My solution was to mount a strip of HDPE and use a couple of Edge clamps to keep it in place on the door. Also, after first use, the router cuts away the HDPE and leaves a nice zero clearance type feature that you can use to better align the jig to the new door.

I wanted to add a type of crank mechanism that would allow the stands to function similarly to a screw jack.
So I went on McMaster Carr (God I love that place) and ordered some ACME rod and nuts and some Handwheels.
I still wasn’t for sure how I was going to get everything to work but I was sure I’d figure it out on the way.

My initial concept was to take a piece of wood and insert the ACME nut into it. This would then be screwed into the tube of the stand base. I would then have the ACME rod rest on the top of the roller stand. However, upon closer inspection, I didn’t have that much room to work with.

So enough talking, and on with the pictures.

Here are the basic components I ordered form McMaster Carr.

First step was to deburr the inside of the Roller Stand base so I could mount the ACME nut.

The next few pics show how I mounted the ACME nut to the stand. There was JUST enough room for 4 10-32 machine screws to use as fasteners to mount the nut. The nut was then drilled and tapped for these screws and subsequently mounted to the stand.

The next step was to fabricate some guide blocks for the ACME Rod. Steel rubbing on Wood is Bad, and Steel rubbing on Steel is even worse as it makes filings that can gum up the works. So to prevent that, I used Sintered Bronze/Graphite Bushings to act as where surfaces for the top and side constraints of ACME rod.

A pair was made for the top and bottom of the stand.

Finally, the threaded rod and nut are assembled to the stand top and the handwheel is installed.

The next couple of Pics show to completed stand and it’s height range (just a little less than the stand’s range originally. Also, you can see one of the original stands in the background)

“wash, rinse, repeat” all over again and now I have two!

Overall, I’m very happy with the mod. This makes it MUCH easier to adjust the height of the stands. I still intend to use the clamping knob on the stand once the height is set.
I’ve found out it all works better when I hold the stand base and stand top steady when I rotate the handwheel, otherwise the adjustable part wants to slop around in the base tube (second pic)

Here is the bottom shelf wetted with mineral spirits.

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and detail of spline

Here I’ve used tape for the top so I don’t have to mark the actual wood for biscuit locations

Here is a close up of some repair I had to do to one of the walnut top boards. There was a not so minor check on one end so I used a 1/8 kerf and cut it out, cut a sliver of walnut and glued it in. I also had an area of pitch showing so I hollowed it out and filled it with superglue and sawdust. It’s a little difficult to see in this pic but in it in the bottom right corner. I’ll take a close up when it is all done. Right now everything is just dry fitted.

Here is the top all glued up. Since the pipe clamps put a ton on pressure on the boards, they tend to bend a little, to counteract this, I used some spare board to stiffen the top. Once dry, it will be flat as opposed to curved.

And here are some pics of the finished top.

Something I did skip mentioning here is that while trimming the walnut edges of the top. I ran into some issues with the router. The walnut is heavily figured which can be disastrous if not dangerous to use a router on. I always check the edges of figured (or any wood for that matter) for checks or splits, etc. However, that doesn’t always mean there is a hidden split under the surface.

And I ran into that exact issue on one of the long edges. While using a flush trim bit, a huge chunk got snagged and got ripped right out of the edge. So I ended up having to trim about 1/2 off the edge. So instead of a 4 inch border I was left with 3.5. Disaster recovered and if I didn’t mention it, no one would know and that is all that matter right?

Step 5: Finishing the Shelf

I ripped the walnut border to length and laid it out to get an idea where to cut the biscuits. The center piece was a very clear piece of face grained walnut, so when I went to the lumber store to buy the edge boards (It was originally going to be maple) I found a really nice clear piece of quarter sawn walnut in the pile. I couldn’t find any more so for the remaining pieces I took a left over piece of face grained board, and ripped two boards out of it so that they were mostly edge grain.

There is still some face grain showing on the ends but I think it still looks good.

My workbench is nothing more than a table saw extension (no space remember) which usually gets so cluttered while working, I have to take an hour or two to un-bury the saw when I need it!

To aid in biscuit joining, I use my wonderfully simplistic hold down clamp as a stop block. It is nothing more than a hold down clamp, piece of plywood, and a expanding miter slot bar from Rockler.

Next it’s time to cut the grooves for the splines. The boards are slightly over 3/4” thick as they will need a lot of sanding later. To cut the grooves, I use a slot cutter on the router table. Instead of trying to locate the exact center of the board, I first measure 1/4” from the bottom and cut all the boards. Since I can only feed the stiles from one direction, some of the grooves will be above center, the others below. To correct this, I flip around the board and raise the bit so that the top edge is now inline with the groove. I then cut all the boards again, effectively widening the groove a bit so that there is 1/4” material on top and on bottom of the groove.

Next I cut the splines. No secret here, just a lot of trial and error making sure they aren’t too thin, too narrow, or just the opposite. I then test fit the whole assembly (minus biscuits) and mark which splines go where.

And finally, I clamp the whole mess together, and by mess I mean glue everywhere :-)

And since I’m out of long pipe clamps for the moment, I’ll call it quits until next weekend!

The jig I use for the table saw is below. I got all the boards cut last weekend but just didn’t get around to updating the blog until today.

