Marc - The Wood Whisperer is sponsored by
Powermatic and Titebond.
So I just finished up this set of nesting tables.
Now, nesting tables are kinda cool
because it gives you two design opportunities.
One is when the tables are nested together,
if you can get them to do something visually interesting,
in this case we've got sort of like
a circle within a circle thing going on,
there's one opportunity.
But you also, of course, have the opportunity
to make each one it's own interesting standalone design
when the two are apart.
So, this was definitely a design challenge for me
and I got some help from friends
who are really good at designing things.
So, Brian Benham and John Funk, thank you so much
for your assistance on this project,
but I wanna show you how I made these,
so let's get to it.
Let's start by making the larger walnut rings.
I'll cut some walnut into eight mitered segments
at 22 and a half degrees.
Those pieces are then glue together with epoxy.
(light hammering)
Once dry, I clean up one face with a sanding block.
The segmented ring is then attached to a plywood backer.
The double stick tape is pressure sensitive,
so I'll use some clamps to make sure
it's attached really well.
Now, I cut the whole assembly into a rough circle
and then attach a face plate for the lathe.
At the lathe, I'll true up the outside of the ring first.
I'm really not a skilled turner,
so carbide tools give me the best shot
at success at the lathe.
Now I can start truing up the inside of the ring,
bringing it to it's final diameter.
I'll carefully release the ring from the mounting plate
and then attach it to another piece of ply
that will allow me to re-saw the ring in half
at the band saw.
(sawing sounds)
Now I've got two perfect copies of the larger ring.
For the smaller ring,
I'm gonna use a routing template method
just for the sake of showing something different.
The router bit will not be happy removing so much stock,
so I'll cut the outside and then use a rasp
to remove the excess from the inside,
and now I can use a pattern bit to trim
the ring to final size.
I'll have to do it in two passes.
The smaller ring also gets a re-saw
to create two identical rings.
The larger ring needs a dado through the center,
so I'll use another piece of plywood
with double stick tape to safely make the cuts
at the table saw.
The smaller ring gets two dados.
The side designs have some skinny rails and stiles,
so I'll cut those down to size
and sneak up on the fit with a hand plane.
I could then cut a dado in the walnut rail,
which also accepts one of those skinny stiles.
I'll change gears now and work on
the white oak legs and rails.
(machinery sounds)
I was careful to select rift sawn grain
for the best uniformity.
(machinery sounds)
Each leg gets quarter inch mortises for the rails.
Now, a router would work here too,
but I just decided to give the hollow chisel moritser
a little workout.
The legs receive a little bit
of shaping on the outside faces,
so I'll trace the shape
and do a two part cut at the band saw.
(sawing sounds)
Using the template, I'll flush trim the legs to final shape.
Now we'll work on the rails.
Each piece is milled up and cut to length
and then we can make the tenons.
The blade is buried in a sacrificial fence,
allowing me to cut right up to the edge of the tenon.
And some of the tenons are inevitable a little bit snug,
so I'll give 'em a pass or two with the shoulder plane
and they'll fit perfectly.
Two of our top rails will have a decorative shape
that rises above the base of the table.
Those are cut at the band saw
and sanded smooth at the workbench.
Now let's dry assemble.
Hey, it's a table!
Now that I have the side framework in place,
I can go back to the decorative side designs,
cutting my parts to length
and adding the little baby tenons where needed.
With the tenons cut, I could transfer their locations
to the rails in order to make my remaining mortises.
You can see how it's important to establish a work order
where we go back and forth in a logical progression,
letting the project dictate the final joinery locations.
And I quickly double check my work
with another dry assembly.
(hammering)
All the base parts are now scraped and sanded
in preparation for the glue up.
(scraping sounds)
For the rings, I'll give 'em an additional
bull nose profile.
I'll also add some chamfers here and there
to ease the edges and give the piece a more refined look.
Next, I'll countersink and drill for screws
up through the decorative rails.
Those will hold our tops in place.
And now we can glue up the base.
Titebond Extend is a really good choice
when you wanna a little bit of extra working time
during a glue up, and who doesn't?
There's really nothing worse than working on something
for days or weeks,
only to screw it up during the glue up.
(light hammering)
To make the tops, I'll start with a couple of walnut panels.
(machinery sounds)
Once trimmed to size, I'll add a bevel to two sides.
The bevel is actually a slight curve,
so I'll use a hand plane to shape it.
This lift will make the top appear
just a little bit thinner,
while also giving a neat visual detail.
Time for some finish.
As you might have guessed,
I'll be using my new favorite kind of finish, Hardwax Oil.
Now I'll drive some screws into the tops.
These tables are pretty darn sturdy
considering their delicate appearance,
but since they're meant as side tables
or occasional tables,
I wouldn't recommend dancing on top of them
or trying to ram your head through the side.
You probably can.
If you like what you see and you want more detail,
head over to the The Wood Whisperer Guild
for the full series of videos and a complete set of plans.
Thanks for watching.