| Blog series by Topapilot | updated 238 days ago | 6 parts | 2168 reads | 23 comments total |
Part 1: Progress to date
I wanted a small table with a draw to put next to my recliner and liked the looks of this table by Darrell Peart: Aurora Nightstand On the page you can see a link to plans for the table from American Furniture Design so I bought them. The plans contain an “E” sized drawing, and a 8 page booklet with parts list and instructions. These plans are the worst woodworking-related product I have ever purchased. The instructions had so many mistakes, math errors, mis-named parts, omi...
Part 2: Unexpected help
I mentioned in my first post how disapointed I was in the plans I purchased for the nightstand. Well, right away I recieved a PM from Darrell Pert, woodworker, author, and creater of the Aurora design. He offered help and sent photos that got me past a sticking point. This is a great community, and you never know who might be reading! To finish the assembly of the nightstand draw, I needed to make a sliding dovetail to attach the draw back to the draw sides. I really have been happy wi...
Part 3: Shelf and top
Here’s an update on the progress I’ve made on my nightstand. I completed the draw with the proud finger joints. After some e-mail back and forth with Darrell I’m holding off on the handle and will mount that after finishing. I completed the bottom shelf. I think this design is pretty interesting because from a distance the shelf seems to be attached to the lower rails of the table. However, the shelf floats on a support mounted to the bottom of the end rails with a ...
Part 4: Going Old School...
Well, I found out what was wrong with my mortising set up – the drill bit inside the mortise chisel was bent and causing the chisel to jam. I tried another chisel that had never been used and it worked, so I went old-school. I started and ended the mortising with those whatchamacallits, chisels! Thats it! I marked out the mortises with a pencil, then went around the perimeter with a chisel. I only went deep enough to cut the surface fibers, maybe 1/16”+, and got a nice outli...
Part 5: Ebony details
I’ve made some progress on my nightstand, so I thought I’d post some pictures of the ebony splines and plugs. I bought the ebony when I walked into our brand-spanking-new woodcraft in Ventura and they had pieces on sale. I figured I could get it at my hardwood dealer, but decided a new business needs help, and they’re close (next closest store is two hours away; go figure with all the people in SoCal) I got one that was about 3×3x14 inches and covered in wax. I re...
Part 6: FINISHED!! Well, almost...
My nightstand is finished, finally. This took way to long to complete; the plans were poor and really got me into a funk that was hard to shake. Fortunatly Darrell Peart came through with e-mail support and I was able to get it all together. And from the side: Material is African Mahogany and Ebony accents. Finish was from Darrell’s blog using water based dye. It’s darker than I expected, even making a test board in advance. Top coat is Arm-r-seal in gloss, six coat...
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