Entry Hall Table

Started a new project this week! I am building an Entry Hall Table with a little Arts and Crafts flair and some Greene inspiration with thru tenons. The table will be about 27-29 inches high and 12" deep, my wife tends to clutter open space pretty quick so I figured I would make it a decent width at 30". As always learning new lessons, this time at the lumber yard as I laid out the needed wood I forgot I needed 4/4 stock and 6/4 stock. Well I only purchased 6/4 so I need to decide between re-sawing to get 3/4" to 7/8" thickness for the sides and fronts or going back and getting 4/4 stock. Decisions! Anyway it will be made out of quartersawn white oak - like any good arts and crafts style project!  I am still contemplating the finish but here are some early pics at the legs already cut.



Close up to see some of the rays.

Hands On

No new projects lately, just adding a tool tray to the back of my work bench and using it as an opportunity to practice hand cut dovetails.  Why hand cut?  First of all it seems to be a passage that nearly every woodworker has to go through and I really enjoy the challenge of hand tools and feel it is more of a craft. Don’t get me wrong you are not going to find me ripping hundreds of board feet by hand; power tools do make a lot of jobs easier.  Most of my “raw” working is done with power tools such as ripping boards and planning to thickness.  It’s the finish cuts and joinery where I use hand tools.  I know a lot of people get into heated debates about power vs. hand tools; but I think both have their own merits.  My table saw and router are certainly in my top ten tools I could not work without but so are my pull saws and chisels. 

Back to the dovetails….

My first few attempts at the dovetails where pretty bad; well pretty horrible.  I couldn’t get boards to meet flush, my chisel work made the edges look chewed and the gaps between tails and pins – well they if  they were straight I could of used them to hold clamps.  Try, try and try again…eventually the gaps got smaller, the edges looked a lot cleaner and the boards became flush.  

Above is a pic of one the early cuts; actually this is when I first started to really get things flush.  Edges are fairly clean but the gaps need more work.    When I first started cutting the dovetails I used the marking knife lines to gauge where I should start my saws, I even pre-chiseled the saw cut.  This led to bad gaps between the pins and tails.  I found it better to start my cuts about 1/16th into the waste  side of the marking knife line and then pare back to the knife marking line with a chisel.  This really tightened the gaps.
   

Here is my last practice run…I wouldn’t say this is fine furniture quality but it is at least good enough that I can finish my tool tray and start my next project.