My third overall project, but the first in my new shop that you see in this website. After about 7-8 months of just building shop cabinets, fixtures and jigs and just generally setting up, my wife had had just about enough of my promising that I'd start building first, after "just this one more thing". Well, I was about tired of it too, and wanted to build something "real". So here it is.
This is a plan from The New Yankee Workshop that I watched Norm build on one of his shows. I built it just as the plans described, only substituting machine dovetails for the hand-cut dovetails. That was the reason to first build my homemade dovetail machine. I again used standard 3/4" white pine for most of it, selecting the more expensive clear stock for the table top, which consists of 3 boards biscuited together with my router and biscuit cutter bit.
The legs presented a problem as no where could I find 3" thick pine boards. I finally found some mail order 2" square by 48" Maple through WoodCraft and substituted them for the 2-1/2" legs on the plan. The legs are tapered on two sides, using the table saw and a homemade taper jig.
To create the mortises in the legs, I again beforehand built a mortising machine to do the job. Using the router and a 3/8" straight bit, it was pretty simple to get perfectly positioned and sized mortises. The tenons on the table sides were simply cut on the tablesaw using a dado blade.
I followed the same procedure as Norm did to cut the drawer fronts out of the front of the table, leaving the table front in one piece. I used a very small circular saw blade in my circular saw and plunged the blade in to cut the sides. Finished up the cuts with a jig saw and smoothed out everything.I carefully set up my dovetail jig and made my first two finished drawers, using the drawer fronts previously cut and labelled. After reinstalling, the grain pattern ran continuously, giving it a really nice look.
I had a requirement to apply a finish that would exactly match our other pine furniture in the living room. After buying about 5 pints of stain and testing on some scrap, I finally found a perfect match. Because of the cooler weather moving in for winter, I had to bring the table out of the shop unfinished and moved it into the basement for finishing. Not long after, It was moved into the living room, where it is today!
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