"Holy moley"

Static, what a husband! And what a wonderful wife for making allowances for shop additions to accomplish her orders!

Hey Static, you are doing some wonderful work these days, love following your progress and projects.

The design of the original is really neat, I wonder if you'd consider a change in the original design though. Instead of the light colored dowels or plugs, perhaps consider black, like Gaboon Ebony or even Walnut accents. I feel it just adds so much class, and the eyes are not drawn to the lighter colored accents away from the primary species. Can't wait to see your finished project Static!

 

I did bring that up along with using other material for the dovetails on the drawers as well, I thought that using maple would be a nice contrasting touch for the drawers and dowels but was overridden on this point

There are more than a few stylistic design changes that I would have opted for and actually sketched in the design phase of this project.
Some were pretty basic like material changes, some were more radical like changing to more of a G&G style.  In the end, we settled on as close to the original picture as I could make it.

 

10 hours ago, StaticLV2 said:

Much dowel hole drilling has occurred.

I had a momentary vision of those dowel ends being plugs instead to cover screws that were holding shallow tenons into shallow mortises on the back side.  Using screws would ensure those joints would never fail, and the tenons would ensure the front to back stretchers would never twist.  I've done this a few times on past projects that couldn't afford to loosen up over time. 

4D

I understand exactly what you are saying.  Alignment and assembly is going to be pure evil but this is how the original was constructed.

This is one of the reasons I wanted to do square pegs like G&G style is because it would have solved both of those problems out of the gate.

The dowels are 3/8” hardwood through dowels 1-3/4” and there are 36 of them per face so that should give me about 180 square inches of glued surface area per face assembly so I am not particularly worried about strength.  

I respect that what your client wants is what the client gets.  I was fortunate with my two ex wives that they both understood and respected my design choices and the reasoning I could explain behind them.  So even when a build was a request from them I reserved the right to improve upon their desires in aesthetic, functional, and structural details.  I'd leave the spirit of their request intact. 

 

I had a request from a past father-in-law to design and make a coffee table for their living room.  It was a refreshing conversation when he asked how I determined the curvature of the leg profile.  I mentioned the many iterative sketches I'd done of those legs before settling on the final.  I shared what it was I found in the final profile that everyone seemed to like. A golden ratio between upper convex and lower concave curves. The lower curve height matching the height of the concave top arc between the upper glass and the wood shelf below it.   Later dates at family gatherings I'd hear him repeating those points when his new coffee table came up in conversations.  For the stuffy guests he'd throw in the French Ogee profile I'd cut on the shelf perimeter, and how it also had the golden ratio between upper concave and lower convex curved details. 

 

The memorable moments from my teaching past are mostly about such design details that made simple student projects a longer, thoughtful design discussion. 

5 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

I was fortunate with my two ex wives that they both understood and respected my design choices and the reasoning I could explain behind them.  So even when a build was a request from them I reserved the right to improve upon their desires in aesthetic, functional, and structural details. 

But they are your ex's now. 😄 Sorry 4D I just had too.

Not to worry John.  First had dangerous manic/depression tendencies that I needed to get away from. Second has fox news cult tendencies and still thinks 45 is president. Had to say goodbye to that.  Last one moved out and made room in my house for a new CNC and basement shop area when she took what she wanted. That was a clear win.

4D

After playing the mad sparky this morning I have been working on the entry table project a bit.

Rough cut on the bandsaw. 

Shaped with spokeshave.

Cleaned up with cabinet scraper.

 

Now that I have half a clue what I am doing, time to do the other one

Michael, is that spokeshave from Lie-Nielsen?  If so, how do you like it?   

Yes I picked up a couple of spokeshaves for this project.  These are the Lie-Nielsen models and I like them a lot.

It has definitely been a learning curve in setting them up and using them but I am gaining a little proficiency with them.

Well this project has been an interesting ride so far.    The trusty old Makita finish sander decided that instead of a random orbital motion it would be better if it just turned itself into a 5” disk sander operating at 12k RPMs so it could yeet parts all over the shop.  After much dissection last night and finding that getting parts to fix said sander was going to be next to impossible, I started researching stuff.

 

Alas poor Makita, I knew him well…

 

A few cups of coffee, a conference with the CFO later, and a shopping trip across town later…

 

The shop has a new arrival.  I will write something more in depth later as I am still getting used to this but I do understand what the hype is about now.

Thus far, this is the best finish sander I have used.  The dust collection is excellent.  Maybe excellent is the wrong word.  The dust collection is shocking.

Nothing in the air, almost nothing on the workpieces, next to nothing on the work surface.  I sanded everything on the entry table to 220 and there is barely enough dust that didn’t get captured to discolor the sanding pad.

 

 

 

The picture of the finished table … that’s what you are building?   With customer-requested improvements …

awesome project, and boy howdy on the festool, i have both of their offerings, and sanding along with the dust extractor is heaven for sure, so much so last week or so i found a used extractor about an hour away and went after it to have one for a few other projects, amazing collection and they are awesome sanders, 

best of luck with the new shiney, 

i'm re organizing shop again, finding space for a few things, then i begin the big projects as summer comes up.

rj in az

2 hours ago, Ed-H said:

The picture of the finished table … that’s what you are building?   With customer-requested improvements …

That is correct.  Just like the picture or as close as I can.

A little progress here and there.

 

Legs are mortised, fitted, and rough cut and the dowelling progresses…

Impressive Michael. Like putting together a 10k piece puzzle. At the end everything just falls in place.

Well the world’s worst glueup is finally done and the main parts of the table are sanded.

Have to get started on the tops and drawers now.

And we have achieved some level of assembly….