Card Table Build

[Scoony]

One of my woodworking bucket list items is building a Federal style card table. I have the cherry left form other projects and decided to make one from that cherry.  The apron is made up of several layers of wood. I had some cherry boards that were culled out from the past project due to sap wood and unattractive grain. I decided to use up that cherry instead of buying more poplar for the core. 

I have a good start on the core and currently at layer 3 of 4 layers. I made a jig to cut the various angles. Took a lot of testing and resetting the fence to get the angles right. 

   

   

   

The apron will be be laminated with a figured crotch veneer. There is a small section of tear out/void where the router bit was going against the grain, and I wasn't climb cutting. That small area that will have to be filled with something. Not sure how I will fix it yet, going to think about it for a little.  

I am not planing any inlays. I say that now, but I may change my mind as this goes along. I do have some ebony and holly, but if I do any inlays, I will keep it simple.  

The legs are cut to size but not tapered yet. I am contemplating turning them on a lathe instead of the Federal style of tapering. Here in Kentucky, turned legs seems more prevalent than tapered. This may end up as a Kentucky styled card table. Going to focus on the apron and see how that turns out

[handi]

Love building card tables! 
Looking forward to seeing how that brick mold, and all the rest, comes out!

[Scoony]

The apron is coming along. There is a some tear out from 2 mistakes
1. Not cutting close enough to the line before glueing the apron pieces. The trick is to clamp a layer in place, mark a line from the form, and bandsaw off most of the outside waste, then glue down that layer.

2. I was not climb cutting with the router slow enough at that section.

I mixed up some glue and sawdust and used that to fill in the rear out void. 

   

I also started on the knuckle joints for the rear legs. 

   

[Scoony]

I have these two pieces of cherry for the veneer. One is QS with some curl. The other is a crotch section. 

   

I plan on using hot hide glue and hammer veneering it to the apron. I will need to make a proper veneering hammer and get some 1/8" ply for clamping. I will saw some veneer pieces and play around with the orientation. Any insight or tips on how to orientate the veneer would be welcome.

[Scoony]

Had time to cut out the inside waste of the apron. I also sanded it down with 100 grit to prep the surface for the hot hide glue veneering. I don't have a toothing plane so corse sandpaper is recommended.  I was going to try to cut the veneer on the bandsaw, but a test cut on some scrap changed my mind (need a new blade). I ended up cutting them on the table saw which wastes a lot of material. I was able to cut them just shy of 1/8" and made a planer sled to get them down to  heavy 1/16". That Ridgid has a Shelix head which is nice on the figured grain. 

   

   

I made a veneer hammer today and letting the epoxy cure overnight before I finish it up. If all goes well, I will be veneering tomorrow.

[handi]

Looking good. Interesting build.

[Scoony]

Looking good. Interesting build.

Thanks, I am using an article from Steve Latta on a federal card table build. The apron is all veneered. Once that is cleaned up, I am going to work on completing the knuckle joint, then the legs. 


I was not happy with the way the knuckle joints were coming along so I went to youtube academy and watched a couple of videos. One thing is the youtube versions were all for 90 deg swing. These need to be 30 deg swings so the relief is a bit different. I started over with some more wood and have everything marked out correctly.

[Scoony]

Thougt I posted this last night but my mind may have been clouded by the bourbon.

Yesterday was a long day in the shop working on tapering the legs, and starting on new knuckle joint pieces

The front legs are tapered on 3 sides and get attached to the apron with a bridle joint. The back legs are only tapered on 2 sides and are attached to the swinging arms with a mortise and tenon joint.

The knuckle joints for the swinging arms are probably the most difficult part of this entire build. 

   

   


All the parts so far, minus the top. As can be seen, I started to remove the waste on the apron for one bridle joint but stopped for the day.

   

[Scoony]

Today was an easy day. Fit the bridle joints. Sawed kerfs made removing most of the waste a bit easier. What is tricky here is the changing grain and the splines. 

   


The 3/8" mortise chisel was a big help in removing waste quickly. Saved the edges of the wide bench chisels for paring down to the final depth.

   

Sneaking up on the fit. The sliding dovetail was what required the final fitting.

   

I managed to get both front legs fitted and the fit is good. 

   

Now I need to figure out what I want to do with the bottom edge. I want to some sort of banding with walnut and maple. Going to do some research and figure that out. This upcoming week with be focused on the knuckle joints.

[handi]

Looking great! I did a tea table many years back with an “X” hinge between the four legs. Interesting work forming the hinges.