Since Mike Davis has been pointing out how few WIP posts there were lately and FredP has been poking me about where I am on this project I decided to start a thread.
I finally got a little more done on it and got some pics. Here's a rather long run down of where I am currently and what it took to get there.
The saga begins:
LOML and I decided it would be cool to build and decorate a Play/Train table for our kids and had intended for it to be a Christmas present. However other obligations prevailed and it got put on the back burner. Then not to mention our 6 yr old kept asking what I was building so it couldn't really be from "Santa" now could it?
.gif "Drogar BigGrin(DBG)")
I've recently had some time to get back to working on it but it will probably be at least another month before it's completed. I've run into some snags along the way and got bailed out some by FredP. Thanks bro, you've saved my skin once again!
It's not anything real elaborate and it's gonna be pretty simple construction, to match my simple skills, finished size will be about 50"x35"x20~". The top is 3/4" BB, sides are 13/16" Poplar which will be attached by pocket screws, and the legs are 4.5" dia x 13.25" Pine logs. In a perfect world with good skills, equipment, and some luck thrown in this should be pretty easy right?
The first snag I ran into after sizing my top and sides was how to accurately get a consistent lip/edge reveal to prevent things from rolling off. I don't have a large enough flat work space to block up the top while I screwed on the sides so I had to do something else. The first solution after some requests for ideas was to dado the sides to aid with lining everything up. Easy enough right?
Snag #2: I had picked up a Freud 6" dado set for a previous project so here's a chance to get more use out of it. Well while running test cuts to get my fit right it seems I almost exceeded the arbor capacity of my little old 10" Delta bench top tablesaw. I was barely able to get the arbor nut back on with the number of chippers and shims I needed. In fact I partially stripped the nut and managed to get it to tighten after flipping it over. I felt confident I had enough bolt to nut contact for it to be safe to use, but felt if I didn't get all my dadoes cut before removing the dado blade I'd never get it back on with that thickness again for a 2nd shot at it. I got the width to my satisfaction and then started playing with setting depth. It was at this time I noticed that the bottom of the dado was a bit angled.
I got out the square and discovered the blade was about an 1/8" from being perpendicular.
No biggie right, I caught and fixed it before I dadoed my actual side pieces. This comes back to bite me latter on and I'm sure everyone sees it coming.
Snag #3: So I'm feeling good that I caught a set up slip up before it caused any issues. I proceed with rethinking my board orientation and cutting the dadoes in all four side boards. Did I mention my little tablesaw was having a real hard time cutting a 3/4"x1/4" dado in Poplar and it takes what seems like forever? I had to feed realllllllly slow and safely keep downward pressure on the boards cause the little saw was trying to tip up on me. That's done so now it's time to start dry fitting the sides so I can adjust their lengths as they were left a little long. I get them trimmed to their new proper lengths and proceed with dry fitting to check out my alignment came out. Holy sheep @*&% my ends and sides aren't aligned!!!
Upon re-inspection of my side boards I discover that one edge on all of them isn't square.
Well remember what I said about something coming back to haunt me from #2? Well it seems my blade alignment issue existed when I cut the sides to width as well.
This of course gave me a slight angle on the cut side and this got transferred to my dadoes dependent upon which edge was against the tablesaw fence. This of course caused my end/side alignment to be off.
I was not very happy at this point and let the pieces sit while I was at work the next couple of days with intentions of this being something I could easily resolve when I next had shop time.
Snag #4: It turns out this couldn't have been farther from the truth since I needed to take just a tiny bit off of both edges, preserve the alignment of the dadoes, and didn't have a lot of room for error since the sides have to cover my leg attachment blocks. I wasn't able to do any "fine" adjustments on the low quality fence on my tablesaw so I was stuck again.
I sent a SOS PM to FredP about possible solutions and ended up discussing it on the phone with him a bit. My available resolutions were limited by the tools I had at my disposal, but I got off the phone with FredP confident that I had a few courses of action that would fix this.
Snag #5: After trying to set up for all the options I thought would work, router or circular saw w/straight edge, I discovered neither would have the desired outcome.
So another SOS call to FredP and we ended up agreeing on a time for me to load up my misfit lumber for a trip to his magical shop where good tools and even better WW'ing ideas and skills reside!!
.gif "Drogar Laugh(DBG)")
Fix #1: After looking everything over we trimmed a very tiny bit off of both edges of all boards, maybe 1/16", to get them square again. It's amazing what you can do with a real tablesaw and fence set up.
The ends and sides now match up.
Fix #2: I pointed out how rough the bottoms of my dadoes were since my tablesaw was a bit inadequate and Fred suggested running them again to get them cleaned up and flatter. Yet again what a difference a real tablesaw can make! The top now seats better in the dadoes.
At this point I was satisfied my disaster was averted and I could get the remaining construction done with the tools I had at my disposal.
Design Update #2: While looking at the entire assembly dry fitted Fred inquired how I intended to cover/plug the exposed end of the dadoes. This was a very good question and my initial plan was to cut a plug to fit the opening and hide or implement the outline into the burned/painted scenes to be added later. Fred suggested notching the corners and using over sized solid stock of a different species to give it a little more finished look. Well what a good and simply implemented change me thinks so I'm all for it.
Fred digs through some of his coveted culls and comes up with a chunk of Walnut. We discuss size options and decided on 1.25" x 5" so Fred joints, planes, cuts and rounds over edges on four pieces. The long sides are trimmed a bit and the corners are notched to accept the corner pieces. The update makes the top look much better and more finished. Whoooo hoooo
Design Update #3: "Well", says Fred, "how do you plan on attaching the corner blocks?" Uhhhh ummm very good question says I, dunno.
How about dowels? Nah..... "Biscuits" suggests Fred, good idea says me. Got a biscuit jointer? Ummmmm of course I don't........
No problem of course out comes the biscuit jointer and everything gets nice half moons cut into them. As Fred is giving me biscuits and we're discussing the best way to glue up for the easiest final assembly we realize the 2nd biscuit doesn't seat in the end blocks cause it's hitting the first. No problem sand the offending side flat on the mini-belt sander and presto everything fits together nicely.
I know most folks got bored and stopped reading long ago, but for the folks that stuck it out I promise I'm almost done......
I finally managed to get a base coat of stain on the sides and top so it would be ready for burning/staining and glued the blocks to the ends. Here's the boring pics of the pieces stained and the ends with blocks glued/clamped. All that's left for me is a quick hand sand with 220 to knock down the fuzzies and then the LOML gets to start the really hard and creative work!
Closer shot of the purdy Walnut Fred "donated" for the corner blocks.
For reference this is kind of what we're shooting for and I may eventually make some roller bins for storage as well, but that's a ways off.
Thanks for looking and suggestions are always welcome.
Brian.
Geodesic Shop Crawl April 10th 
06-27-2009, 04:15 PM
" I get knocked down but I get up again" - Chumbawamba
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