Project #1: Shaker Table

For the last few weeks, whenever any of you asked me what I was working on my response has been my shaker table.  Frequently, the next question is what is that?  Well, I am finally far enough to post some pictures to give you a general idea of what it will look like.

Still needs a knob, paint and shellac, but most of the construction is done.

Here's how I got there:

Step 1: Mill all the lumber.

This is all the lumber I used to make the table (other that changing the top to walnut instead of the piece of maple seen at the bottom of the pile.)  Also, I forgot to take this picture before I started cutting the joints, so you can see some of that progress is already done, too.

Step 2: Cut the joints for legs and rails.

The rails join the legs with mortise and tenon joints.

The bottom divider (below the drawer) joins the leg with a double mortise and tenon.  The top divider is dovetailed into the top of the leg, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

All of these joints need to close tightly at the same time all the way around the table so there won't be any gaps.  When I dry fit mine, I  had a little gap.  Here is the material I had to remove to make it fit:

Step 3: Taper the legs- We drafted the angle of the leg taper on the leg itself.  We then cut close to the lines on the bandsaw.  From there, we planed them down to size with our hand planes.  The two outsides of each leg are straight and the two insides are tapered.

Step 4: Glue it up-  I glued it up in stages.  First, the joints pictured above.  Then the dovetail divider.  Next the drawer guides, runners and kickers.  Drawer guides kept it from moving side to side.  The runners are what it slides back and forth on.  The kickers are above the drawer to keep it from dropping down when it is pulled down.

The big clamp across the front is for the dovetail divider.  On the sides you can see the drawer guides are already in.  The runners are currently being glued in and held by the clamps on the sides.  The kickers will be glued in along the top, parallel to the runners.

Step 5: Table top-  Once the frame was together I started on the table top.  I glued together 3 pieces to form the 18"x18" table top.

Once it was together and cut to size, we beveled the edges.  The process was similar to the chamfer exercise I wrote about in March.  We did it with the hand plane, which I probably wouldn't do in my normal practice, but the instructors wanted us to get more practice with the hand plane.  The table top is held down with 6 screws that come up through the divider, kickers and back rail.  The only other screw in the table holds the drawer bottom in place.

Step 6: Drawer-  The drawer construction was a lot of fun.  It has lapped dovetails in the front and through dovetails in the back.  They came out really well.  Didn't have any gaps.  The bottom is beveled similar to the table top, except this time we got to use the table saw to do it.  The bevel allows us to cut a thin grove into the drawer side for maximum strength there and still have a thicker drawer bottom for more strength and stability as well.

Step 7: Fitting the drawer-  One of the things North Bennet Street School prides itself on is the ability of its students to fit drawers well.  It has to slide easily into the table when pushed in any area with just one finger.  It has to not rattle around in the space.  The gap above the drawer is only about the size of a credit card, so it has room to expand.  On the sides it is only about the width of a piece of cardboard because there is less expansion in that direction.  The drawer front needs to be flush with the front of the table all the way around, which requires taking off small amounts in specific areas with the hand plane.  Once the drawer fits in the space, I glued drawer stops into place.  They are beveled to match the drawer bottom, so they can be as tall as possible so they don't fail.  I used hard maple because it is a very durable wood.

Step 8: Turning a knob-  I also turned my knob out of maple.  I am going to paint it to match the color of the table frame.

Step 9: Finishing-  After skimming the mill marks off of all of the surfaces, I sanded the whole surface with 220 grit sandpaper.  The legs, body and knob will all be painted with Old Fashion Milk Paint.  The drawer front, table top and inside of the table are all sealed with shellac.

Sorry for the extra long post!  I wish I had had time to post it step by step.  Writing it up made me realize all the elements I still need to take pictures of.  I will add more pictures asap.  The table is almost finished, so expect another post soon with pictures of the completed table.