so let me preface this video by saying i'm far from being an expert when it comes to
woodworking joinery and i hate hand tools so you won't be seeing any of that in this video
what you will see in this video is actually my second attempt ever at making castle joints
and they turned out really well - but that's not the point i'm trying to make what i'm trying to
say is that i believe that anybody with a table saw can succeed in making this joint perfectly
by using the simple systematic approach i described in this video at least that's my hope
so with that i hope you enjoy the video and by the way i have plans available for this coffee table
build so be sure to check out the links in the description below i've already squared up my cedar
posts and cut my pieces to length the size doesn't really matter as long as they're perfectly square
the shorter pieces will be the four legs and will essentially be the castle part of the joint
these other pieces over here will be the table aprons you'll only need two
cedar four by fours and two cedar fence boards for this outdoor coffee table build so despite
the increase in lumber prices it shouldn't break the bank okay so the aprons will connect
with a half lap like this and the leg will then lock it in and connect all three parts
okay so i'll start with the legs first and work my way from there i picked up this great
little combination square and six inch ruler at princess auto first i'll measure the width of the
stock and divide that number by three then set my combination square to that length don't stress too
much here it doesn't have to be exactly one-third just close enough so it'll look evenly balanced
next i'll grab a second combination square and set it to the width of the stalk and then use
it to mark the top of the joint and by the way you'll want to keep these settings on the squares
because we'll be using them again later you actually only need to mark one of the legs you
don't need to mark them all i'll be making all of the cuts for the castle joint using my table
saw and a flat bottom blade i'll leave a link to the blade and all the other tools i used down in
the description below i raised the blade up until the tips of the teeth just kiss the line and lock
that height in alright there are two things i strongly recommend for cutting castle joints
number one make sure your stock is square and number 2 you'll want a solid tenoning
jig this is one i made specifically for this build it's essentially four pieces assembled
into a tall box with one piece just above the fence and the other higher up for stability
the jig rides along the fence so you want to make it snug to the fence but use a little paste wax
inside the jig to help it slide smoothly it's critical that the jig be square to the table
and have a back stop to support the stock you'll be cutting so it won't go anywhere
and it'll also help to prevent tear out the stop can simply be screwed to the jig
just make sure it's also square to the table too as you can see i made a little cutout at
the front of the jig so i could easily clamp my stock to the jig for safe and accurate cuts
alright so back to the table legs now that i previously marked and with the blade height set
i'm ready to make the first cut i'll secure the stock to the jig making sure it's properly seated
and then proceed to line up the tips of the blade just inside my markings because i'm working with
square stock for all the parts of this joint it doesn't actually matter if you're off by a hair
here whatever the cut ends up being here will become the reference for the other parts so
don't worry too much about it the most important thing here is to get the blade height dialed in
and don't move your fence from this spot until you finish making all the cuts on all four legs
i kept cutting then turning the leg and making the cuts on all four sides when you're done you should
be left with a tic-tac-toe looking pattern i could then grab the next leg and make all four cuts
alright with all four legs done i can finally now move the fence and slowly hog away the
material that's left in the middle i move the fence in really small increments about the
width of the blade now this is a pretty messy operation with sawdust flying everywhere so it
helps to occasionally wipe down the fence and the underside of the jig and add a little more paste
wax to keep the jig sliding smoothly now there are definitely other ways you could go about removing
the material here like using an oscillating tool followed by a chisel or a dado stack or even a
coping saw i chose this method which yes is slower but the end result will be clean and accurate
all right so that's it for the legs i can now move on to shaping the table aprons
for this i'll use the same combination squares as before without adjusting the settings there are
two cuts i need to make for the aprons the first being to create a tenon that'll fit into the legs
i just cut okay so these are the parts i'll be removing and keeping this tenon in the middle
to cut the tenons i can once again use my tenoning jig as the name implies once the stock is secured
to the jig this time i'm going to line up the tips of the blade on the outside of the line
in fact it's a good idea to first start a little wide and sneak up on the cut
so i'll actually stay just outside the line and see where i get after making the cut on both sides
i want to do a test fit with the leg to see if it fits now visually here i can already see it's too
wide but for a more accurate dry fit i'll use my bandsaw to cut away the material without going all
the way to my line yet but just enough to expose a good portion of the tenon i'm using my band saw
here because i don't want to move my table saw fence but you could also do this using a handsaw
okay so with the tenon exposed i clearly see that the tenon doesn't fit so i'll go back to
