Susanne and Robert's table build

This was a small and tall oak table for a small kitchen space. The stretcher should be curved and set high because the table is rather narrow, so shins should not get bruised on the stretcher. The trestle should be Shaker-like in design.

The starting point for the trestle.

Rough cut parts from the table saw

After a tour through the planer they are now square and fairly smooth.

Marking for the tenons on the big end of the trestle column

Finishing the batons with a smoothing plane.

Batton smoothed and corners rounded.

Marking for the sloped edge cut

Corner cut off with a fine japanese saw

The three finished batons ready to go under the table top to keep it flat (when we get that far).

Cutting out the tenons on the table saw

Chiselling out the middle of the tenons for the haunch.

Top and bottom tenons made - important that this is done before I shape the columns

Hard to see but this is now shaped, thinning as it goes to the top

Both finished columns

Cutting out the mortise with the haunch.

Finished mortise.

Dry fitting test. All looks good.

Now the feet need shaping and cutting to size - saw and band saw work.

This is the arch under the feet. Put together in the vice and finished so that they look the same for both feet.

Cutting the rounded end on the band saw

Like the other parts, smoothing plane to finish up, then sanding out any imperfections.

The finished feet ready for the fitting.

Now the caps. Same procedures as the feet. Below are the caps lined up in the vice to ensure they are symmetrical. Then I reverse one to check symmetry side to side.

Like the feet these need careful finishing

Finished parts, minus the mortise.

Close up of the feed ends

Forgot to take pictures of making the mortises for the caps, but I did. Now here are the dry fitted trestles:

Now on to the stretcher. First rough cutting the lumber.

Ripping a 12x4x110 cm piece out of the lumber on the table saw

Now smoothed and straight from the planer

Marked for shaping.

Rough cut from the bandsaw.

Smoothing and finishing.

Finished ready for the mortise

This is a bit tricky. I made a jig to cut one side of the mortise at 8 °

Not quite finished, need to trim and round the ends.

Marking

Slice cut on the band saw, then removed with a Japanese saw along the line. Leaves a not perfect edge or finish.

All tidied with chisels and then sanded

Detail on the tenon at the top of the columns. Forgot to show this before.

I cut the rough shape for the stretcher tenon using a drill press. Then carefully cut out the edges by hand.

Now a test of the fit. Was a bit tight so some filing needed before I got a good fit.

Sadly the second mortise was a problem, a measuring error on the drill press and it was too large. So I had to make a new column piece. That done I am cutting this one entirely by hand.

This side cut near the line, now the wood won't split when I cut from the other side.

Marked

Using a mortise chisel to cut it.

Held to the beach with hold downs and a sacrificial board under it.

Nearly through

Through

Tidied

Test fit, looks Ok

The loosely assembled trestle.

Marking for the

Cutting the angle on a

Testing the fit and adjusting until it's tight but not too tight

Marking up for the

Cutting

One spare just in case!

Drill out the screw hole.

Make the mortise for the buttons. Centre one is button width, the outer ones wider to allow for seasonal expansion.

Trestle with buttons and pegs

Starting on the top. Before making the sides square and flat...

...and after two sides,

The four planks planed and square

👍I think that this is the best quality furniture oak available. Sadly this was the last of my stock bought 10 years ago. Replacing this will be difficult!

Checking the joint for light, there's some (top left quadrant) so I have to re-flatten the edges until it's gone. Repeat for all joins.

This is how the top will look when I fix the planks together. Then it will be trimmed to size. I have matched the grain as best I could. I only have these four boards so choice was limited.

I made this jig to accurately cut the mortise for the loosely tenons

Finished mortise

Cut out the floating tenons on the band saw.

Tenons and mortise cut on all

Fitted tenon

Testing the dry fit. This is done to be sure that the tenons don't alter the fit and also test the set up with the vertical cauls. These are small because I will make two halves then join them.

This shows a closeup of the join. The fact that it is visible as much as it is due to a tiny mis-match of size of the wood (top one is some fraction of a mm larger).

Glueing- nice even run out, this is a good sign. The cauls were moved after 30 mins to be sure they did not glue to the surface.

The excess glue is wiped off with a damp cloth, After drying this is the join. When I remove the overhangs between planks to get a flat surface all these marks will vanish in the process.

Both halves made, this is the full top joining the two halves

The square shows that the whole thing is flat and straight.

Using smoothing plane to finish the surface. This creates a very clean surface cut - you can see the very fine shavings created.

After planing you get a super smooth surface from this tool.

Here you can see where the low spots are where there's no shine. The rest has to be planed down to the lowest point to ensure the top stays flat.

Done. Small imperfections left will be taken out after I cut the ends and round the edges.

Marking for cutting the ends

And now cut to size.

Rounding the edges

Here is the final corner look

Cleaning the surface and looking for any imperfections. I have to open up the wood surface again and sand with 120/150 grit because otherwise the oil will not penetrate that shiny plane cut surface. Then I will oil all the parts before assembly.