Building the Side Table in Walnut and Curly Maple

                                                 

Getting the Lumber

A couple of years back I built a corner table in walnut and curly maple, described here, to fit in the space between two couches set at right angle to one another.  Recently, while walking through a big box store looking for some plywood, I chanced to spy a curly maple board lurking in the lumber rack! Coincidently, I had been hoarding a small slab of walnut crotch with some wild grain in it that I picked up a few years back.  The two pieces of lumber seemed made for one another.  Along with some 4/4 walnut boards in the cutoff bin, the pieces for this table came together. 

 
The Design 

Like its predecessor, the curly maple top is floating on a walnut base.  The walnut legs support two side rails, which in turn join to a pair of walnut cross members that elevate and hold the top about three inches above the legs and side rails.  For style, I chose to use contrasting maple double through tenons joining the legs to the side rails as well as the side rails to the cross members.  In practice, that choice necessitated using floating tenons throughout.  The legs rest on contrasting ‘cat feet’ that provide visual balance for the piece.  A pair of inlaid intersecting walnut curves breaks the monotony of the curly maple top, and bread board ends stabilize the top as well as add visual interest.  I chose the wild grain of the walnut crotch slab (Fig. 2) for the breadboard ends which are cut as a book matched pair from a 2” walnut slab.

                                                     

 

Building the Frame

I used some of the walnut slab for the legs and breadboard ends.  First, the leg blanks were roughed out and a mortise was milled into one end to accept the maple ‘cat feet’, which themselves had a tenon shaped at one end using the horizontal CNC.  This is the milling operation about half way through making one of the maple tenons (Fig. 3)

                                                 

After the cat feet are glued to the leg blanks, the assembly is trued up on the jointer and planed to final outside dimensions.  A double mortise is cut into the top. Next, four tapered cuts are made on the table saw using a tapering jig.  The hexagonal cross section is subsequently formed using a 45 degree bit on the router table.  The top edges are chamfered slightly at 45 degrees except the one edge facing the side rail. 

The double through mortise (two each 3/8” x 3/8”) is also cut into the side rails using a paper template to ensure proper spacing.  A small depth of material (1/2”) is removed from between the double mortices to produce a haunched double mortise, making fitting of the floating tenon easier later on.  For strength, a single wider mortise is cut into both ends of the side rails and the cross member ends while in square blank form, again using paper templates to ensure proper positioning.  

The curved rails were cut on the band saw, smoothed with a spoke shave, and edges eased on the router table.  Finally, the edges are sanded smooth by hand (Fig. 4). 

                                                                   

 

Making the Floating Maple Tenons 

In final form, the floating tenons take on a tuning fork shape.  The process begins by milling a maple board to 3/8” thick and as wide as the outer edges of the double tenon.  Notches are cut first (Fig. 5A) and waste material nibbled away on the table saw (Fig. 5B).  Next, the wider single tenon part of it is cut on the table saw (Fig. 5C).  Finally the finished compound tenon is separated from the stock with a cross cut on the miter saw indicated by the red lines in Fig. 5C.  Fig. 6 shows the test fit of a tenon blank into the side rail blank.  On the final table, the visible square "buttons" are actually the tenon ends.

                                           

                                                                   

Building the Top 

I used the same construction for the top as the prior corner table, scaled down to be 14” wide and 28” long.  The curly maple boards are jointed and edge glued without dowels or dominoes.  As before, I made breadboard style ends from walnut, with the tongue and groove reversed from the traditional placement to allow using maple dowels on the maple side of the joint.  The maple tongues are cut edge-on on the table saw using a tall utility fence for stability.  The end board grooves are also cut on the table saw.  I have found this method to be best for producing a mild friction fit for the breadboard ends.  I cut the walnut ends slightly thicker than the curly maple boards to allow some material removal from the top and bottom end surfaces.  A little work with a card scraper on the walnut ends brings the two surfaces flush.  This method compensates for any potential offsets when cutting the tongues and grooves into the mating boards.  

The top inlay was cut on the CNC router with a 1/8" bit, about 0.09” deep.  The inlay strip of walnut was thinned on the drum sander to 1/8” and cut to about 1/8” wide on the table saw with a zero clearance insert.  After gluing into place it is made flush using a chisel and card scraper.  The top is attached to the cross members using screws and Z-clips. 

Finish is two coats of hand rubbed shellac and five coats of wipe on Minwax satin Tung oil varnish. 

But this is not the end.  A week later, while walking through a big box store looking for some plywood, I chanced to spy …. 

 

Matching Serving Tray in Maple and Walnut

Rinse and repeat, no frame - but with handles.