My Bedside Tables - Photo Thread

[Stu Pocknee]

(This is my first thread here so bear with me if I screw things up or am posting in the wrong place or whatever. I'm not sure If I should post all in one message or as a series of replies in the one thread.)

This thread is a quick documentation of my first "big" woodworking project. Prior to these tables I'd only done a a few small and/or rough projects.

We bought an old wrought iron bed and had it restored for our main bedroom. Next on the agenda were a couple of bedside tables. After looking around a bit I decided that I needed to do something with curves. Partially to fit the style. But probably more just for the challenge.

This is the final result:


Now: This is how they came to be.

Because everything was to have a painted finish I decided to use pine.


Here are the pine boards cut to length that will form one table top. I routed tongue and groove edges onto these before gluing them together.

4 "tops' like this had to be made. 2 for the tops, and 2 for the bottom benches.


To form skirts for the table tops I decided to bend and glue thin slices (laminates) of pine together.

Here you can see the jig I made up to bend the laminates I ripped on the table saw. There were three laminates per section. 8 sections in all for the two tables. This was a long and tedious job. I didn't compensate for spring back when making my jig and hence after drying each section doesn't quite turn 90 degrees. This required a bit of messing around later on to get a good fit, but it's not noticeable in the finished product.

[Stu Pocknee]

Hmmm. Dunno if I should be linking to these photos or uploading them as attachments....

Here you can see one of the table tops after being cut into a circle. There are a couple of finished skirt sections on top of it. Over them you can just see the peg drilled into the center of the table (underside) that I used to rotate a simple jig to hold my router at a constant radius for cutting the circle. It worked quite well. I used the same jig to cut trenches for the skirts to sit in


Another picture of the bending jig in action.


Setting up the router for the tongue and groove cuts. I fitted a wooden fence to the table saw fence to use as a router table fence. (My table saw has a router wing extension in case it wasn't obvious).


To the fence I clamped some extra pieces of wood to accommodate the radius of the bit for the tongue and grooves.

In my hand I am holding one of the brushes from my router. It just fell out! That brought everything to a halt. It was replaced under warranty. In all I think this happened 3 times! (It hasn't happened again for nearly 2 years - but I suspect I won't be buying the same brand again).

[Stu Pocknee]

(I'll try some bigger pictures to see if they work better here)

Again, my temporary fence and the wayward brush.


Time to remove the router and take it back to the woodworks shop. Thankfully we have a great woodworking shop in Toowoomba.


After all the pieces have been cut and rough sanded it's time for glue up.

[Wongo]

That looks like an interesting project. I am sure it is harder than it looks. Well done mate.

[Stu Pocknee]

Legs lying in the foreground. I tapered the legs from about 3/4 of the way up (in both directions). Can't say I really liked the resultant effect.


Here I am fitting the skirts into their slots. I tapered the ends slightly to make them fit into the uprights a little easier.

The holes for the legs were drilled out with a forstner bit.


Getting the skirts and legs to fit all at once was a pain.


Time for another leg....


Please be square....

!!

[Stu Pocknee]

That looks like an interesting project. I am sure it is harder than it looks. Well done mate.

Thanks Wongo. For me, yes, it was harder than it looks. For most members here I am sure it would be dead easy. But everything is hard the first couple of times you do it. All part of the fun!

[Stu Pocknee]

[Stu Pocknee]

oops. managed to post the last one accidentally sans caption - it was showing

another angle after gluing and clamping

.

Glue up on #2. Here you can see how I tapered the legs on the their outside faces both up and down. Also the drawer rail supports have been positioned.

Obviously the draws themselves had to have curved fronts. This was a bit tricky and I was bit conflicted about the best way to attach them. I glued an extra curved section to the bottom of the drawer floor where it meets the front face for extra strength.

One remaining curved section that will be used for the face of the drawer.

[Wongo]

I won't say it is dead easy. It is not easy and you've done a great job (apart from painting it. Just make sure you don't do that again).

[Stu Pocknee]

Gluing parts of the drawers together in place. Why? I don't remember.


Here are the drawers


Another angle. If you look carefully you can see that I attached the face with the drawer casing by drilling a hole the length of each join and inserting a couple of inches of dowel. I thought the end grain-long grain joint needed a bit more surface area.


Side and back angles.

Painted with one pull attached.

[Stu Pocknee]

Painting... Yes, don't get me started on that! Unfortunately there is another occupant in my house who believes she has veto rights over everything I do. I am sure nobody else has that problem

Here we are after sanding and painting.

The finished pair (sans drawers).


In place.


One on each side of the bed. The finish on these was 'Berkshire White'.

OK. That's all.

Lessons learned? Dunno. This project had several firsts for me. It was the first time I has cut my own tongue and grooves for mating up planks. Also the first time I had tried bending wood.

Probably the best thing about this project was that it took me outside my comfort zone and a successful result gave me confidence that I could tackle other more complicated projects.

I'll try and post pics of some of them soon....

[masoth]

Fabulous work Stu . I look with anticpation for any more work by you.

soth

[Al B]

I agree great work Stu and an excellent WIP. Well done

[Ed Reiss]

Terrific WIP and the finished tables look great!!

[blockhed]

yeah, very nice job!
although i like natural looking timber, they match the bed beautifully.
regards
the block