Stickley #599 Trestle Table Build.

[Gary Zimmel]

Got a hour of shop time today as the little colt and mom got to go outside today...

My router table seemed to be the best bet to start the tenons.
I clamped a couple of blocks behind the fence at the final depth needed for the tenons.

leg tenons 1.jpg

With a support under the leg I did three passes on each depth to get the 1 3/4" tenon started.
The amount that had to be taken off was 1/2" so that was done in two stages.
Total of 12 passes on each leg to get me started.

leg tenons 2.jpg

Now to make the final tenons.
Hand saw to do the vertical cuts and the shoulders. Quick clean up now with a sharp chisel.

leg tenons 3.jpg

My bandsaw was then used to cut most of the waste out on the other two chunks that had to come off each leg.
To make things a little easier to finish I put a bit in my router table with a bearing on top and was able to clean up everything except the corners.
This was gingerly done as I really didn't want to have a slip and chew into the tenon.
A chisel will finish the job.

leg tenons 4.jpg

One more to go and we will see how the caps fit....

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[Gary Zimmel]

Tonight we got to see how the cap fit.
Getting the three 1 3/4" long tenons to slide it correctly took a bit longer than I thought it would.
I used one of my shoulder planes to get the fit I wanted. And then cleaned it up with 220 paper.
Snug but not tight as to have to pound on the cap to get it to seat.

caps 1.jpg

caps 2.jpg


My outside tenons were cut narrower than the mortices.
This leg is going to grow and shrink a bit with the seasons so the cap will fit like a bread board end.
Glue on the middle tenon and all three pinned so the leg can move.

So here's the question.
If you were building this would you make the cap and leg joinery like this?
Or is the leg not wide enough to worry about anything?
My plan shows mortice and tenons that don't slide. Which confuses me...

So what's the group say?

[Wally in Calgary]

I would say that it has to move no matter what. That's a lot of cross grain not to. JMHO.

[Gary Zimmel]

We're on the same page Wally.

[Gary Zimmel]

With a little shop time tonight I got one of the caps on.

I have two options for my dowels.
The first is to rip some strips and rough shape them with a chisel then put them through a dowel plate...
A lot of work to me.

dowels 1.jpg

The second is to buy an oversized dowel and put it through the dowel plate.
I hunted through all the dowels at the lumber store and found what I was after.
Cut a bunch to a smaller length and then fired them through the dowel plate.
I now have dowels that are a consistent size...

dowels 2.jpg

Putting on a high tech depth gauge we drill our holes.

dowels 3.jpg

After the three hole are drilled I have to elongate the outer ones to allow for movement.
Quick and easy all I do is rock my drill back and forth and then clean it up with a round file.

dowels4.jpg

Glue on only the middle mortice. The middle dowel gets glue on the whole dowel.
Outside ones have just a bit on glue on the last 1/2" to just hold them in place.
After we cut these off we will finally call this leg done....

dowels 5.jpg

Hope everyone is getting a little shop time.

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[Dave in Calgary]

Looking really good Gary!

[mreza]

How come all your tools look so shiny and new Gary? Why there is no glue or any mark on those Bessey clamps?! You are going to tell you buy a brand new set for every project?
I feel ashamed to show mine.

oh... everything looking great so far, BTW.

[Gary Zimmel]

After a quick glue up I have my two stretchers.
2" thick 4" high and 62" long.
Now to punch the mortises for the tusks to slip into.

The twist in these is the one side is angled which will add a pain to this step.
As I don't want to adjust the mortiser or fence once I'm started I use a spacer block.
Cut the first row and then remove the spacer and then do the second row.
Keen eyes will see I am going by one of the layout lines.
This is the edge of the leg so I want the mortise to go into the leg just a tad.
Doing this will ensure the tusks work properly and tighten the stretcher to the leg.

strecher mortices 1.jpg

stetcher mortices 2 .jpg

After all the vertical cuts are made we tip the mortiser over to just under 9 degrees to do the last cuts.
This is why I used a spacer.

The full width can be done without having to swing the mortiser head back and forth..
No way we would be consistent doing this....

stretcher mortices 3.jpg

So now with the mortises done we will make the tenons on the ends.


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[Gary Zimmel]

Tonight we got all the tenons done on the stretchers...

I've never done tenons that are 5 1/8" long and never tenons that long that are going threw something....
Being that these stretchers are quite long, I want them to have as little friction on the table saw as possible.
I use this stuff. Spray on and wipe off.

through tenons 1.jpg

From one of the cut offs I make sure my miter gauge is set dead on and get my depth that has to come off.
I run the piece through on all four sides and make sure the shoulder cuts line up perfectly. A little tweeking and I am getting the cut I am looking for.

through tenons 2.jpg

Now fire all four ends threw the table saw.
A little sanding with 100 grit to remove the machine lines and we are ready to see how these fit through the mortises.

through tenons 3.jpg

through tenons 4.jpg

through tenoons 5.jpg

All in all pretty good.
Thats a lie... I'm real happy the way these turned out.
Nice and tight.

Now I will sand the stretchers to 180. Knock the edges off the ends of the tenons with a block plane and get ready to do the tusks....

You got to love it when a plan starts coming together!


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[mreza]

The joints seem really tight and snug, pretty nice Gary; keep on posting.

