Thread: A hall table

Thanks LGS.

Coming along very well. Strange how you say cold weather does not suit you as I also say the same thing here in Sydney.

Yeah, and I'm from Brisbane so hate the cold with a vengeance.

Originally Posted by artme

That is one mean looking router bit!!

Mean, but now pretty blunt.

Originally Posted by Waldo

Mean, but now pretty blunt.

You can't say that you didn't receive ample warning!

It's looking real good, Chris. You might even have it finished before the next time I wander up!

(Oh... and would I be correct if I were to guess that you'll be using butterflies for the drawer fronts?)

Butterflies for the drawer fronts is one of two options:

• and cut from aluminium; or
• done with the domino with the tenons cut short by say 10mm and plugs cut from aluminium.

No, you haven't wandered up the hill for a while now you slacker. It'll still be here by the time you get back.

The purpose of the dry fit was to take some measurements for further components and to see what needs some refinement. Not much progress over the weekend, but nonetheless some anyway.

I got the frame for the drawers sorted out and done. The trenches might have some of you lot scratching your heads a bit, but put it down to my unorthodox way of solving things.

More to come tomorrow. Can we have a public holiday every day of the week on a Tuesday, please? It gives me lots of extra shed time, especially when everyone down here also shuts up for the Monday too.

Strewth, it's been a long time since I posted any updates!

Blame that on a fox nicking off with the chooks and SWMBO conscripting me into service to buildd the mother of all chook houses - such that it's impregnable and n'er shall a fox ever eat the chooks any more.

Anyway.

When a month or go back I wandered up to the local saw dr. and asked what blade I need on the bandsaw to cut aluminium and what the most effective lubricant for it is. He swore black and blue the best lubricant is mutton fat.

I had two choices:

• go down to the local butcher and grab come fresh fat; or
• I could buy the stuff in a tube ready to go.

Given if I bought it from the butcher and before i wanted to use it it might go off on me, I chose the tubed version. If it gets to hot all I had to do was put it in a cool place if it started to melt. Well today was the second 35º + day in the shed and it hadn't melted.

With mutton fat, a fresh blade for cutting aluminium in the c/saw and a blade for the same purpose fitted on the b/saw, today was the second day of starting to shape the feet for the legs.

Pictures tell the story.

Yesterday I cut up the aluminium block on the c/saw and today I tapped he holes for the machine screws and started roughly shaping the feet. Over the next coulpe of days I hope to have the feet looking the part.

Didnt know there were foxes in Oz. We havent got any roos so it seems unfair.


Keep up the good work on the table, watching progress.

Thanks Jow104, progress will be more regular now, with the exception for time at the in-laws for a couple of weeks.

(damn foxes , yeah, some git brought them down on a boat)

Finish shaping the feet, do the aluminium inlay and it's near done, except for the drawers which will be the very last.

I forgot these two earlier shots. nothing exciting and they tell the story.

[QUOTE=jow104;1420128]Didnt know there were foxes in Oz. We havent got any roos so it seems unfair.


That's because you didn't have a bunch of dick head Oz settlers in your area who wanted to go roo hunting and took some over.
Regards

Originally Posted by jow104

Didnt know there were foxes in Oz. We havent got any roos so it seems unfair. .

Yeah and the natural predator of the fox does not really exist here in Australia, the hound, the horse and the person dressed in red.

I hit a road block a while back which lead to me downing tools for about a month. The culprit? I was shaping one of the feet on the disk sander and instead of putting it under water periodically to cool it down I forgot, so the aluminium swelled and the bolt which I was using as a handle in the foot wanted to play silly buggers and I snapped the thread trying to unscrew it. So then I threw in the towel for a bit.

But now I'm back full steam ahead.

First then to do was to carefully drill out then broken bolt and then retap it. I could have started on another foot, but this one was perfect and each foot took me about 4 hours to carefully shape to profile.

First shot is of the perfect foot. I've used Locktite to glue the machine screw in the thread.

Second shot:
The apron and ends with aluminium stringing all glued up.After a bit of experimenting I decided on Weldbond to glue the aluminium in and it worked a treat. Back on the apron and ends I thought I'd done them right, but when I was in the shower that night and drawing out my ideas on the shower glass i realised I'd glued five pieces of timber with aluminium, not four. Short answer: I stuffed up. So a quick solution was I had to put another line of aluminium in the end aprons. The stuff up was I had run the stringing in the drawer fronts

Third shot: All the feet are done.

Fourth shot:
Now with that done just last Friday I can move onto final sanding of the main structure of the hall table to get closer to glue-up and assembly.

Yesterday before I started the sanding I thought there has to be a better way than holding onto the stuff with one hand and sand with the other.

Then I got a bright and simple solution to the problem. And the beauty of my little clamp jig is that it raises the stock higher to a much better elevation for my tall frame to comfortably work at.

Tomorrow some more sanding...

(my next update won't be more 112 days )