Marc: Now that my boards are all cut to width,
and all the edges are jointed,
I'm going to mark the locations for my biscuits.
You don't need to use biscuits when you glue up a table top.
The long grain glue joint
is plenty strong for this things lifetime.
Using biscuits in a case like this
keeps everything aligned for me.
If there is a little bit of a bow, here,
or if one of the boards wants to lift up,
it keeps them aligned using the top as your reference point.
It'll be as flat as possible,
making my life a whole lot easier when the glues dry
and then it's time to sand it down.
I'm going to start marking my locations.
Usually, in a case like this,
I like to put one near the end,
then go in, maybe, 16, 18 inches.
I really only want four, really no more than four per board.
Any more than that's kind of overkill.
I already have my boards in the order that I like,
so I number them to avoid any mix-ups later.
Now it's time to create my biscuit slots.
I line up the biscuit joiner with the pencil marks and plunge.
I highly recommend a good
dust extraction system for this operation.
Since the boards are so large,
I'm able to make my slots without clamping the board down.
For added safety, clamps are always a good idea.
I decided to glue up my top in two halves.
This makes the project quite a bit easier to manage.
I place each board on end, add glue to the edge and slots,
and spread the glue with my roller.
Next, I add a number 20 biscuit to each slot.
I also add glue to the other edges of the middle boards.
No need for biscuits here
since the adjoining boards already have biscuits.
Yes, I have made that mistake in the past.
We're now ready to clamp the boards together.
All I really need to do
is make sure my pencil marks line up
and the joints look tight.
This is where biscuits really prove their worth.
We aren't really counting on them for added strength, here.
Rather, they're making sure our boards are properly aligned.
Since the biscuits were all cut using the top
of the boards as a reference,
everything should line up nicely.
If you do have a particularly stubborn area
that wants to stick up, don't be afraid
to use a clamp to force it into position.
Other options you could use
if you don't have a biscuit joiner would be dowels
or long splints cut with a router.
I add a few extra clamps for good measure.
I find the best way to remove squeeze out
is to wait about 30 minutes
after the glue up and scrape it away.
Look Ma, no stain inhibiting residue.
I follow the exact same glue up procedure
for the second half of the table top.
After about two hours, it's time
to glue the two halves together.
I add a few extra clamps
and let the table top sit overnight.
The next day, I remove any high spots
using number 80 cabinet scraper.
This tool excels at this job
and is far more effective than a sander.
I then go over the entire table with my random orbit sander.
I start with 120 grit and finish up with 180 grit.
I do this to both sides,
as well as the edges of the table.
I've selected my boards for the long aprons, here.
I'm about to give them a quick cut
to bring them down to length.
It;s always a good idea to cut your long pieces first
because the cut-offs from those cuts
may actually serves as our smaller pieces.
For instance, the slats in the side aprons, themselves,
I'm actually going to use the cut-offs from the table top
and even the ones from the long aprons
and use those for our smaller pieces.
Just a much more efficient way to go.
I rough cut my apron stock
and side slat stock at the chop saw.
It's always a good idea
to let the blade come to a complete stop
before returning it to its starting position.
After jointing, planing, and ripping them to width,
I trim one end of each piece square with my miter gauge.
Using a stop block, I batch cut each piece
to the appropriate length.
Now that all of our parts are cut,
let's just do a quick re-cap
and make sure we have everything we need.
We've got our eight slats.
These guys are 16 and a quarter inches long
by three inches wide by a half inch thick.
I've got four side aprons for top and bottom.
We haven't cut the arch in this yet; we will.
These guys are 28 inches long by three and half wide
by three quarters of an inch thick.
In fact, they're little bit over
three quarters of an inch.
I was able to maintain a little extra thickness.
When you can, you may as well.
It just makes everything sturdier and heavier.
Our long aprons are 64 inches long.
They are three and a half inches wide.
Again, three quarters, or in this case,
just over three quarters of an inch thick.
Our four legs.
These guys are three by three
and they are actually 29 and a quarter inches long.
Let's talk a little bit about our joinery options.
We have to find someway
of attaching our aprons to our table legs.
The easiest and probably the most common thing
to do in this scenario is mortise and tenon.
We already know that there's a couple different types.
Either the loose mortise and tenon
or an interval mortise and tenon would be the way to go.
Keep in mind, though, the pieces that I've cut now,
they're kind of exactly the distance
that I want between my legs.
