Stickley #599 Trestle Table Build.

[Gary Zimmel]

Time to put my shop upgrade on the back burner.
The boss has said we have spent enough time on it and it's time do make another couple of pieces of furniture for our home.
First one will be a Stickley #599 Trestle Table to replace our dining room table.
A massive beast this table is. The original had 2 1/4" thick legs but as we all I can get is 8/4 QSWO we will go with 1 3/4" legs and a 1 1/2" top.
Plan calls for around 135 BF of QSWO so it will weigh a ton....

This is what we are aiming for.
All in all a simple build, just real massive.

trestle table 3.jpg

First is to make the template for the legs.
My first couple of nights were to get this done. 1/2" MDF for this template.

trestle table 1.jpg

With it out of the way I spent the last couple of nights machining the stock for the legs.
I netted out just under 1 7/8" so I'm happy with that.
This is going to be one big chunky monkey.

trestle table 2.jpg

My next few sessions will be to do the two glue ups for these two legs.
The two mortices in each leg will be incorporated into the glue up to save a bunch of time.
Or so the game plan goes....


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[Rod Sheridan]

Gary, it should be a nice table.

My present project is an A&C granite top hall table in QSWO...............Rod.

[stotto]

Gary, cool looking project. Keep posting your progress.
stan

[Jerome]

Oh goodie another build I love watching your work it gets me motivated

[mikeddd]

Very interesting project Gary, I will be watching your progress.

[Mark_R]

the mortising station build got me through the winter - this should see me til it's warm enough to get out to the garage.

[dwoody]

It will be spectacular in QSWO. How will you finish it? Or have you decided yet?

[Gary Zimmel]

Well we finally get the main part of the legs glued up...
This took a little longer as I wanted the mortices to be part of the glue up to save a lot of chopping.

I want to have the mortices made into one piece of white oak so my layout took a little time to cut down on my waste.

glue up 1.jpg

A little piece of wood cut to 3 1/4" gives me my mortice height.
Wanting this to be precise it took three shots to get the mortice done.

glue up 2.jpg

To help with my alinement I use a few dominos.
Pretty slick tool those Festool guys have come up with...

glue up 3.jpg

To get my exact spacing for the mortices (12 1/4") I save my last cut until the rest of the chunks are glued together.

glue up 5.jpg

Everything work out as planned.
The mortices don't look put together and are spaced exactly the way I wanted.

glue up 6.jpg

A couple of real heavy glue ups...

glue up 7.jpg

Next will be to trim these to size to get the mortices the right height off the ground. And then trace my pattern out.
They are a little heavy to cut out at my bandsaw so I will see how my jig saw does in 1 1/2" oak...

Hope everyone is getting a little shop time.

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[Rod Sheridan]

Nice work Gary, time to put an extension table on your band saw to support those pieces.

Bandsaw Table Extension.jpg

Here's a photo of my extension tables, a piece of BB plywood, with a 3/4" EMT leg. The leg has a cap screw in the bottom that acts as an adjustable foot to level the table........Cheap and dirty, however very useful............Regards, Rod.

P.S. I've since drilled the side edge of the table so that one of the extension tables can be used at the side of the saw.

[Rusty]

Gary be real carefull with the jig saw. I can almost guarantee the blade will wander on a bevel and you could undercut your line and ruin your work.

Do a support like Rod shows even if it's temporary.

An alternative is to put a drill press beside your bandsaw and adjust the drill press table to the same height as your band saw and use the drill press table as support. I've done that in a pinch. Of course one of the machines has to be on wheels.

If you can't do either I'd rather see you use a router and a template but 1 1/2 is thick. Not my first choice by a long shot.

It's comming along so well it's no time to screw it up with a jig saw. Be carefull.

[mikeddd]

Looks good Gary:

I have used the drill press for support as Rusty suggested, that worked well for me. The extension tables Rod built would work very good.

Rod I noticed you cut a miter track in your extension tables, do you have a sled for cutting up small logs?

[brianV]

Nice work so far, Gary. My wife has hinted before at a similar table, so I'll be watching how this goes for you.

[Rod Sheridan]

Looks good Gary:

I have used the drill press for support as Rusty suggested, that worked well for me. The extension tables Rod built would work very good.

Rod I noticed you cut a miter track in your extension tables, do you have a sled for cutting up small logs?

