Question of Technique

[Rob Luter]

Greetings to all -

The next project in the queue is an Arts and Crafts Lamp Table inspired by the Stickley #576 (Image below). The top is comprised of five planks with breadboard ends held in place by pinned tenons. The mating lines of the five top planks feature a small chamfer on each edge, forming a V-groove at the glue line. I wonder if it makes more sense to add these features pre glue-up or post glue-up? I'm probably going to add splines to the glue joints to keep everything lined up, but anticipate some light smoothing after glue-up.

Comments and suggestions are most welcome. This will be my first attempt at a tabletop with this type of construction.

[Wayne Lomman]

Rob, definitely vee the joints before glue up. Heaps less work, more accurate and no risk of vee not perfectly centred on the joint. Cheers

[Brian Tymchak]

I agree with chamfering before glue up. Also, for a small top, if the top is a glue up of 5 boards, I think using splines for line up is unnecessary work, unless you want the practice. I would edge glue and use small clamps at the ends of the glue joint to align the boards with one another as clamp pressure across the panel is applied.

[Mark Gibney]

One coat of finish on the boards will let you wipe away any squeeze out - but you probably know that...

[Gene Davis]

Designing for seasonal movement, I would do the top with the center cluster either splined or t&g all sides, t&g between, and glue only on the ends of the center board. This, plus selecting only qs, and sizing with a few thou between when making it.

The lower shelf tenons would be relieved a little just along the through-part.

And yes, do most of the finish first.

[Gene Davis]

Some more musings on joinery after an enjoyable Sketchup exercise.

I've made a houseful of Stickley mission-style knockoffs, and halfway through it all, bought a Festool Domino DF500, which cuts domino mortises from 4mm through 10mm. It made furniture building much more easy and quick.

The top is 7/8" thick finished and is a frame and panel affair, the frame joined with twin 8mm x 50mm tenons at each joint. The panel has a bottom core of 24mm baltic birch, to which is laminated resawn 1/8" thick planks of quartersawn white oak (the species throughout) that have 1/16" bevels on all four top face edges. The panel is aligned to the frame with 5mm x 30mm tenons, three along each edge.

The through-tenon look is done with a short length glued into a 5/16" deep mortise.

I show in a couple of views how the sides of the through tenons of the lower shelf are relieved 1/16" to permit seasonal wood movement. Fix this panel to the rails with one centered blind domino, a little 4mm x 20mm will do. No glue elsewhere.

[Rob Luter]

Thanks to all for the input.

[Gene Davis]

If you are interested and are a Sketchup user, I uploaded the model to the 3D Warehouse. The domino joinery is all shown, and is essentially the same as I used when building a copy of the tile-topped cocktail table Stickley offers.

My model has the small table sized differently than Stickley. An inch shorter, and with an 18 x 18 footprint.

[Rob Luter]

I had Sketchup on my old computer, but switched to a Mac at home. Not sure if it will work with Mac. I've been making a st of plans at work in AutoCAD.

[Gene Davis]

Sketchup Make 2016 for Mac OS is readily available. http://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-make

[Gene Davis]

Here is a quick study to show the size of the Stickley compared to what I did originally, before seeing the Stickley specs. The smaller one is square and turned sideways. One wants to display this table with the through-tenons all showing up front.

In this workup, the larger one is shown with legs splayed 2 degrees, and sized at 1.5 x 1.5 inches in section. When doing this with splayed legs, it makes the joinery a little more complex. Build it with lower stretchers non-rectangular in section, the inside faces plumb, the other faces with the tilt.

I see in the pic and description that the species is white oak, not quartersawn. That makes sense, cost-wise. I would search for rift-sawn white oak for this build, if I were to do it.

When I went to build a version of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh hall table last year, I lucked into a special offer when walking into Frank Paxton Lumber here in Denver. An entire bunk of clear wide 4/4 rift sawn white oak had just been moved to the sales floor, and was being offered at a special price.

[Rob Luter]

Sketchup Make 2016 for Mac OS is readily available. http://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-make

Thanks for the tip. I'll look at installing it on my iMac this weekend.

[Gene Davis]

You're welcome. I just uploaded the current version of the model to the 3D Warehouse. Search "Stickley table #576" and you will find it.

Show us your progress and the final piece.

[Rob Luter]

You're welcome. I just uploaded the current version of the model to the 3D Warehouse. Search "Stickley table #576" and you will find it.

Show us your progress and the final piece.

Quick question..... What's the 3D Warehouse?

Edit: Never mind. I found it.