A few more pics of the table

Well,

Still don't have wax on it yet, and don't have a great place in my house to take pictures, but here are a couple of more shots of the spalted maple coffee table in likely it's final location.

Nearly there

So the table is put together now, I'm going to let it cure for 7 days or so and then rub down the finish with 0000 steel wool and put on a coat or two of Clapham's wax (probably the salad bowl version).  I've taken a few pictures of it in the basement but the lighting is poor.  Once it is waxed up, I'll take some better ones.  I may still put a few more coat of finish on it though.  There still some spots where it just kept soaking in and it didn't build.  I'm kind of hoping the wax will help on in these areas.

Also, I ran into some issues with temperature, I applied the finish in my garage due to the fumes, but it is not insulated.  Once the temperature got below say 16 degrees (it is November in Ontario), the finish started to bead up, and not wet the surface.  Preheating the top and finish inside the house first seemed to help, but I think I might continue to have issues if gets much colder.  Maybe I'll wait until spring to put on more finish, doing it the house is not an option with Waterlox.

Waterlox ain't so bad

Finishing.... slowly.

So after my last post I did sand the table top with 320 grit no load paper.  (They just opened a Lee Valley store 5 mins from my work, so I've been kind of a regular there at lunch hour.  Dangerous really, but handy.)  The second coat was really glossy in certain areas of the top so I sanded pretty aggressively in those areas as I wasn't liking the heavy film look I was getting.  The sanding helped, then I put the 3 and 4th coats on with a cotton rag (ripped up T-shirt).  I found this article on the Waterlox site: Waterlox article in FWW.   So next time I will follow this technique more closely.  But for the 3 and 4th coats I put on thin coats in circular motions then smooth out the finish with long stroke with the grain.  And..... its looking nice.  Yep, more along the lines of what I am hoping for.  Still different then Deft, but then I don't know how the Deft would have built up, and definitely not looking like poly (by the way, I should clarify, I'm not bashing poly here, it can be a great choice, it's just not the look I want for this table).  I also used the cloth and thin coat technique on the remaining legs, and after one coat they are looking much better than the brushed coat I did earlier on the back up leg.  So, morale of the story, put on thinner coats, or follow the schedule that Michael Pekovich outlines in the article.  (Of course I still want to try a blend at some point.)

I'm up to 4 coats on the slab now, and like I said, its coming along.  My only concern at this point is that there are areas where the slab has a lot of spalting, and the finish just keeps getting sucked into an abyss in these spots.  It doesn't seem to be building on these spots at all.  So it may be 3 or 4 coats to go yet, maybe more.  This is not a big deal as it doesn't take too long to apply, the only issue is I can only do one coat a day.

Finally, I think in the end I will wax the top.  I'll use 0000 steel wool and then apply some paste wax.  Should be sweet.  Anyone know how bad waxed surfaces are for showing finger prints?

Finishing dilemmas and second guesses

Some people that know me might call me in-decisive, or over-analytical, leading to more indecisiveness.

So it was with the finish for this coffee table.  I first went out and got a can of Deft Danish oil, and had the intention of using this for the table.  The legs were ready to go before the top, so I decided I would put a coat of Deft on all four legs (I have a back up leg).  Putting on the Deft oil could not be easier: rub it on, leave it say 5 mins and wipe it off with a clean rag.  I must say, once that oil hit the walnut, it just came to life, so nice!   Anyway, the first coat of deft oil looked great.  I have been accustomed to poly based products in the past with the odd experience with pure tung oil.  So when the danish oil Deft went on, it was a new experience for me, it stayed "in-the-wood" as they say.  Kind of like wiping the legs with mineral spirits, but never having the spirits evaporate, that's the best way I can describe it.  I was very happy, almost blown away.... but then came the second guessing.  As much as I loved the Deft finish, I started to get concerned it would not be durable enough for a table top.  This coffee table will see a lot of abuse (my son being the first concern), and I was also worried about cold drinks being set on it etc.  So I did some more research and talked to a few people.  That's when I heard about Waterlox.  Seemed every where I looked people could not say enough good things about this product.  It was durable, easy to apply, easy to repair and an oil-based (tung oil) finish.  Sounded like Deft, but better.  The only real downside it seemed was the price which was 33% more than the Deft.  But, I thought with all the effort I put into the table, and the concerns I had about the heavy use it would see, it deserves the best finish.

