated with only getting an hour here and there to work on it so I've kind of just wrapped it up quickly but plan to make changes later on, including:

• installing a sliding drawer between the boards under the table
• removing the legs and installing on the outside of the boards, but for that I'll need to route a curve on the inside of the rebate rather than 90° angle because I've curved the outsides of those boards
• tapering the legs
• resand and refinish the surface, probably also put some filler in the board joint and a few minor defects
• oil the rest of the table - currently just done the top surface

The top is Spotted Gum IIRC, the rest is mixed (tassie oak) - the top was originally Brush Box but I ruined that idea thanks to thicknesser dramas; again, first time I've really used the Ryobi thicknesser for a proper project after buying it second hand off Trav, what, 18 months ago? Very handy tool, though I am eyeing off the DeWalt DW735-XE. Sure, I'd love a Hafco PT-300 but everything has to be portable (as in, put on shelves) as the cars are supposed to be parked in the garage more often than not.

table_top.jpg

table_sand.jpg

I don't like how I attached the legs; clamping them and then drilling in with a combo drill / countersink bit was a bit hacky - I maybe should have used glue & biscuits or something better than a basic rebate joint but because of plans to move the legs I didn't want to use glue for now. Not happy the legs don't appear flush, though the joint seems strong enough. Probably an issue with my routing and sanding not resulting in a square joint.

table_end.jpg

table_side.jpg

table_inside.jpg

The top boards are joined with biscuits and glued with Titebond II, the vertical boards underneath are joined to the top with pocket holes ... both new techniques for me and very happy with the results. Table saw is also new (Bosch GTS 10 J) and looking forward to my first decent non-Bunnings plane arriving this week, a HNT Gordon A55 Trying plane.

Trimmed the end grain of the table with the router, first time using the TRA001 with the template kit (see my other post about the problem I had with installing it). Messed that up on the first pass - I did a test run with a piece of wood attached with double-sided tape to the table because it was too short ... then when I put the proper boards under the jig I thought "I won't use tape this time, I can clamp it on the table" except I forgot to clamp. Didn't notice the router wander until I'd finished.

Other screw-ups / learning opportunities included messing up one of the leg joint measurements so it's futher in from the edge of the table than the others, the legs not all being the same length, some tear-out from the thicknesser, mitre saw and router, and not bothering to properly measure the leg screws because I thought no one would notice if they didn't line up ... and then went and uploaded the above photo for everyone to see!

Enough of the fun stuff, and back to serious jobs like replacing rotted barge boards on the house, repairing the verandah, water damage in the ceiling, resealing the shower, replacing a broken floor tile etc.