A couple of months ago Shamrock posted a 3 legged table he had made from an old issue of Fine Woodworking. I thought he did a very nice job, and I thought I would like to do one some time. My youngest daughter's school is having an auction, so I decided to build one.
In the spirit of continuing to copy, I figure I will follow in Canuck's footsteps and put detail into it, so here goes.
First, here is the table completed and unfinished. I used African Mahogany as I had it, and I like to work with it.
I started out making a template. I used 1/4" baltic birch plywood, because once again, I had it. In the past I would have used Luan plywood, but that has become horrible to work with and what I now call wavy wood. I tried to use a piece that I had for this project, and ended up trashing it. If I had to go to the BORG to get something I would have probably just used masonite.
Once I had my template done, I laid it out on my mahogany boards. I cut it out on the bandsaw, but a jig saw would work as well.
Since the table has 3 legs and there are 3 fillers each piece has to have a 30 degree cut on each side. According to the magazine article, you need to leave this top part on the leg assemblies until you cut the 30 degree angles, and they are quite right. A tablesaw is pretty much required to cut these, and I had to make several test cuts to ensure the blade was at 30 degrees. Then I made this jig to ride on my tablesaw to make the cuts. With a regular saw, you don't need this set up, bu being my tablesaw is a slider, I made this to make it go easier. The leg is clamped in place and pushed through the blade.
When you get done, you are left with this. You can see that I did not get a sharp point on my boards, and that was intentional as it was referenced in the article as well. This way, you have a little wiggle room when you try to fit all the stuff.
Next, you cut off the excess part of the leg, and then taper each side of the leg 1/8". This is pretty easy to accomplish if you have a jointer, but if you don't, it can be done with a hand plane or power planer. From here starts the hand work. Basically, you have to round over the outside and inside edges of the legs. You draw lines down the legs and then use rasps, files and sandpaper to get them shaped and smoothed. I am still learning hand tools and doing hand work, but this turned out not to be hard at all.
Thanks for looking and more to come.
In the spirit of continuing to copy, I figure I will follow in Canuck's footsteps and put detail into it, so here goes.
First, here is the table completed and unfinished. I used African Mahogany as I had it, and I like to work with it.
I started out making a template. I used 1/4" baltic birch plywood, because once again, I had it. In the past I would have used Luan plywood, but that has become horrible to work with and what I now call wavy wood. I tried to use a piece that I had for this project, and ended up trashing it. If I had to go to the BORG to get something I would have probably just used masonite.
Once I had my template done, I laid it out on my mahogany boards. I cut it out on the bandsaw, but a jig saw would work as well.
Since the table has 3 legs and there are 3 fillers each piece has to have a 30 degree cut on each side. According to the magazine article, you need to leave this top part on the leg assemblies until you cut the 30 degree angles, and they are quite right. A tablesaw is pretty much required to cut these, and I had to make several test cuts to ensure the blade was at 30 degrees. Then I made this jig to ride on my tablesaw to make the cuts. With a regular saw, you don't need this set up, bu being my tablesaw is a slider, I made this to make it go easier. The leg is clamped in place and pushed through the blade.
When you get done, you are left with this. You can see that I did not get a sharp point on my boards, and that was intentional as it was referenced in the article as well. This way, you have a little wiggle room when you try to fit all the stuff.
Next, you cut off the excess part of the leg, and then taper each side of the leg 1/8". This is pretty easy to accomplish if you have a jointer, but if you don't, it can be done with a hand plane or power planer. From here starts the hand work. Basically, you have to round over the outside and inside edges of the legs. You draw lines down the legs and then use rasps, files and sandpaper to get them shaped and smoothed. I am still learning hand tools and doing hand work, but this turned out not to be hard at all.
Thanks for looking and more to come.
