Side table from some old 2x4s.
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Projects / Side table from some old 2x4s.
- This topic has 24 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 7 months ago by Greg Merritt.
-
AuthorPosts
-
I finally got around to doing an all hand tools project. Also, the first bit of real furniture.
I”ll put these in a series of posts until I find a better way. Please bear with me.
I had a rough idea of what I wanted. Some Shaker-esque design that would fit in a certain width and a specific height at the bedside and deep enough front to back to hold a lamp and a book.
I figured 1-1/8 would be a good size for a leg so I started off by ripping a 2×4 I had laying around.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.In a similar fashion, I cut apart a 2×4 and made 4 aprons. 2 at about 18″ long and 2 at about 10″ long. All were about 3-1/2″ tall and 3/4″ thick.
I laid out lines on each leg to mark where the tops of the legs would be, the tenons and the bottoms of the aprons
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Next up I started chopping out mortises. I never did this before and it worked out easier than I thought. I used one of the guide blocks that Paul has shown.
The mortise gauge I have is less than useless, so I just measured from the sides and used the chisel itself to guide the width of the mortise, allowing for a step between the face of the leg and apron.
Of course, I laid out the first leg totally wrong. They are on the wrong corner as can be seen in the photo below. I just turned the leg around and started cutting on the other end instead as I had not yet cut the legs to length.
I got the other 3 to work ok.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.I measured tenons to match the mortises and sawed them out.
I cut and planed the ends at a 45 so that one tenon would not interfere with the other inside the joint. I cut and angled haunch on each tenon and chiseled out a recess to match on each mortise.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.I took the lot apart and trimmed the top of the legs to match where they meet the aprons and then cut off the bottoms to length.
True to form, I cut off the wrong end of the leg on which I laid out the mortises incorrectly.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.So, next step was to either fix the bad leg, or cut a new one from another 2×4. I figured the handiest way out was to work on what I had, fit a blank into one of the mortises and then start over.
I cut a blank to match the height of the mortise and planed the width.
Here you can see my planing stop, which is like a bench hook that is held in the front vise. A cedar shim kept it up off the bench so that the plane didn’t slam into the planing stop.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.While that was gluing up, I started out to put a taper on the legs. I wanted a taper on the inside faces, starting about 1/2″ down from the apron and ending up with a 5/8″ x 5/8″ square on the bottom of the leg.
The first I started by cutting roughly to a line and finishing up with a smoothing plane to get the taper.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.The rest of the legs I just took down using a jack plane with a 8″ radius blade. I had used the jack after sawing the first leg. The plane was a lot faster to use.
I did find it handy though to saw the first leg as the cutoff was used in the vise to help clamp the legs in place.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.On to doing the top. I ripped up another 2×4.
I jointed the edges and joined the lot toghether. I didn’t flatten each board before gluing as I figured I’d do the lot together.
I don’t know if this was a good idea or not. The grain was running in every direction so I didn’t see if it would make a difference or not.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files. -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.