Solid Oak Dining Room Table minus the glass top (Click to View)
Solid Oak Dining Room Table
Our oldest daughter Tara requested a solid Oak table frame with a black stain and a 1/4" tempered glass top as her Christmas present in 2010. This project looks like it should have taken 5 to 10 hours to complete, but in fact required about 50 hours to bring to this stage. Lots of hidden work you don't see at first glance like the 4 mortise and tenon joints on the four legs.
The full 2"x4" legs are joined to the small cross beams with a very substantial mortise and tenon joint that should last a lifetime. The long center beam is connected with a total of 6 x 1/4"-20 fasteners to allow disassembly for moving. To ensure the connection point is not damaged I placed 4 heavy duty 45 degree Oak corner gussets to provide rigidity. With the 3/8" dowels and glue, they will not be moving any time soon. The legs have a 1/4" roundover on all 4 corners. The 3 beams have a decorative routed groove down the top center of each. These grooves could be painted a contrasting color like bright red, but my daughter prefers to leave it just ebony black for now.
I used an Ebony Black aniline dye from Lee Valley for the first time. It comes in a powder that you mix with hot water and then brush onto the wood. It penetrates very quickly, but did show signs of penetration resistance at certain points on the Oak.
Walnut Jewellery Cabinet for my youngest daughter (Click to View)
Walnut Jewellery Cabinet
When I asked my youngest daughter what she would like me to make her for Christmas 2010 she surprised me with a very specific sketch done in Microsoft Word that was very adequate to make this finished result. Silly me!! I only know how to do such designs in 3D AutoCAD, so did not even know Word had a sketching feature!!
Key Features Include: - Dovetail joints at corners. - Baltic Birch back panel. - Secret compartment. - Hettich self damping concealed hinges. - Oil stain with hand rubbed Tung Oil finish. - 3 Brass necklace pins. - Adjustable Walnut shelves. - Rail and Stiles door frame with a mirror.
Solid Oak Jewellery Cabinet (Click to View)
Solid Oak Jewellery Cabinet I built this unit for my wife for Christmas 2010.
Key features include: - Dovetail corner joints. - Solid Oak walls and shelves. - Solid Oak rail and stiles doors with mirror. - Padauk accent pieces at top of cabinet. - Secret compartment. - Hettich self damping concealed hinges. - Hand rubbed Tung Oil Finish. - Baltic Birch back. - Brass necklace carousel. - Brass necklace pins (2 of) . - Adjustable oak shelves.
Lessons learned: - Dovetail joints are very easy to make your own beginner mistakes in spite of the excellent Akeda dovetail jig I used. - Get your client (my wife) to choose the design details like color, wood species, size, etc. (like my daughter did!!) That way you won't have impossible requests after delivery, like changing the stain color, type of wood etc. - Build the 3D AutoCAD model precisely, to check out every fitting detail before the shop build. (like I usually do!!) - Don't use Titebond III glue when the temperature is too low. I started laminating the table legs when the wood was cold and had to redo it because the glue did not bond.
