Thread: A George II Mahogany Reader's Companion

Originally Posted by Peter36

When you are making the stretchers/rails ,in what order do you do the following .
1.glue the cross banding on the backing timber
2.cut the tenons
3.cut the profile on the cross banding
4. shape the underside of the stretcher

1.Glue the crossgrain blocks onto the rails.
2. Cut the tennons.
3. Assemble the rails into the legs, scribe the profile of the tops of the legs onto the ends of the rails and then plane the profile in the crossgrain stuff.
4. Cut the ears etc. into the rails.
5. Fair the bottoms of the ears into the legs when all is glued together.

The sun has returned and the temperature is a pleasant workable 9.3°C. (48.7°F.) in The Lemon Studio.

I glued the reader's companion together yesterday afternoon and this morning I began tidying it all up. I faired the ears into the tops of the legs and started rounding over the external corners of the leg posts. I left this task until I had the whole glued together for two reasons: firstly, there wasn't a convenient method of securing the legs in the vice to round over the upper posts without damaging the cabriole sections and secondly, I thought it might be prudent to retain the post corners in the event I needed to clamp the table during the glue-up. As it turns out, the assembled companion makes the perfect 'bench' for rounding over the leg posts!

The front right leg post rounded over.

The decorative side and back curves were left oversize adjacent to the rear posts (to protect the vulnerable, short-grained areas above the top tennons) and will be faired into the rear posts once the posts have been rounded over.

Looking more like your original picture now.
The lemons are coming along too .

Originally Posted by Woodwould

The sun has returned and the temperature is a pleasant workable 9.3°C. (48.7°F.) in The Lemon Studio.

It's unbearably freezing.

On the original photo the inside of each of the legs has a curve that matches the outside curve. Just wondering how you are going to do that.

Originally Posted by Waldo

It's unbearably freezing.

Talk sense man! It's beautiful weather! I'm still wearing a T-shirt and shorts (seriously), but if it does get cold I'll probably put on some undies too.

Originally Posted by Peter36

On the original photo the inside of each of the legs has a curve that matches the outside curve. Just wondering how you are going to do that.

The inner corners of the leg posts were hollowed out before I assembled the table. Admittedly, it's not that clear in the image above. It's as dark as a witch's nasty out there now, but I'll take another picture tomorrow which should make it all a bit clearer.

Those lemons are amazing, how are you still getting lemons in this weather? Oh, and the readers companion is looking really good.

Here you are Peter; this should make the rear leg posts' shape a bit clearer:

Originally Posted by Paulphot

Those lemons are amazing, how are you still getting lemons in this weather?

I've never seen a citrus tree like it. It's shot up in no time at all and fruits all year round. I had to prune it severely, but even in this weather, it's sprouting dozens of fast-growing new branches. I nip off the ones I don't want in an attempt to train it into a manageable shape.

I'm a Queenslander, anything under 20º is cold.

I've never come across rear leg posts before, there's a fair bit a shaping there.

Originally Posted by Waldo

I've never come across rear leg posts before, there's a fair bit a shaping there.

Yes, considering the legs started out 3" x 3", there's precious little of them left.

Thanks WW. That is much clearer.

Woodwould, what does fairing mean?

....be faired into the rear posts once the posts have been rounded over....

Is that where the curves on the top are shaped into the top of the rear leg posts as shown in the last three photos?

thanks
Wendy