[Gary Zimmel]

So tonight I got a good peek how this table is going to look.
All sanded to 180 and 200 run lightly over all the edges just to knock the sharp edges off. End of the tenons rounded over slightly.
Looks like this beast is going to be rock solid. Even without the tusks there is very little rocking.

table 1.jpg

table 2.jpg

I got the from the boss tonight.
She likes it.
But then quickly asked when her small buffet and hutch was going to get started for her kitchen.....

Looks like I am going to get away with a lot of shop time over the next while..


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[Rob Brown]

Really coming together Gary. Simple, but very elegant.

I bet you're looking forward to applying a few coats of finish. That QS oak will start to do its thing then!

[ergeek]

Wow Gary, this looks fabulous! Outstanding workmanship once again. It's easy for the great unwashed out here to look at your work and say, "ho hum, another perfect piece from Gary", but for me, I never cease to be amazed. Great job!

[Jerome]

Beautiful piece Gary.

[Gary Zimmel]

The tusks that hold the table together were done in my last shop session.
Simple process with a taper jig. I don't use this jig often but when I do it sure does a great job. A piece of scrap 1/2" ply is used to get my angle correct.

tusks 1.jpg

I machined the stock just a hair thick and now get them to the right thickness with my 4 1/2. The hand plane will take the finished surface up over what a 180 grit paper will do, which will close the grain too much for the stain in my opinion.
To keep these consistent with the rest of the piece a light sanding with 180 will open the pores up a bit more.

tusks 2.jpg

Traced the profile of tusk and a quick trip to the band saw and we have our final shape. Light hand sanding starting will 100 grit to clean up the machine marks left from the bandsaw and again end at 180.

tusks 3.jpg

The profile is not exactly to my liking. I would of liked a rounder top on the tusk.
But keeping to the original we will stay with the way Gus S. did them.


Now to do a top.
One big thick slab 84" X 42" X 1 3/4"....
For this I am going to need a partner to put everything through my planer..
The stock will get a ton of snipe being the length it is without help.


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[Gary Zimmel]

Last to do on this small project is the big slab of a top....
Our rough stock is starting out at around 70 BF.
Net on the top if we get close to a 1 3/4" thickness will be close to 52 BF.
I have machined a couple of extra pieces to make sure we have a nice selection to give us a good looking slab.
Extra pieces will be used for the chair build that will go with this table.

After a couple of nights of cutting off the sap wood and flattening one side this is where we are at.

table top start.jpg

Simple glue up is what we are after.
But handling these big chunks of white oak is not the easiest thing I have done...
Sometimes one wishes they have a jointer bigger then 8". This is one of them, would be nice to have the extra bed length to do these long sticks.
Sunday with a helper we will run everything through the planer and will ready for a bottle of glue and a bunch of clamps.


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[Gary Zimmel]

So I kept the time it took to flatten, plane and then joint these long sticks.
I was surprised when it took around twelve hours.
Either I'm getting old or just real slow...
Planing was the fast part. The jointing took a long time and I used a lot of spray on the jointer bed to cut the friction down to a minimum..
But with that all aside we started to glue this puppy up yesterday afternoon.
Not a complicated process, just slow given the size of the stock.
I made sure to really look over the stock before I started to glue.
There was a knot near one end and a bad check on one of the ends.
By having the stock long we will do some adjusting as we glue everything up. When the top is trimmed these flaws will go away....

table top glue up.jpg

This glue up will take me a few more nights.
To be on the safe side and to make sure the joints are nice and flush I am going to do the glue up in a bunch of sections. This will save a ton of time when I sand the top.
We need 11 pieces to net out the 42" wide top.
Lots of dominos to aid in alinement. (no glue on the dominos)
Two per night now, so we should be done on Saturday.

We are getting closer to the end now....
Hope everyone is getting a little shop time.

[ecmkno1]

Hi Gary,I am a newbie to woodworking hut would like to know if you can suggest some plans that are simple for beginners.I would eventually like to move on to bigger pieces and if it really peaks my interest and my finished projects get ohs and ahs i may start a little shop at home to make some extra cash in my spare time.I have been searching online but there are so many i don't know where to start.

[Gary Zimmel]

The internet is my best friend when it comes to looking for plans for woodworking.
Do a google search on simple woodworking plans and you will get a bunch of site you can go to.
Upside of it is a lot of the plans are free..
maybe some of the other guys can chime in for sugestions
And as a side note, welcome to the forum.

[Gary Zimmel]

Took a little time but we have this beast of a top all glued up...
Being 42" wide my clamp inventory was way short to do the last section.
I had a couple of choises. Buy 6 more 50" Bessey K bodies @ $55.00 a piece or pick up six of of the clamp extenders at $15.00 a piece.
I've got lots of 24" K bodies so the extenders won hands down....
These things really work well. And sure save a lot of money.

glue up 1.jpg

Doing the glue up in sections gave me a real flat result that won't take a lot of time to get to a finished state. I did run 120 grit over everything before I added the last section.

glue up 2.jpg

This was one of the biggest and for sure the heaviest glue up I have done.
Lots of dominos to help with the alinement.
The boss had to help flipping it over to scrape the glue of each section after a couple of hours.
This last section was to the limit we could do...

glue up 3.jpg

Tomorrow I will start the sanding process and trim the ends.

Then try to figure out how to get this thing into my finishing room....


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