So, off I go to A&M Wood and get me a litre of Original Waterlox Sealer/Finish.  It said medium sheen on the can.  I figured regardless of which finish I was going to use I would need to brush it onto the live edge of the slab because one of the corners has a jagged broken off part (the is actually a nice aesthetic feature), and would use a rag for the rest of the table (like I did for the Deft).  However, after I get home and read the application instructions, and it says to brush it on.  Funny.  I do some more internet searches and realize you shouldn't wipe it on wipe it off because it is more like a traditional varnish then a danish oil (I'm learning there are many flavors of Danish oil, my favourite line I read was a blogger wondering if they make it by squeezing Danes.)  So, the next question was, what about the legs?  Can I put Waterlox over the Deft oil?  And should I?  I decided to try it out on my spare leg at the same time that I put the Waterlox on the bare table top.

I follow the instructions on the can and foam brush the top and bottom and bristle brush the edges of the spalted maple.  It is a nice product to work with, very forgiving and the wood really came to life.   I waited over night and then put on a second coat.  I'm kind of undecided right now as to if I like it.  It is definitely different than the Deft Oil (which also claims to be Tung oil based, but I have my doubts), as it seems to be developing a film, and is not "in-the-wood".  The slab is absorbing the finish at different rates over its top, but there are definitely areas that appear glossy where the wood is less absorbent.  I assume this will be what the final coat might look like (I'm guessing 5 coats total might be needed).  I will be sanding between the 2nd and 3rd coats and again between the 4th and 5th, but I'm not sure this will fix the gloss/film.  The leg also looks much different with the Waterlox over the Deft.  No issues with adhesion or what have you, but it really looks more like a glossy film then "in the wood".  That said, I'm not totally against the glossy look.  I hope it turns out to be a bit more satin then gloss in the end (it is medium sheen after all), but for a piece like a coffee table, I think that look can be appropriate and if super durable, so much the better, just so long as it is doesn't look plasticy like poly.  I seems to have a lot of opinions with little experience.  Only a few coats of each product so far, maybe I'll just hold judgement until the end (it all part of the over-analytical thing).  I guess I'm just surprised how much the Waterlox reminds me of a regular old poly finish at this point, maybe I'll be surprised when I'm done with the coats, and maybe a couple of coats of wax will go a long way.  (But then again Waterlox doesn't recommend wax over their product,  makes it harder to maintain in the long term,  hmmmm.....).

So.  I'm looking for some feedback.  Any of you out there use Waterlox?  I heard at the IP it was used a fair bit, although not straight out of the can.  When used as part of a blend of other products, is it applied by hand or by brush?  Do you wipe it off after each application?  Does it end up giving a film or glossy like finish or is it "in-the-wood".  Anything you'd recommend I do different?

Right now my plan is to lightly sand the second coat with 320 grit, and then apply the 3rd coat with a rag.  It'll be a thinner coat so we'll see how that goes, maybe less gloss.  Finally, I still really dig that Deft oil.  I haven't done anymore to the remaining 3 legs, but I assume I'll Waterlox them just so they match the rest of the table.  As it stands now though, in the future I think I'll use the Deft on any low-wear furniture I make like a wall cabinet and stick with the Waterlox for the high-traffic stuff.  I wonder if the Deft is really that bad in terms of wear resistance?

Sorry for the long rambling post, if you got this far thanks for sticking it out.

Get in shape

Ok, progress on the slab table is happening.  First thing I tackled was giving a little curve to the straight cut on the slab to try and round some of the edges.  I had thought about using a jig-saw for this, but my Dad suggested I could likely use my bandsaw if I supported the slab with a box on my table saw.  Well, voila!  This actually worked pretty good.  Kind of a daunting experience, but went better than I thought.