What I'm counting on is a loose tenon style construction.
If you're going to do an integral tenon,
you need a little bit more length on your pieces.
Your long aprons, instead of 64, add three inches.
They're going to be 67.
Your short aprons, instead of being 28,
those guys are going to be 31.
What that does is it gives you an opportunity
to have an inch and a half tenon on either side.
Just as an FYI, if you are going to do the integral tenons,
my recommendation is to go
an inch and a half long on the tenon,
three inches wide, and three eighths of an inch thick.
I know I mentioned that I'm going
to do a loose tenon construction, but actually,
what I'm doing is using the Festool Domino.
I've been lucky enough to have access to it
and I really want to give it a workout
just to see how it handles this type of application.
What I would recommend for you guys
is probably the integral tenon.
You can do a loose tenon, and actually,
putting a mortise in your short aprons
really isn't going to be too difficult.
In fact, just to show you real quick,
I would probably just put it in my bench,
and I would make sure that the end is flush
with the surface of my bench.
Use a straight edge to confirm that.
Then, with your router and your router guide,
you can actually very easily and safely
cut yourself a mortise in here
for a loose tenon construction.
But, when you've got a 64 inch apron,
it's a little dicier figuring out
how to put a mortise into the end of this board.
You can do it, and if you were going to do it
and you were determined that that's
how you wanted this joinery to be,
I would clamp it into the bench
and I would grab several boards,
or a couple nice thick boards, and I would clamp them
to both sides of this piece to give you a nice wide base
at the top for the router to ride on.
It's not really the safest thing to do, so honestly,
I think the integral tenon, for the average person,
is going to be the best way to go.
When installing slats into an apron like this,
I find it easier to insert the entire slat
into a mortise that's cut perfectly sized for that piece,
but it can be a little bit tricky.
You may want to consider going with a smaller mortise
and creating a little baby tenon on here
so that you have the advantage of that shoulder.
That shoulder is going to give you a little bit
of a cleaner appearance.
If you're having problems with your accuracy,
and your holes for your mortises are a little bit off,
maybe it slipped with the router,
or your hollow chisel mortiser may not
have been aligned perfectly,
that might be something you want to consider.
If you're pretty well comfortable with those things,
you should be able to make a nice clean mortise
and these pieces should sit right down inside them
and that actually simplifies the process for you.
Just a quick note, although I cut mine
at 16 and a quarter, because that's the exact distance
I want between that top and bottom side rail ...
I messed up.
If you want integral tenons on your side slats,
cut them to 18 and a quarter inches long
instead of 16 and a quarter,
which is what's listed in the plan.
That gives you a one inch tenon on each side.
To make the mortises in my aprons using the Domino,
I simply place two pencil marks on my work piece
one inch in from each end.
With the piece securely clamped,
I line up the Domino with my pencil marks and slowly plunge.
Like all tools from Festool,
the Domino was a delight to use.
To be perfectly honest, the Domino shaved off
about a full day from my building schedule.
When time is money, a full day is a very big deal.
Before you cut your mortises into your legs,
it's very important to keep your legs organized.
Sometime there's a distinct green pattern that you want to see.
Keep in mind the rear right leg is not going to be
as visible as the front right leg.
When you're selecting the grain and the faces
you like the most, keep that in mind.
What I usually do is I mark on the top of the leg
in a spot that's never going to be seen.
In this case, this is rear right, so I put RR.
I'll put, for the front, it'll be FR.
This way, I can always keep them straight,
so when I start drawing on the locations of my mortises,
I can have my orientation and my frame of mind
is in the right spot and I won't make a mistake that way.
To make the mortises in my leg stop,
I simple transfer the pencil marks
from the previous operation.
I then extend the lines using my adjustable square.
After raising the Domino's fence a half inch,
which will give us the half inch reveal that we're after,
I make the matching mortises and the leg stop.
Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
I know I used the Domino to create my mortises,
but most of you won't have the Domino as an option
until April when the tool is released.
Regardless of whether you plan on doing a loose tenon joint
or the integral tenon joint,
you're going to need to put mortises in your legs.
I recommend drawing the mortise location
out on the actual leg pieces.
Whether you use a router or a hollow chisel mortiser,
these guidelines will help to insure your accuracy.
I recommend making your mortise 11/16 in
from the outside edge of the leg.
The mortise itself should be three eighths of an inch wide,
three inches long, and one and a half inches deep.