I had previously posted in some other threads about making some communion tables for my church, including showing the prototype.

 

see below.

 

after those in charge had a chance to study it, try it out, and see how it fit into the overall scheme of things, I got the go ahead to make 3 more just like it, so work began this week.

 

first, glue up some blanks for the tops.

 

then glue up some blanks for the lower shelves.

 

and today, glue up some blanks for the legs (12 total)

 

i'm busy this weekend, so more will be done next week between other thing i got to do.

 

24" high, 16x22 top, 1" overhand all around, 1-3/4" square legs, 2" deep skirts, bottom of lower shelf is 10" above the floor.  all solid maple, 2-3 coats of spar urethane.

 

29 clamps for the legs seemed like the right amount.

 

still have LOTS of sanding to do, as well as trim the legs to size (over sized the glue up at 1-7/8" square).

 

i'll update this as i have more to show.

now i can hear some of you saying, "hey, it's that kind of small for a communion table?  and don't most churches have big table up front somewhere that is used to hold communion elements?"

 

yes, yes they do.  as does ours.  we celebrate communion each week, and currently the elements are staged on the big table up front.  but because everyone comes forward to be served (you pick out a piece of bread, and pick out a little cup filled with wine or juice), the pastors and servers run out of the liquids about 1/2 way thru serving everyone, and they have to rely on one of the pastors to monitor things and provide new liquid trays to the servers when they run out of one of the offered liquids.  which means that that pastor cannot also serve people.

 

well, this is no good, declared one of the pastors, so the solution was to have the elements staged next to each serving station (on these little tables), so the server could just turn around, grab the next tray and continue on, and thus both pastors could serve communion to people.

 

so each table is carefully sized to exactly hold one stack of liquid trays (they stack) and one bread tray (they don't run out).  lower shelf is used to hold the cover of the liquid tray when it is time to serve, so keep coughs and sneezes out of the liquids.

 

hope that answers your questions on "what in the world is he doing?"  

 

doing what i'm told, as usual.

I really like how you let the shelf into the legs. Nice idea.

once in a while i have a decent idea and then i'm also able to do it.  woot.

 

only screws are the 12 used in the 6 figure 8 connectors holding the top in place.

Looks great DAB!

Hours of sanding, jointing, planing, cutting, little cussing, we have 3 tops, 3 lower shelves, 12 legs, and 12 skirt pieces ready to go.  but i'm tired, so i'm calling it a day.

 

tomorrow will cut the mortises, then cut the tenons, then cut the dados (for the lower shelf to fit into), and then start gluing things up.  i think i'm shy on enough clamps to do all 3 at the same time, so i'll do 2, let them cure 2 hours, and do the last one.

 

after that, time to recess the figure 8 connectors on top of the skirts and attach the tops.

 

then finishing.  probably thursday will start.  coat 2 on friday, if needed coat 3 (top only is expected) sometime saturday.  let them cure real nice a few days, deliver next week.

 

for those counting parts, the 12th leg is over by the mortising machine.

Wow, that is a day’s work!

If the sanding is done, your 1/2 way there.  Great project.  thanks   Danl

still need to do final sanding (120) once all the cuts are done.  many discs of 80 to remove glue, planer marks, bring adjoining pieces to the same plane....phew.

 

"oh, it must be easy to make such a simple table"

 

"sure sweetie, whatever you say.... did you enjoy your trip to IKEA?"

 

where i get lumber, it doesn't come in table shaped pieces, and it's not free either.

 

was telling the pastor that the finished table has about 7.2 BF of maple in it, so at $5.75/BF (plus tax), that's about $45 worth of lumber.  of course, you have to buy more that that to account for rough edges, cracked and uneven ends, knots you want to avoid.....so i told him if some stranger came to me, wanting a copy, if i said yes, he'd be looking at paying $450-500 per table.

120? How did you get away with stopping at 120? You are making me tired for the day. 

Someone has been very busy I see!! Looking good!

more work this morning, got one gluing up, have lunch, check on it around 1pm, then glue up the second of 3.  made one boo-boo, got it patched, cut a dado on the wrong side of a leg.  and have no spare legs....sigh.....patch matches pretty well, might show it later.

BTDT. Last table I made layed out every mortise in every location to be sure I didn’t do it again 

tab A, slot B.....wash, rinse, repeat...

 

one glue up done, another in clamps, the last awaits until later, give it about 2 hours to cure up.

Lookin' good!

 

first coat of poly on this morning, another tomorrow.

 

 

Those are really nice, DAB.

Those came out great DAB ! How did you mortise in the lower shelf ?

Paul

coat #2 on this morning, likely a 3rd coat on the top only tomorrow, as it takes all the wear.

 

the lower shelves are cut away at the corners and then let into matching dados on the legs.

third coat of poly onto the tops only, looking good.  will let dry a few days, deliver wed am.