A side table for my mom

[Ben Ellenberger]

Got the legs shaped. I think they are pretty consistent, but I’ll look at them in the daylight tomorrow before moving on to the final sanding/glue-up. I eventually settled on using a chisel to get the corners down to my lines, then I used a spoke shave for the inside curve and a block plane for the outside curves. I finished off with a rasp and card scrapers. I haven’t done much shaping before, but this seemed to work pretty well. I also figured out on leg #2 to shape the insides of the leg first, then it sat on the bench without rocking as I shaped the outside.

I’ll put a little round-over on the edges of the table and gently break the corners on the legs, but plan to leave them mostly square.

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[Ben Ellenberger]

I did the final cleanup and glued it up. After an hour or two in the clamps I took it out, leveled the top and the feet and screwed the top to the base. This is the first coat of finish, just wipe on spar varnish/BLO/mineral spirits. I’ll probably do 3-4 coats, then a coat of wax. That is the same finish I put on the sewing chest, so these should match fairly well.

I’m not thrilled with the sap wood on one leg. I think it will be OK, but in the future I’ll probably be pickier when I’m breaking down stock. I’ll also work harder to get rift-sawn pieces for legs. Most of these ended up with one face quartered and another mostly flat-sawn. For something like this table, which I’d like to turn out nice, I think it will be worth having a bit more scrap to get better grain on the legs, But, overall I’m pretty happy with how this is turning out.

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[Mark Rainey]

Looking very nice Ben. Hard to avoid a bit of sapwood when working with walnut. When finished, how about a pic of sewing chest on base table?

[Mike Allen1010]

Very nice Ben! A shoulder plane is super helpful in trimming miter to get nice fit. It’s not easy to get square frame AND tight miters, but yours looks great. Look forward to seeing more of your work. Thanks for posting!

[Ben Ellenberger]

Thanks! I did these with a saw and a 1 1/4” chisel. I was really happy with how the miters came out, but I did go slow when cutting them. I’ve thought about getting a shoulder plane or a bullnose plane for those kind of joints.

[Ben Ellenberger]

Here it is. This was 3 coats of spar varnish/BLO/mineral spirits. I’ll let my mom wax it, so she can use the same stuff that she uses on her sewing chest.

I didn’t thickness the center panel, so it is slightly proud of the bottom of the frame. If you get down on your hands and knees you can see this holds the top off the legs by a tiny amount. I thought about trimming the inside top of the legs and rabbeting the aprons, but decided this will never be seen on a low table. She lives about 2 hours away, so I’ll wait until the next time I visit to get a picture with the sewing chest on it.

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