Cleaned up the cut with my jack plane, I think it'll work.  Next thing to tackle was shaping the legs.  Now, when I started this project, I had the romantic notion that I would be able to complete the entire project without ever touching a piece of sand paper.  I figured that I could plane the top flat, and spoke shave the legs to shape and go right to finish.   Well, I think I am realizing that hand planes minimize sanding, but do not completely eliminate it.  This became painfully obvious when I tried to spokeshave the cuts left by the bandsaw on my legs.  It worked pretty good on the flat sections, but for the sculpted insider corner, despite having a round-bottom shave from Veritas, I had issues there.  In fact, on one leg, the blade tore out a chunk of wood when I crossed the joint (changing grain direction.)  So I got pretty nervous, and decided that I would need to use a rasp on this section of the legs.  Here I used a Nicholson #49 rasp, worked great, but now how to clean the rasp marks?  Well, maybe there is a better way, but for me I figured my only choice was to go to 80 grit sandpaper and clean up the cuts left by the rasp.  Then to 120 etc.  Seemed to work out so far, but I still need to try out the finer grits.

 

So, on the rest of the inside legs, I used a flat-bottomed spoke shave handed down to me from my grandfather.  Works great and is rewarding to use a tool that I spent a lot of time in his hands as well.  

 

On the front of the legs, this is a straight section so I used a block plane add pillow to these.  Not a lot, I'm trying to be subtle, like the work that Nick Nelson puts out (see my blog list).

Sorry about the rotated picture, for some reason, this blog program won't save rotation settings (you'll have to turn you head).  So here is a shaped leg next to one that is yet to be pillowed etc.  And the three legs after initial shaping. 

Next is to finish sand the legs.  I'm hoping that all that flattening and shaping will allow me to at least start sanding at 180-220 as opposed to 120 that I usually start with.  And also spend much less time sanding in general.  I'm going go to 320, may be higher, we'll see. 

But prior to that, I need to prepare the legs for attachment to the slab.  I got some 1/4 x 2" lag bots from The Depot, but when I did a test I sheared the lag bolt right off!  I mean yes I am ridiculously strong, but this surprised me!  I bought some 5/16 bolts, but they seem too beefy, maybe I'll get some stainless steel 1/4 versions but they a bit more expensive (like $2 a bolt!).  I don't figure I'll need to account much for wood movement as the bolts will be pretty close together (4 inches or so and two per leg).  The legs will either be inline with the grain or at an angle, so I can't image movement being a big deal.  If anyone thinks lag-bolting these legs to the slab is a bad idea, please stop me now!

Ok, last thing I did, was try and determine leg placement on the slab.  I thought I could do this geometrically by drawing major axes on the slab and pointing all the legs to a common point and strategies like that.  But in the end, nothing look quite right, so I basically almost free-placed them in a manner I thought was appealing.  I think it is the only way to go, but you're never really sure.  I used double-sided tape to attach the legs temporarily to the top and tried it out.  Take a look.

At first I wasn't liking it, I can't say why.  But after about 15 mins, and a little re-assurance from my wife, I started to really like it.  I think in the end the legs are not too-thin an the placement towards the edge of the slab should make the table more stable (important with a 10 month old).  I think they are elegant and kind of contrast with the bulk of the top.  Should look nice with the Deft Danish Oil I plan to put on it.  With any luck the next post will have some better pics of a finished table!  Now, where to put the thing?

Joinery results and glue-up life lessons

So, I left off wondering how the joint for the first leg was going to turn out after glue up.  Well, not bad really, here I am using my flush-cut saw to cut-off the overhanging tenons of the bridle joint.

Once cut, clean up with block and jack plane.  With these being bevel-up planes, I used my 25 degree blades for the end-grain of the tenons. 

And the final result looks like this:

So, all in all I'm pretty happy with this for a first try.  There are a few gaps near the top, but I hope to get better with additional joints etc.  So next, I bandsawed the tapers and tried my best to flatten them with my planes.  The inside, curved corner turn out to be difficult.  I made out pretty good with my round-bottom spokeshave, but am still getting some chattering.  I'm going to try and sharpen it again, and see if that helps, if not I'll move to sanding (if only I had an oscillating drum sander).  So here is what the first leg turned out to look like.

