Well it's been a few days since I posted but you all know that life has a habit of getting in the way, wellit did 😄But I got in a good days work today. Everything fits and got the BLO on now to let it dry and put the finish on . Probably notice that there is no hinge, that was a requirement by SWMBO that I agree with. More when it is done.

That is beautiful @Rusty S!!

Indeed, a really nice table. Well done!

Gentlemen; thank you for the kind words they make an old man feel good

@Rusty S That is magnificent! Thanks for sharing the ride along!!!

@Rusty S Beautiful work. Is that Walnut?

Lew your quite welcome I'll show a final picture when the finish is done.

Rick yes Kansas walnut locally sourced and air dried, and thanks for asking.

Just when you think it's all under control SWMBO looks and calmly remarks that would look better with an apron so being a Turner what would you do? Especially one that doesn't know he can't do that. Never gave a thought to how many pieces would be in each ring and how much error there could be but getting the closer to making it work. To be continued 🤞ppl

@Rusty S - sooner you than me!!!

Edited by Lew

Gonna be even more awesome @Rusty S. Enjoying your build.

Well it's finally round on one side, doesn't look too bad long as you don't look inside My wife was sure I was about to kill myself with this setup but it worked so what can you say for success except whoooo. More to come 🤞

38 minutes ago, Rusty S said:

Well it's finally round on one side, doesn't look too bad long as you don't look inside My wife was sure I was about to kill myself with this setup but it worked so what can you say for success except whoooo. More to come 🤞

Insides are for the kids/grandkids to discover. I had a student once that had an intricate jungle/animals/etc. pattern cut on the underside of the dining table she made in my class. For her future kids to discover.

So...trying to get the first of four cabinet boxes put together for my mitersaw station. Will be using pocket holes to first connect the sides to the back. Then the top and bottom will fit inside, attached by pocket holes to the sides and back. I'm edge banding the front edges.

After clamping the back in place and using an "extra" top panel clamped across the front I checked for square and it's not perfect. When I check the diagonals for square, I get 36 and 36 1/8. How far "off" is too much?? I was very careful with the cuts, but the plywood isn't top quality (but overall quite good) so that may play into this.

View of the back panel (not attached yet, just clamped)

1 hour ago, BB1 said:

..... After clamping the back in place and using an "extra" top panel clamped across the front I checked for square and it's not perfect. When I check the diagonals for square, I get 36 and 36 1/8. How far "off" is too much?? I was very careful with the cuts, but the plywood isn't top quality (but overall quite good) so that may play into...

Gee Barb..... Getting 36 and 36 1/8 would be too much for me. I have to think there's an issue in setup or out of whack on your saw. Also if you feel you cut everything to right dimensions then clamping up could put it out of square and yield different diagonal dimensions. This is often the case. Check that you haven't over clamped and pushed it out of square.

13 minutes ago, MrRick said:

Getting 36 and 36 1/8 would be too much for me

That's what I feared.😕

Feel pretty confident about the cuts as I did a final cut at the tablesaw for consistency. Had tried to use some leftover plywood sections but they weren't flat so actually set those aside and cut into a new 4x8 to get flat/flatter panels. Not Baltic birch quality for sure but "ok."

Maybe it's a clamping issue - although I have a "spacer" on the front to try to avoid shifts when the back was in place. Wondering if I get the top and bottom in place if that might help. I still need to make my final cut on those (the front edge) as I wanted to make sure of the fit, knowing plywood isn't a full 3/4 typically.

Hopefully can figure it out tomorrow. Cabinet making once again proves to be a challenge. 😬

Loosen the clamps only enough to ease the pressure. On the corner that is out put your hand on it and push down and over. What you are doing by this is shifting the diagonal. Do this little by little until diagonals lengths match then reclamp. Visualize if you will that you have an irregular rhombus or trapezoid. You need to make it square. You are pressuring the high corner over to the low corner, verifying the diagonal measurements are equal, and reclamping. Hope I'm making sense for you.

1 hour ago, MrRick said:

ou are pressuring the high corner over to the low corner, verifying the diagonal measurements are equal, and reclamping. Hope I'm making sense for you.

I think so.

Am thinking I need to attach sides to the top and bottom first and then add the back. Not sure of the optimal order of assembly. I was planning on first attaching back to the sides and then add the top and bottom once I made the last depth cut (and added edge banding). Now, thinking of making the box and then adding the back.

I usually wait until last to add the back to a carcass

This drawing is not to scale for your project and the dimensions are exaggerated. Measuring the diagonals, in this example, you would push the top left corner (the long dimension) to the right until the dimensions are equal. Because your diagonals are .125" different, you will only need to move the top to the right by .0625" (1/16"). This is typically done using a long clamp(s), diagonally, from corner to corner at the long dimension. If your clamps aren't long enough. this video shows how to connect short ones together. It won't take much pressure to pull things square.