2010 state fair table...results are in!!

Dan Noren

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falcon heights, minnesota
well, i finally committed to a design, species of lumber, and getting down to cutting. i changed my mind on the lower stretchers, and went with the second set, they just seem right to me. the lumber i picked is ash, for two reasons, one, i've never built anything big from ash, and two, it was dirt cheap at $2.49/bdft at rocklers this month.:D now that i have my nephew's table out of the way, and the last of my dad's new windows trimmed, it was a good day to cut today.:thumb: especially since they have predicted rain and possible thunderstorms:eek: for our area on saturday. for those curious souls, i've included a pic of my dad's back yard for you to drool over. he hasn't done anything other than rake it out, and cut it once. now, for the fun part, the cutting.:D it was just one of those days, i set up everything for cutting, but when i went to look for my 3 ft steel ruler (which is usually on the saw table), it wasn't there.:doh: i looked everywhere for the silly thing, all my benches, my work table in the basement, even in the car, it just wasn't there.:dunno: i decided to take my dad's neighbor's advice, and looked all over the garage, and sure enough, there it was!:thumb: it was hiding in my dad's bucket for mixing cement, between two of his bigger items. how it got there, i don't know.:dunno: oh well, now that i had my wayward ruler firmly in hand, i got to cutting, and got everything cut. after everything was cut, i moved it all to the basement, and glued up the legs, and marked out how i want to join the top together. tomorow it's make the patterns for the aprons and the lower stretchers.
 

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got a bit more done today, in spite of interference run by my dad getting me to help solder some copper pipe for him.:rofl: i took the legs out of the clamps. drew out, and cut the templates for the aprons and stretchers. i also drew out a quarter of the top as a template. i'll cut that when i can. copied the lines to said aprons and stretchers. edge jointed and glued up the boards for the top as well. just in time too, as the rain is supposed to start either late tonight, or early tomorrow.
 

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got a little more done today. i took the top out of the clamps last night to glue up blanks for the confetti lamp holders, and got one heck of a surprise. i knew i had a bit of pressure on the top, but i didn't expect the reaction when i took off the top clamps, it bowed a good 4" upwards!:eek: i thought, oh jeez (or something stronger), i'm going to lose the darned (or something stronger) top!:eek: i thought i was going to lose the top at a glue joint, or one of the boards would split, but i moved rather rapidly, and let out the lower clamps, and the top dropped down and stayed flat.:thumb: today i cut the quarter template for the top, and squared up the legs, and cut chamfers on the bottoms. if i had the locations and sizes of the mortises, i would have cut those too, but, i guess i need something for tomorrow.:D
 

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got a little more done today. i took the top out of the clamps last night to glue up blanks for the confetti lamp holders, and got one heck of a surprise. i knew i had a bit of pressure on the top, but i didn't expect the reaction when i took off the top clamps, it bowed a good 4" upwards!:eek: i thought, oh jeez (or something stronger), i'm going to lose the darned (or something stronger) top!:eek: i thought i was going to lose the top at a glue joint, or one of the boards would split, but i moved rather rapidly, and let out the lower clamps, and the top dropped down and stayed flat.:thumb: today i cut the quarter template for the top, and squared up the legs, and cut chamfers on the bottoms. if i had the locations and sizes of the mortises, i would have cut those too, but, i guess i need something for tomorrow.:D


Ummm I don't see no template or a top...:rofl:
 
got a bit more done today. took a pic of the quarter top template for don.:D now if he just wipes the vaseline from his glasses...:rofl: after that was done, i marked out the places for the mortises on the legs, and cut them. then i moved on to the aprons and stretchers, and cut the tenons. then i went on to the real fun stuff, the cutting of the curves on the aprons and tenons. tomorrow i will be using the spindle sander, and sanding to the curve lines. also, i will be cutting and sanding the cutouts in the aprons. after i finished the curves, i tended to the final fitting of the tenons to their respective moritses, and did a test build of the base to see how things looked. more fun tomorrow. :D:thumb:
 

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finally! now that the nice weather is back, i can step away from the boat:eek:, and get back to the table for the fair again.:D the last time i had an opportunity to work on it, i had cut the mortises for the walnut pegs, cut the pegs, and installed said pegs. today i layed out the adjusted cut lines for the cutouts, drilled the start holes, and cut and sanded the cutouts. then i sanded the curves and such on the lower stretchers and aprons to the final lines. then just for the fun of it, assembled the base again, to see what it looked like with everything cut out and sanded to the lines. i'm still happy with the way this is going.:thumb: hopefully, if tomorrow is nice, i'll be cutting the top close to the lines, and sanding to said lines.
 

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you haven't missed anything yet steve.:D just waiting for a good stretch of weather to plane down and fit out the replacement board for one of the apron parts. after i found that my jigsaw blade decided to bend while it was cutting, i found that the top was good, but the bottom of the cut went into the apron. couldn't have gone into the off cut, but noooooo, had to go into the good area. then with grad parties and such, haven't gotten to fixing that part yet. weather is supposed to clear up in the latter part of the week....
 
finally, now that the rain has stopped for a few hours, i've gotten back to the table.:D my dad did run some interference when he volunteered me to help take his old window a/c to the local recycler (dump). then, since it was his bday (all of 74 now:eek:), we stopped off for some ice cream at a stand that a friend of the family owns. when we got back, i went to the now vacant garage to work on the new part, and he went off to mow the driveway (he's silly like that:rofl:). last thing for all the parts was to cut the insets for the figure 8 table irons. then finished up the new part, all cut, sanded and oiled. then i put the aprons and legs together to lay out where the table irons will be placed on the bottom of the top. once i get that done, i can start with the shellac on the base parts, and take the top to the local shop and have them run it through thier big sander, so it's smooth and level. then it's on to oiling and shellacing the top. then it's pretty much done. when i was done in the basement, i peeked out to make sure pop was just funnin' around and really was mowing the grass... here's part one of the pics....
 

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pics part 2....
 

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Hey whats this not paying rent for using the garage. You should be at the mower no? :rofl: Say hi to your pop.:thumb:

Table is looking good. Did you round over the edges with a router ?
 
i was at it again today. was going to do this yesterday, but due to a malfunctioning motivator, i was lucky to get out of bed.:rofl::rofl:

i got all the table irons in, and located/drilled in the top. gave the base parts 3 coats of clear shellac, sanding after the second coat. i'll give them a quick wipe down with 220 tomorrow and give them the final coat. then i hauled the top outside, and sanded it down to 220, and gave it it's coat of blo. i pretty much like how the grain looks. it will get it's first coats of shellac tomorrow as well.
 

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