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At this point, Doug Hicks has glued up the laminated legs for the side table and cleaned up all of the excess glue on the legs by running them through his thickness planer. Then, before cutting the legs to length, he made one pass on all four edges of each leg with an 1/8″ roundover bit mounted in the router table. Let’s pick things up from there.

CUTTING LEGS TO LENGTH

I found that the easiest and most accurate way to cut all four legs to the exact same length was to do it using the bending jig. I started by taking the jig apart. That is, I unscrewed the inner form from the base. (That’s why I didn’t glue it earlier.)

Next, I clamped the leg blank to the inner form of the jig with one clamp in the center, see Fig. 24. With my table saw’s miter gauge in the left hand miter gauge slot, I moved the jig until the saw blade aligned with the layout line for the bottom of the leg (that I had originally marked on the jig). Then cut the bottom off the leg blank.

Fig. 24

With the leg still clamped to the jig, I switched the miter gauge to the right hand miter slot and aligned the jig so the blade will cut off the top of the leg and make that cut, see Fig. 25.

Fig. 25

Then I followed this process with the other three legs. And, as I took them out of the jig, I marked the Top (“T”) and Bottom (“B”) of each leg since they start to look fairly similar at this point.

PREPARE FOR ASSEMBLY

I couldn’t put it off any longer. I had to figure out how to assemble the four legs together. I thought that if I could get a flat surface on the inside (convex) face of each leg, somehow or another I could join the four legs with a square center block.

So to get the flat surface, I clamped each leg blank back into the jig. But this time I clamped the blank with two clamps near the ends rather than the center, see Fig. 26. Then I used the rip fence on my table saw and adjusted it to trim a flat area about 4” long off the inside (convex face) of the leg.

Fig. 26

The next question was how to fasten the table top to the legs? I considered all kinds of joinery (mortise and tenon, dowel, etc.) and using some kind of traditional table top connector hardware (Z-shaped or Figure 8-shaped). But in the end I decided that simply screwing the legs up from the bottom might be the easiest way. Also, by drilling an oversize screw hole, it would allow the table top to expand and contract with changes in humidity.

The problem was how to drill the hole through the arch-shaped legs. To do this, I clamped each leg into the vise with the bottom of the leg flush with the top of my workbench, see Fig. 27. Then to determine the center of the leg, I drew lines across from corner to corner. Using an 1/8” brad-point bit, my electric drill, and my eyeball I drilled a vertical hole. The hole went through the bottom and came out on the concave side of the arc about 1-1/2” from the bottom end.

Fig. 27

Next, I turned the leg over so it stuck out the top of the vise. Then I used a bit with a countersink on it and drilled an oversized shank hole with a ½”-deep counterbore, see Fig. 28.

Fig. 28

FINISH & ASSEMBLE THE LEGS

I decided it would be easiest to finish the legs before assembly. So I masked over the flat section of each that was to be used for a glue area, and then gave each leg three coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Oil & Urethane Topcoat, see Fig. 29. Between coats I rubbed the legs with 0000 steel wool, and then buffed out the final coat with paste wax.

Fig. 29

Note: I don’t like to stain cherry, but instead I use a clear finish and allow it to naturally darken over time after being exposed to the UV rays of the sun. This doesn’t take too long. After a month or so you see quite a bit of darkening and it takes on a very rich, beautiful color after a year or two. I can almost “date” the cherry pieces of furniture in my house by how dark they are. If I used stain or dye, the color would be immediately dark, but I think they tend to “muddy” the grain.

With the legs dry, I cut a “connector” block that was about 4” long to provide a solid gluing surface when assembling the legs, see Fig. 30. It was square and the same thickness as the legs (1-1/8”).

Fig. 30

Then I glued and clamped two of the legs together. Notice in Fig. 31 that I butted the bottom ends of both legs against my table saw’s rip fence to keep them perfectly aligned.

Fig. 31

Once the glue dried, I added the other two legs. Here I applied the glue to the connector block and then stood the whole assembly up on my table saw surface so all four legs would sit flat, and clamped them together, see Fig. 32.

Fig. 32

Next week, I’ll complete the building series by building the table top. See you then. -Doug

Posted on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 8:54 am. Filed under Bent Lamination, Custom Furniture, Doug Hicks, End Table, Woodworking.
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