We have needed a small hall table that will be near our front door. It needs to fit a specific area, which isn’t very wide. The table needs to be less than 20” wide. It will be a place to drop keys and mail. So it doesn’t need too large. I thought about some of the different design options. I wanted it to be clean looking, not too decorative. I looked through a few design books and kept an eye out in furniture sale fliers for design ideas. End the end, I started to settle on a half round table with tapered legs.
I spent some time in SketchUp to rough out my design. The top will be about 20” in diameter. I haven’t settle on the height yet, but it will be around 32” high. I also think I will use C
herry for the project, but it will depend on what I can find at my suppliers. I’d like to find a nice piece of figured Cherry for the top.I gave some thought to the type of joinery I would use, to attach the legs to the apron. I was thinking I could use mortise and tenon joints for the back legs. Then I thought I could use sliding dovetails. Beside the joinery I choose, this project won’t be that complicated. I’ve never used sliding dovetails, so I think I will challenge myself and give it a try. For the front middle leg I will use a bridle joint.
The other challenge for this project will be the apron. I plan to make the half round shape, using bentwood lamination. This will also be a new experience for me. I’ve seen this done a lot but have never tried it.
Because some of these techniques are new to me, I will be trying them out on some less expensive wood first. I’ll create the apron and a leg or two out of Poplar. This will allow me to practice cutting the sliding dovetails, and to see how the bentwood lamination behaves.
To help cut the male end of the sliding dovetails, I looked around for dovetail planes. I really couldn’t find what I was looking for. I new Phil over at Philly Planes made different kinds of wooden hand planes. I sent him an email asking if he made dovetail planes, and I was happy to hear back that he does. I’ve got my name on his to-do list. It will be a few weeks before he can get to it, but that just gives me time to work on getting the test pieces put together.
2 comments:
I've become a real fan of sketchUp too. Fantastic way to visualize a design - which you've demonstrated quite nicely here. Good job. Keith (www.woodtreks.com)
Keith,
I have become a fan for SketchUp too. It's great package at the right price :). I'm also trying to develop my hand sketching skills too. I'd like spend a little more hand sketching before I get to SketchUp. Sometimes I find I need to make a change to the SketchUp drawing and it becomes a real pain (sometimes starting over). My brother who is an Engineer calls this being CAD-bound. You have too much invested in the CAD drawing and you don't want to take the time to change it.
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