the tenoning jig and move my fence over ever so slightly so i can cut a hair off the tenon
i'll run it through twice to cut both sides of the tenon and do another test fit
i can see that the fit now is perfect so i can repeat this cut on all of my aprons making
sure not to move the fence until i'm done with that done i can now set aside the tenoning jig
i can also freely move my fence and lower the blade i'll set the blade
height just below the tenon making sure that the tenon clears the blade without hitting it
to cut off the shoulders of the tenon i'll use my miter gauge you don't want to make this cross
cut directly against your fence so i clamped a small stop and adjusted the fence until the
blade was just inside the line i made both cuts and went back to my table leg to do a test fit
looks like my settings are just right with the end of the tenon perfectly flush
so i can confidently proceed to cutting the shoulders off the rest of the aprons
alright so i've now got my legs cut and my aprons cut but there's one final cut i need to make to
the aprons for this castle joint to all fit together and that's a cross-lap joint within
the tenons themselves to mark where to cut the lap joints on the tenons i'll slip on one of the
legs and mark the edges with a pencil next i need to make another mark halfway to do this i'll grab
one of my combination squares and set it to half the width of the board a little trick to make sure
you're exactly on center is to make a first mark starting from one side then flip it over and make
a second mark from the other side if both marks line up you know you're exactly in the middle
all right so with my marking lines all set i can go back to the table saw and adjust the
height of the blade it's a little challenging to use the stock here so instead i'll use the
combination square i just used to set the blade height i set the blade just inside the line and
again here it's better to first start well inside the line and sneak up on the cut until it's just
right you can always cut a little more off but there's no going back if you cut off too much
it's easiest if you can set up a second stop so you have one stop for each end of the cutout
this will allow me to make repeatable cuts on all of my pieces after making the two initial
cuts using the stops i can progressively hog away the material remaining in between
once i have the width dialed in just right i could make all the cuts in all the aprons
almost on autopilot simply using the stops and grinding away in the middle
at this point all the cuts are made and it's time to see if this joint fits together
did you know that a castle joint is also called the shiro joint
it's probably the other way around actually but potato potato i'm super excited at this
point of course everything fits perfectly snug without being too tight or too loose
just to be sure i'll do a full test fit with all of the joints before i pull out the glue
everything looks good so i'm going to glue up the base and i did some research on this and honestly
didn't find anything on gluing up castle joints a lot of people will drive a screw through the top
of the joint to pull it all together but since the top of this joint will be a visible design feature
i don't want any visible screws or plugs so instead i decided to just apply glue
to every surface within the joint and squeeze it all together i checked for
square and wiped away all the excess glue with a wet rag then let it dry overnight
the next day i hit everything with some 80 grit sandpaper to flatten and smooth out the joints
as you can see there are some small visible gaps in the joints but you know what that's
okay my biggest concern is water getting into the joints seeing as this table will live outdoors
so i'm going to pour some glue into the joints and rub some cedar sawdust into the mix working the
paste into the joints i can then hit it with a sander and voila no one will be the wiser
i considered putting a chamfer on these edges but i like the square bulky look so instead i'm
going to create a mini bevel and break the edges by placing my sanding pad at a 45 degree angle
and going back and forth maybe a dozen times i did this on all of the edges
including even the table legs so they won't be as likely to splinter when you move the table
okay it's time to add the table top and complete this coffee table
i'll start by cutting the rounded edges off of two cedar fence boards i can then cut four
pieces to length at the miter saw using my stop block and also rip two thinner pieces as well
okay so the thin pieces will go like this across the apron and will essentially hold up the planks
that will make up the top and sit flush with the aprons so in order to get the height just right i
measure the thickness of the board and then mark that distance with my combination square after
securing the support with a few screws i could drop in the planks and check that everything fit
now i could easily screw these planks down but i don't want any visible screws so instead i'm
going to flip the table over and attach them from underneath using some corner braces
i used one corner bracket per plank and worked my way up
one plank at a time after assembly the table had a hollow sound to it so i ended
up adding this small strip in the middle which helped cut down on the vibrations
i hope you like this build and that it might inspire you to try out castle joints yourself
if you're interested i have plans available for this coffee table build which include instructions
for the tenant jig 2. you can check out the link to the plans in the video's description below
for now i'm leaving this table raw without any finish but eventually when i refinish my
cedar deck i'll likely sand down the table and apply the same finish to it as well
until next time thanks for watching see you soon