Harlequin side table

[Bill Holt]

Derek, while most of my tools have tails, I am able to relate on the tight "rebate" and resolving the issue with a plane.  A friend gave me his dad's 98 maybe two years ago. I spent a long time getting the iron sharp.  A few months ago I was rewarded for my efforts...that little bugger made quick work of fixing a tight dado.

I really enjoy your builds.

[Gary G™]

Derek

This is gorgeous.
In another thread you mentioned the possibility of not posting build-alongs in the future.
Please don’t do this—we’d all lose out.
I don’t have much to comment on—most of your work is a step beyond for me but I love watching it.

[Admiral]

Derek, while most of my tools have tails, I am able to relate on the tight "rebate" and resolving the issue with a plane.  A friend gave me his dad's 98 maybe two years ago. I spent a long time getting the iron sharp.  A few months ago I was rewarded for my efforts...that little bugger made quick work of fixing a tight dado.

I really enjoy your builds.

Bill, maybe we can get you over to the dark side of neanderthal tooling..... its a slippery slope.....

[Derek Cohen]

Looks wonderful, as usual, Derek! One question I have is about your dovetails. Clearly they are an important design element of this piece, but my question is do you have any concerns that the shear number of them could compromise the integrity of the joinery at the baseline of the pin boards? There is not much material left there at all to give it strength.

Hi Greg

Interesting question .. because the answer is not one I encourage. 

The strongest corner joint is a multi-finger joint. Thus is because the glue area is so great. Why do I not like this answer? Because I am not a fan of finger joints since they are obviously machine-orientated. Rather do multi dovetail joinery ... become a masochist like me.


Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Derek, while most of my tools have tails, I am able to relate on the tight "rebate" and resolving the issue with a plane.  A friend gave me his dad's 98 maybe two years ago. I spent a long time getting the iron sharp.  A few months ago I was rewarded for my efforts...that little bugger made quick work of fixing a tight dado.

I really enjoy your builds.

Hi Bill

For many, the easiest way to hone these blades is with a honing guide, specifically the Veritas Mk2 which has an accessory to set the blade at a specific angle. I think the angle is 20 degrees and the bevel 30 degrees. 

I hollow grind the little buggers and then freehand them on the hollow. This makes for a quick practice, and less set up means I keep the blades sharp. They do not work well on end grain unless very sharp.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

The Harlequin side table will have 8 drawers. The drawer case sides and the central drawer blade are panels and run in dados or housings (depending on which side of the pond you live). Positioning of these dados is critical since any misalignment will affect the aesthetic. It goes without saying (but I shall) that the alignment also determines that the side panels will be square ... and drawers need to run against square sides. All this is done here with hand tools.

Some of the finer points in getting it precise ...

First of all, templates (or story sticks) are created to position the dados. There are two for each side panel: the second is 10mm longer than the first. Scoring each creates an exact 10mm dado. There is a series of templates to position all the dados. This ensures that the upper and the lower dado are position exactly the same distance from the reference wall ...





A chisel wall is created for the marked outlines. This wall enables the fence to be lined up using a wide chisel ...



The sidewalls are sawn with a azebiki saw. This have two curved sides, one with coarse rip teeth and the other with fine crosscut teeth. I begin with the fine teeth and use them to establish the kerf, and then switch to to the coarse teeth for speedier sawing.



With a compass, I check that the kerf is parallel and to the desired width (10mm) ...



The sawn side wall is now chopped away close to full depth ...



This is done across the dados on one board at a time ...



The waste in the centre of each dado is removed with a router plane. The dados are done at the same time to save have to reset the depth of cut (one stroke on dado #1, one on dado #2, and one on dado #3 ... then back to #1 ...) ...



Keep an eye on the depth ...



Fine tune the dado should theoretically be unnecessary if they were marked accurately. In practice, I find that there is usually some waste in the corners, or a slightly sloped wall. For this reason I run a side rebate plane (here a Veritas), the length of each wall. This is not held vertically, since that with remove some of the width. Instead it is run at an angle away from the side wall, as it it was undercutting the side wall ...



The fit is now checked with an offcut from the side panel ...



The side rebate plane can take a smidgeon off the sidewall if the fit is too tight. Some will argue that it is preferable to plane the panel instead. In this situation that is not advisable since the panel is to slide along the dado, and a tight point will impede all points of the panel.

The carcase is Hard Maple, with Merbau as the secondary wood. Locally, Merbau is used for decking. It is cheap and hard, both qualities valued. But is a really brittle wood, and awful to work with. The number of splinters I have had ... and they are sharp and lodge deeply. Ugh!

It can look like this ...



... and then a section breaks away ...



At least it will be far inside the carcase and not be seen.

[Derek Cohen]

A panel is made up for the interior dividers ...





The pieces are fitted.

Will the careful planning and neurotic execution pay off?

I was holding my breath. This is a dry fit ....







(sound of breathing again)

Then I pulled it apart and glued up the carcase ...



More after the coming weekend.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

We left off with the drawer dividers a dry fit in the case ...



And then this was pulled apart and the case glued up. After a clean up, the ends were looking a little tidier ...



Now we've been through this together with the Jarrah coffee table, but for those who want to know how ...

The ends are marked (with a washer) ..



The aim is the remove the waste progressively to the lines ...



This is quick to do with a low angle jack ...



.. and finish with a block plane ...



Now finish with sandpaper - 80/120/240 grit ...



The completed case ...



I spent a few hours today turning a few legs. Rather than show the prototypes, I am hoping that I may have enough time to complete them tomorrow - I have the afternoon off!
- and then I will post more photos.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ray Newman]

Impressive design and building skills!

Very enjoyable and informative thread.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks for the kind words, Ray.

I do wish my posts would lead to questions and this lead to discussion here. Discussion is how we all learn ... and how I learn from others.

Regards from Perth

Derek