Hi Mike, yes I use it with a sled to cut up logs, please see the attached photo of my recent efforts to saw up some green ash.

here's a link to my thread on that subject..........Rod.

http://forum.canadianwoodworking.com...ng+lumber+logs

[Gary Zimmel]

When I got to work this morning the posts to the thread really got me thinking....
How much is that blade in a jigsaw going to deflect in this thick oak?
I can do the side cuts with my band saw as I have a adjustable stand to handle the slabs. My problem I think is going to be cutting the circle. My band saw isn't big enough to cut them.

So knowing that I will see how I do.
First thing to do was to cut these slabs down to size.
I could of used my table saw but this track saw is dead on accurate with zero tear out.

legs 1.jpg

With the two legs the right height now I use my template to trace the shape.
Keen eyes will see it is 3/4" shorter.
I didn't notice that that the table height is 29" on the plan. I am going to add 3/4" to bring it up to 29 3/4"

legs 2.jpg

So how did the jig saw do?
All in all I was surprised how well it did in this thick oak.
There was a bit of deflection in a couple of places but that was pilot error.
It took a long time to make the two cuts and the deflection was when I tried to speed the cut up... My dust collection was the pits as I took the front shroud off so I could see the blade better.
My router will be used with the template to clean everything up.

legs 3.jpg

These were the easy cuts.. Real slow but easy.
Now after seeing how the jigsaw did on a gentle curve I'm not to sure how it will fair in a 7" circle....
As I said at the start the posts this morning got me thinking.. Thanks for the input guys. So do have any other ideas to cut the circles if you can't use your band saw and a jig saw has problems cutting the circle in this thick of stock?

Thanks again for the input so far....


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[Dave in Calgary]

That is going to be awesome Gary! That's the beauty of a trestle design...it can be massive because the knockdown joinery allows it. Good luck!
Dave

[Wally in Calgary]

These were the easy cuts.. Real slow but easy.
Now after seeing how the jigsaw did on a gentle curve I'm not to sure how it will fair in a 7" circle....
As I said at the start the posts this morning got me thinking.. Thanks for the input guys. So do have any other ideas to cut the circles if you can't use your band saw and a jig saw has problems cutting the circle in this thick of stock?

Thanks again for the input so far....


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Drill a small hole through the center of the hole that you would like to cut and put a pin in it that your router can rotate on and then cut halfway through with an up cut bit from each side. Then clean up with the router and template. You may have to drill a small hole in the router base to spin on or use and adj. base. FWIW JMHO.

[Rusty]

Can you make a bigger circle template? Like a 10 0r 11 inch circle that your router base plate can follow against. Slowly and a little deeper with every pass. Final cleanup with a guide bushing and template.

[John in Calgary]

Drill a small hole through the center of the hole that you would like to cut and put a pin in it that your router can rotate on and then cut halfway through with an up cut bit from each side. Then clean up with the router and template. You may have to drill a small hole in the router base to spin on or use and adj. base. FWIW JMHO.

I just did this last night to cut out a circle with my laminate trimmer - pin in the centre and some kind of trammel. I agree with Wally though, if you use your plunge router, you'll probably end up having to punch a hole in your router base to be close enough, in this case you don't need a trammel (the base acts as your trammel). Remember that when you make the final depth cut, that you need to have the centre immobilized as the final cut will free it and your bit will jam into the finished circle edge. Best bet is to run a couple of screws through a board on the bottom side and into the centre circle, then clamp the board to the main base.

Or, you could use this idea to create a circle template then use the template like Rusty says below.

I like cutting circles out with my router, its usually clean and painless.

John

[Gary Zimmel]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys...

What I ended up doing was getting another blade with some more teeth.
This made the cuts much faster. And no blade deflection to speak of.
I used my circle jig for my jigsaw which helped make the circles go well.

A lot of hassle for something pretty simple.
But we have our cuts made. A tad over 1/16" to big.

legs cut out.jpg

Now I will clamp on my template and clean up the lines with my router.

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[Dave in Calgary]

Hi Gary, I'm curious how much your blade deflected on those tight radius turns? I have been eyeing the festool unit for a while now and I'm close to stepping on the slippery slope. I've historically done cutouts on armoire bases (with a $50 jigsaw) after the whole thing is assembled but it's stressful and I have to spend another hour with a rasp cleaning things up and truing the cut. I recently purchased a bandsaw but when the piece is unwieldy, I still reach for my jigsaw.
Dave