Pedestal Table Part IV

Pedestal Table Part IV

This is the fun stage where things start coming together and it begins to look like something.

I like to cut the dado's first, usually in several passes until I reach the desired depth.
Without changing the height of the blade I set the fence up for cutting the tongues.

Here again I make several passes until I reach the desired thickness of the tongue.

At this stage I like to dry fit everything together to check the fit.


Clamping this base together is a bit tricky. The blue clamps on the left are old Record clamps that have real deep jaws. There real nice and are some of my favorites, cant find them anymore.







So now we can see what its going to look like, pretty cool I think.












And here we are.......

Pedest Table Part III

Pedestal Table Part III

This is the stage where we start assembling the arch and shaping the legs.

Once all the arch pieces are cut I like to lay them out, and then trace the pattern on the pieces. Then I can layout where the mortises will be cut without interfering with the layout.

The mortises were cut in the same manner as used with the legs, however here on the arch I varied the width to stay within the pattern.

The glue up for the arch is slightly different than with the legs. First since the arch will be a closed loop, I rough cut to the inside pattern lines before gluing. I glued the top three pieces in the same manner as the legs using the bench vice and clamps. Then I glued and pieced together the whole arch as shown at right.

With the glue applied then I just used clamps and equal pressure to get the arch square and let the glue cure.

Even with glue and tenons, I like to reinforce the joint with pegs.

Depending on the design and the wood, I'll either use a matching peg or a contrasting wood for the peg. To maintain a strong joint I do not drill and peg completely thru the material, just thru the loose tenon material.

The next step in the process is to rough cut the pieces. I like to do a quick sanding of the pieces then retrace the template outline in case some of the pieces have shifted during clamping and gluing.

I rough cut using the bandsaw, I'm not trying to be precise at this point, since I'll be using the router to clean up all the waste.

Using a top bearing flush trim bit and the template, its a very straight forward process to remove the waste.

Since all these parts are 1 3/4" thick, I make one pass with the top bearing bit and the template, then I can remove the template and make another pass just using the top bearing bit.

Then I can switch to a bottom bearing bit to finish removing the waste material. Top and bottom bearing bits are showed at left. On the right are all the finished parts.

The next step will be to cut the dado's in the hubs, and the tongues on the legs and the arch. Below I have one of the tablesaws set up to start cutting the dado's in the hubs. The shops starting to look a little crowded.

Pedestal Table - Part II

Pedestal Table - Part II

Here we are concentrating on the two "hubs" that will be the atacching point for the legs and the "arch". Nothing complicated just a bit bulky because there 5" thick. I rip to a 5" width using the bandsaw then clean up the face on the jointer.

The same applies to cutting to length I rough cut to a 10" length using the bandsaw, then cleanup this cut using the tablesaw. When I laminated the hubs together I made sure that one end square and flush, so then I can use this end as a reference point in squaring up the cut on the tablesaw. Since its 5" thick I cut halfway then flip it over and cut the other side.

The two legs are splayed from the hub at a 30 deg angle in relation to the arch. Rip these on the bandsaw and clean up the cuts on the jointer. These need to be nice and flat since this is the attachment point for the legs. Later on I'll cut a 1" deep dado here for the legs.

The last two pictures illustrate my high tech angle gauge I use for setting up the saws and making the cuts.

Pedestal Dining Table

Pedestal Dining Table

One of the first projects for 2010 will be a pedestal dining table using walnut and maple. The table will be 40" wide by 72" long. The base will be made of walnut based on the one shown below.

I designed and built the above table in 2004 using cherry for the base and cocobolo for the top. It's a modification of and open pedestal that I have used for various tables, however in this instance I have "stretched" the base to accommodate a rectangular top.



In conjuction with this table I'll be making four chairs and four barstool all which require 8/4 walnut. So here's the starting pile.
For the two "hubs" on each end of the pedestal I'll use 12/4 walnut laminated together.









Gluing up the hub.

The four legs of the table require three piece each, that are tenoned together. The center part is cut at 45 degress on each end. I lay these three pieces out and trace the final shape from the template on them to determine where to situate the mortices.

Using a morticing machine (I have had that old router for 20 years now, first router I ever bought) cutting the mortices on all 12 parts is fairly quick.

All these parts will be joined using "loose" tenons. In this case I'm using 1/2" poplar.

Shown below is my fancy angle clamping jig, a vice and two clamps.

Next up is laying out the center "arch" and routing the mortices, plus final sizing and cutting of the "hub