Just finished my first ever woodworking project. I've created a minimalistic lounge table of white oak. The legs are fixed to the table with a wedge joint. The wedge is made of oak, but the top 2-3 mm were chiseled out after to be replaced with brass. I used CE glue (superglue) to hold the brass in place.
Table dimension
- Length and width: 150 cm x 69 cm
- Table thickness: 1.9 cm (ended up thinner than planned)
- Height: 45 cm
The legs are angled outwards with 6 degrees or 8.6 degreed towards the table corners.
Finish: Wax-oil, natural.
Downside: The thickness of the table is probably a bit too thin, so time will show if it will hold up without sagging. The table thickness also make the table leg joint weaker than planned, so I will have to use the table with care. I can obviously strengthen with a support beam under the table, but I've decided to rather wait and see if it hold up.
As I don't have a jointer I uses a jig to use with my thickness planer to flatten the stock. I started off with 25mm x 250-300mm thick/wide rough planks. Final result was about 19mm thick and 120mm wide.
On the drill press I measured up the correct angle. I also drew a guideline toward the end corner of the table to align up with the line on the sacraficial wood that I drilled into. This way I ensured a perfekt drill angle for all the four corners.
I also had to calculate the angle that I had to drill the holes at in reference to the guideline made toward the table corner. This was different from the angle wanted towards the short-end/long-end of the table.
I wanted 6 degrees towards the short-end/long-end. After a bit of calculations (took me about 3-4 hours to figure out the angle, with some help from a math forum). The angle needed was 8.4 degrees.
I used Titebond III to glue together the boards. It stuck a lot quicker than expected and I nearly ran out of glue. It was also difficult to get the boards to align up 100 % (even though it worked fine, when I try tested with the clamps).
I create myself a template - I decided I wanted the table leg to be thinnest at the bottom, and the gradually increase the dimension to about 65% of the way up, before it reduced again. The part that was going to fit the 30mm drilled hole in the table top required the biggest attention. That has to fit the whole within 0.1 mm. I ended up making 5 legs, as I wasn't happy with the fit on one of them.
I used Titebond I for the table legs as that is what I had at hand. First I glued the upper part of the table leg and the inside of the hole, before glueing the wedge and wedge hole. Then I hammered it down.
The wedge was set to be 90 degreed to the direction of the grain to ensure it would split when I hammered the wedge in. (thanks to the guys on this forum for letting me know - I was thinking of doing it differently)
After the leg and wedge had dried over night I then chiseled out a 3 mm slot (about the same size as the wedge), and used CA (superglue) to fix the brass piece (cut on the band saw from a 3.1mm x 31 mm x 300 mm piece that I bough on eBay)
Chiseling out the four slots in the table legs took be 2-3 hours, as I couldn't afford a mistake at this point. And even a 0.1 mm error would easily show.
I wasn't sure what finish to have on the table, so I bought a two to test.
From top to bottom.
- thin layer of wax-oil natural
- white oil, rubbed off after about 60 seconds
- Nothing - natural wood
- thick layer of wax-oil natural (same as the top, just thicker layer).
I decided two use the thin layer of wax-oil, natural.
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There is one part I'm having trouble understanding which is the "splay" angle of the legs. In you first post above, you said:
The legs are angled outwards with 6 degrees or 8.6 degreed towards the table corners.
I also had to calculate the angle that I had to drill the holes at in reference to the guideline made toward the table corner. This was different from the angle wanted towards the short-end/long-end of the table.
I wanted 6 degrees towards the short-end/long-end. After a bit of calculations (took me about 3-4 hours to figure out the angle, with some help from a math forum). The angle needed was 8.4 degrees.
Your radial arm drill press can rotate the head as well as the table. Was it necessary to do both to get the correct angle?
So, are the legs splayed in both direction OR a compound angle, right? You said that you had a lot of difficulty determining the angle, and I'm wondering how you arrived at what you ended up with. It would take some plane geometry IF they are splayed both ways or compound.
I see the following photo of your calculations ... scary!
Me, I would just hot glue a broom stick/dowel/extra leg to a plywood base, stand back and adjust it until I liked it and THEN determine the angle(s) with a Digicube. Then over to the drill press and make a test hole to see if I got my numbers right. Higher math scares me, but I like the challenge. I'm a "cut and fit" kinda guy. :wink2:
Your radial arm drill press can rotate the head as well as the table. Was it necessary to do both to get the correct angle?
So, are the legs splayed in both direction OR a compound angle, right? You said that you had a lot of difficulty determining the angle, and I'm wondering how you arrived at what you ended up with. It would take some plane geometry IF they are splayed both ways or compound.
I see the following photo of your calculations ... scary!
Me, I would just hot glue a broom stick/dowel/extra leg to a plywood base, stand back and adjust it until I liked it and THEN determine the angle(s) with a Digicube. Then over to the drill press and make a test hole to see if I got my numbers right. Higher math scares me, but I like the challenge. I'm a "cut and fit" kinda guy. :wink2:
This is the first time I've used such a drill press. So there might have been more efficient ways to drill these holes, but this was the best option that I managed to come up with.
I rotated only the table by 8.4 degrees, so it wasn't a compound angle(had to google it so hope I understood the term correctly). However I did rotate the table (or the piece that would contain the hole) so that the table angle direction lined up with the center line between the hole and the table edge.
I also created a test leg, but rather to test if the measured angle and set-up worked. I was happy with the result. Making the holes was the easy part. It was more challenging to use the lathe and sand the table legs into a perfectly matching table leg. It was a lot of sanding, testing, sanding, testing, sanding, testing..... to get it perfect. I did end up making 5 tables legs, as one ended up to thin and the gap between the leg and table was to evident.
I'm 34 now, and when I had geometrics in a-levels some 16 years ago i never learned how sin, cos and tan worked. I tried to but never could get the hang of it. Nice to see that my IQ (and probably motivation to learn) have improved since then.
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