I'm satisfied with that.  However I put it under the table like the earlier getto mock-up, and I'm questioning if I've made the taper too thin at the bottom of the leg.  The top is 2.5 inches thick, so I'm wondering if the leg taper needs to be thickened a bit.  I'm going to pillow the leg which I think will make it appear even thinner from the side.  Looking at it from the front however, it's 2 inches thick so looks fine, I wonder how often you would see it from a pure side view (all the legs will be at different angles after all.)  Anyway, my plan is to try out a thicker taper on the remaining three legs to see what they look like.

So, onto the remaining three leg blanks.  This time I marked the legs with my marking gage, on both pieces.  Way better approach.... I also was very careful cutting the fingers out accurately on the tablesaw.

I cut the fingers for all the legs this way and bamm!!!  With a little sanding of the fingers they fit beautifully, slide together very nicely!

So here is another reason why I love working wood and the people who do it.  I sent a quick note to Ian Godfrey asking a couple of questions about technique for this joint.  I figured he was a swell guy, but didn't think I'd would hear from him for a few weeks at least.  I was really just trying to get some tips for when I use this joint again.  So, not only does he get back to me right away, he offers to connect with me privately and address my questions directly!!  I was blown away, what a guy!! - Thanks Ian. 

So with a few pointers from Lord Godfrey and more attention to detail, I finished cutting the joints.  Here is the result:

Much happier than the first leg.  I tried a clamp and the small gap at the top, closed right up.  Nice.  My only regret at this point, (which was also brought up by Ian), was that this beautiful joint will be hidden under a giant slap of maple, ah well, that was why I decided to try it in the first place!  Good practice in any case.

So, here's where things go off the rails a bit.  I have been following a lot of wood working blogs, and I have always been amazed at how much trouble people go to create proper clamping set ups.  Specifically with building specialized cauls and fixtures, always seemed like a lot of unnecessary work to me.  Well lesson learned, it is worth it, and I had to learn the hard, painful way.  Basically, the glue up of the first leg went really well, I seemed to get pressure in the right places and everything closed nicely.  No problems.  Well for the second leg, I don't know why, perhaps I took too long applying the Titebond III, but the glue started to get sticky and started to set on me with the joint still centimeters away from being closed!!  And the clamping strategy I had used previously wasn't able to force it.  Ten minutes of panic and desperation with all trying all king of clamping angles and hammering I was able to get it close, but wasn't able to close it like it should have based on the dry fit. I also damaged a lot of wood fibres with the clamps falling off the sides.  Sigh.  

So, the situation gets worse....  I practice a bit more with my clamps, use a few wedges etc and feel that I've got a more reliable approach.  For the second leg, I work much faster with the glue, apply my new clamps and the mitre part of the joint closes up nicely.  I walk away feeling like only one leg has been compromised.  Well this morning, when I took the clamps off the second leg, I realized the tenons did not seat fully into the morise on the end-grain side!!   I didn't even check this side because I figured if the mitre closed nice, everything else would have too. I've got like an 1/8 inch gap!   I almost cried, I almost kicked the cat.  Anyway, the lesson learned here is to take the time to make the proper cauls to get the proper clamping pressure.  If I had done this, my joint would be easy to close up tightly, with no stress.  I was so eager to get the leg together I blew it.  

Anyway, I'll take a better look at it tonight.  Maybe I can put a wedge of walnut in the gap and fill it.  Not ideal but may be necessary.  I do have the extra leg (the first one I built), but it might have more taper than I want so perhaps I'm stuck with that taper.  I'll build the proper cauls for the last leg.  I was also considering a glue with a longer open time, the Titebond didn't seem too forgiving in that respect.  Unibond might be a better choice but it scares me as I would be using it inside the house and I hear it is nasty.  

At least I'm learning.....  

Mind-bending bridle joint

Tonight I tried to make one leg joint to see how it would turn out in walnut. I made up an extra leg blank so I thought I would use it as a test piece. I also decided to up the challenge of the joint a bit and make it a mitred-bridal joint as Ian Godfrey did for his leather rocker. (You'll need to go back to the early postings in his blog to see what I'm talking about.)

So instead of a single tenon and a slot, I went with a double tenon (or fingers) and two slots. In addition, in order to get a sculpted inside corner, I added a mitre which allows extra material for rounding on the inside.

So here I am cutting the tenons of the bridal joint on the long portion of the leg.

