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Arts & Crafts Sofa Table
Duration: Unknown
Date Started: March 2004
Date Ended: June 2004
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Cost:
| Quartersawn/Plainsawn Red Oak and Poplar |
$130 |
| Stains |
$36 |
| Hardware |
$15 |
| Total: |
$181 |
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Tools purchased during project:
- BT3100 Table saw
- Freud SD206 dado blade
- #5 Stanley Jack plane
- #4 Stanley Smoothing plane
- #80 Stanley cabinet scraper
- Hand scrapers
- Self-centering dowel jig
- Set of Japanese chisels
- Six 24" Jorgensen bar clamps
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Overview
After purchasing my first table saw I was ready to take on a more challenging project. My wife had commissioned a sofa table that she picked out from Restoration Hardware. Luckily, I had an issue of Fine Woodworking that had plans for a sofa table that I adopted for my needs. There were many firsts during this project, of which, the most important being the first project where I truly felt I was doing fine woodworking. In addition, this was the first project using a table saw. I enjoyed this project so much, this is also the first project I am sad to see end.
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Although this project stretched out over three months, I mostly worked on it in the evenings doing an hour here, two hours there. The reason I do not know how many hours the project took is because I stopped to learn many new skills and lost track. I learned:
- How to use a table saw.
- How to sharpen tools using the Scary Sharp method.
- How to use hand planes and scrapers. In fact, I did not use any sandpaper other than between finish coats.
- How to properly use chisels.
- How to hand-cut dovetail drawers.
- A new technique for staining. Before this project I used only the all-in-one Minwax approach.
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Construction & Joinery
The frame was constructed using mostly mortise and tenon joinery. The main carcass consists of 8 M&Ts and 4 double M&Ts. All mortises were cut using a table-mounted router, which proved to be a challenge producing accurate mortises. During this process I came up with a design for setup jigs that I have not yet made but I hope will increase accuracy. The tenons were cut using my shop-made tenon jig, which worked great. All tenons were rounded to fit in the router-made mortises. I plan to add a shoulder plane to my collection that should help to make better fitting tenons. Drawer runners were attached to the frame using dowels.
The quartersawn red oak tabletop was glued-up using dowels with haunched tenons connecting the breadboards at both ends. The top was then hand planed and scraped to a smooth finish. This was my first project using hand planes and scrapers. In fact, every part of the table including the drawers saw a hand plane and scraper. No sandpaper was ever used except for light sanding with steel wool during the finishing process.
My pride and joy for this project are the drawers. The drawers are constructed with oak fronts and poplar sides and backs. These are traditional drawers with half-blind dovetails in the front and through dovetails in the back. I followed a hand-cut method from an article in Fine Woodworking cutting pins first then tails. Due to time constraints, the only unconventional parts of the drawers are the plywood bottoms.
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Finish
I used a technique from a Fine Woodworking article demonstrating an approach resulting in a fumed look. I first started with a coat of TransTint reddish brown dye, then a coat of Bartley's dark mission brown gel stain, then several coats of shellac. The pictures show the table with a coat of red dye then a subsequent coat of pigment stain. The result is an incredible shade of brown with an underlying glow of red. The process was surprisingly easy and the results were incredible. I'm not sure how this would work on other types of wood but the effect it has on oak is astonishing.
Applying this finish to the dovetailed drawers was a different story. I could not decide if it would be easier to stain the oak fronts before glue-up or apply a finish after glue-up. After unsuccessful searches on the Internet I went ahead and glued-up the drawer prior to staining. Not because I thought it would be easier but simply because I could wait no longer to figure out the best approach. To apply the dye and stain, I painstakingly brushed the finish on the oak front's pins using a painter's brush. It took a very steady hand but I managed to get the final look I wanted. I will continue to seek out a better solution for staining dovetail drawers.
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Lessons Learned
Despite all the new skills I learned during this project, the most important is patience. As with most hobbyist, time is usually a commodity and even though I constantly reminded myself to take my time I continually rush my work. It is extremely difficult, and not to mention dangerous when playing with power tools, to squeeze two hours of work into one. I had on many occasions refrained from working in the workshop knowing full well I did not have the proper time to finish the task at hand. Unfortunately, on many other occasions, I also rushed to get something done which inevitably resulted in mistakes. And believe me, I made plenty of mistakes. In the end, I was fortunate to be able to hide most of my blunders and came out with a project I am happy with. It was by far my most enjoyable project to date.
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