After cutting the fingers, I cut the mitre on the table saw as well. For the other leg part, here it is marked for the mitre cut. For this one I decided to use my bandsaw. Not sure it was the right decision, I may try the table saw for both cuts next time.

And here it is cut:

Here is the resulting fit:

Not bad for the first time trying a mind-bending joint, but I'm sure I can do better. I think I had some issues transferring the marks from one piece to the other for the fingers. I cut one piece first and then transferred. Next time I might just mark both pieces before cutting. Also, I think my full scale leg drawing needs to be redone with bit more care. I found myself really relying on this drawing for a lot of markings and angle captures (and to keep me sane). I need to be sure it is as accurate as I can draw it if I'm going to rely on this strategy. It's the first time I've worked this way and I don't think I could have attempted this joint without full scale drawings.

Ok, well I'm going to glue up the first leg and bandsaw it to make sure I don't get any surprises when I go to my three remaining legs. Here is what is looks like now:

I'll see how good that joint is tomorrow.

Spalted Maple Slab Coffee Table

Ok, so after lurking on wood working blogs for close to 3 years, I've decided to take the plunge and start my own blog based on my own projects. Not really sure yet how this is going to work out to be honest, we'll see. With a young family, (2 year old and 9 month old), free time is precious and generally I like to use whatever I have to be working in the shop as opposed to blogging, but I'd also like to try and document my progress to share with others so I'll give it a go.

At some point I'll try and give the shop tour, intro to how I came into wood working (actually that is simple - my Dad is the reason I work wood) and my basic interests, but for now, I'd like to just describe my current project.

I'm really just starting to get into buying wood from hardwood suppliers in rough-cut form as I purchased a jointer and planar a few years back. I'd been wanting to build a "live-edge" slab coffee table for some time, so a few months ago, I was at Timeless Materials near my work in Waterloo, ON and came across a 10/4, spalted maple slap that they had salvaged. Seemed like a good candidate for a coffee table so I took the plunge and bought it.

So here it is after I had spent a some time flattening the top with my jack plane. I think it is going to be pretty sweet. So the next challenge was what to do with the legs. I've never done anything like this before so I did some digging on the web, looked at some Nakashima-like stuff, looked through some magazines, and eventually found this table on Deconet.

I was really struggling to figure out how four legs would work with the odd-shape of the slab, but when I saw this, I knew three legs was the way to go. This would also eliminate any rocking that might occur with four legs if the slab started to move over time. So I then started to play around in sketch-up with some leg ideas. Really wanted some funky curved legs, but realized they would just end up competing with the top, and considering I wanted to keep the project reasonably manageable, I decided to go for some straight lines. This is what I came up with:

So, I think I like it and my wife liked them too, so I had a winner. Now to figure out how to build the legs, which I am going to make out of walnut. Speaking of walnut, I found a fellow about an hour from me who has a lot of walnut (flitch cut, live edge and dimensioned) that he sources locally, so I took a trip out and bought all I could fit in and on my Jetta (yes, about 80 board feet of 8/4, in a Jetta. That car never ceases to amaze me, but next time I'll bring a trailer.)

So as I mentioned, I am a blog lurker... there, I said it, my conscious is clear. Some of the blogs I follow are from current and past students of the Inside Passage. One such fellow, Ian Godfrey and another, Nick Nelson are two guys whose work I really admire. Ian Godfrey likes to use bridal joints on a lot of the legs in pieces he makes. So I think I'd like to give that a try. I mocked up a leg out of 2x4 and took a look at how it would work out. (To do this I made full-scale drawings, a technique strongly recommended by both Nick and Ian.) Here is the getto-mock-up. (Yes, that is a cat-litter box.)

So, I worked out how to do the bridal joint for tapered members at a non 90-degree angle. I must confess I was kind happy to pull that off. For the actual legs, I'm thinking of a sculpted inside corner, to have a curved transition from the vertical to horizontal portion of the leg, not convinced this is the way to go yet, but I am going to mill up an extra leg out of my walnut to play with this a bit. Speaking of that, here are the leg blanks:

Well, thats about it for now. Next step is to start playing with the legs. Going to shoot for bridal joints, sculpted inside corner and pillowed outside face. Stay tuned.....

First Post

OK, lets see if this works. The obligatory first test post.

... test .....