So it figures that while thinking about this project during the week, I decided to change it a bit. It’ll likely go through about half a dozen design revisions before I’m done with it :-)

Step Three: Panel Glue Ups!

I decided I was going to just use the biscuit joiner for everything on the this project, including the panels. I have a panel glue bit for the router but since I’m going to be able to see end grain on the top, I opted to skip it and just go with a flat edge.

Here is the top and shelf glued up for starters

For the shelf I’ve added a maple strip to either side of the panel for and inlay looking effect. Now I haven’t used biscuits on these piece yet as they will be bordered by walnut again.

I will note that once I get a panel clamped up, I will take it off the work table put it on end and move some of the clamps to the other side of the panel. This helps equalize the clamping pressure on the panel

After waiting most of the day for the glue to dry, I trimmed the shelf to size and put the other bit of maple edge. Yes I’m gluing face to end grain, and yes I know about wood movement. However, I have many tops like this, some 15 yrs old and never had a problem with the seasonal movement when using walnut and maple. Oak, that is a different story. Plus once I cut the biscuits for the final edge, it will be much stronger and resist movement better.

Step Four: Finish the maple top.

While waiting for the shelf to dry, I started working on the Birdseye Maple top.

First I took the belt sander to the underside and flattened it out a bit. Next, I trimmed it up using a crosscut sled on the table saw. Finally it started to look like a top.

This Birdseye Maple board had a couple of cracks and checks from drying, not surprising given the figure. Instead of putty, I used the super glue/sawdust trick to fill in the cracks. After waiting for the glue to dry I took the belt sander to the top.

Then I got out the cabinet scrapper and started to scrape it. And scrape it, and scrape it!

Finally, once it was flat, I took a 1/8 round over bit and treated the edge

Finally, since the maple top is going to sit about 1/2 inch higher than the walnut border, I wanted to add some thickness to it so the bottom edge of the walnut would be flush with the maple.

I was originally going to glue the top to a piece of 1/2” MDF but it already weighs a ton. Instead I cut 2” strips of MDF and glued those to the edge.

So tomorrow when it finally dries, I can start putting the walnut border on it.

I was originally going to go with keyed miter corners but I’m still a little worried about wood movement and wanted a stronger joint. So instead I’m going to go with a loose tenon reinforced rail and stile joint. I will copy this approach on the shelf as well.

I also wanted to show readers how to make complex furniture with limited tools and space.

So a little about the project: I sold my crappy yet still somewhat pricey plywood and veneer coffee table/end tables a little while ago on Craigslist and have been desperately needing to fill the void. My eventual goal is to not have any store bought furniture (sans couch, chair, and Very nice dinning room suite).

I saw a recent project on LJ for a set of tables I really liked. I liked the raised table top design and wanted to do something similar for my coffee table top.

The local(ish) lumber store had a huge sale this weekend and I found a giant board of birdseye maple that I just couldn’t pass up. I was deliberating on whether to use cherry or walnut for the rest of the table. However, the lumber store had some gorgeous air-dried figured walnut with lots of sap wood on sale too. So that pretty much made up my mind.

So here’s a couple of teaser shots of the birdseye maple top. It is still rough on the edges and the faces need sanded.

and a close up of the figure.

So Step One: Rough Cut to length

I use AutoCad to create plans when needed. I then figure out how big all the pieces will be and then start chopping boards into more manageable sizes, usually no more than 4 or 5 feet long

I just use my old Dewalt Miter Saw. It isn’t anything fancy but I do use a really nice 1/8 kerf Freud Crosscut blade and a zero clearance insert I made. 1/8” is HUGE for a cross cut saw but I’ve had tremendous luck with it!

I always cut about 1/2 to and inch more than needed as most of the board edges are still rough which impacts the square of the cut.

Normally for the next step I would plane the stock down to thickness using a planer but fortunately these boards are at least S2S and already fairly smooth on the faces.

Also, the maple is EXTREMELY figured and the walnut also exhibits some figure in it as well. For anyone that hasn’t worked in figured wood, it does not plane well and you can get a lot of tear out. This will be my first experiment in birdseye maple and just from the look of it, I’m more than scared to try and surface plane it. Instead I will just sand out any rough spots and finish off with a scraper.

Step Two: Lets get some straight edges!

I do not own a jointer. I know, I know, but I have no room for one (nor cash as I keep spending it on wood!)

So to get straight edges I use a massive template bit in a router for longer boards and a sled for the table saw for shorter pieces. Since most of my boards are less than 4 foot long, I will opt for the table saw sled.

For edge glued pieces, I use the Freud Glue Line Rip. This is an excellent blade for getting supper fine edges with the table saw.

For starters, I just need a relatively flat face to put against the fence.

More pics to come!

I searched the Lee Valley and Rockler (among others) catalogs for hours trying to find something I liked for the furniture piece but didn’t find anything that suited my fancy. I found some maple and cherry handles that looked like they might work but I wanted walnut for contrast. Would you believe it? Walnut pulls don’t exist!

So I decided to make some of my own. I went ahead and bought a couple of the cherry handles from Lee Valley to “reverse engineer” how to make them.

I knew I’d need about 28 in all, but I wanted to be sure I had plenty to spare in case one broke in progress or after the fact. I started with 42, only 36 survived :-(

So step 1:

Figure out how big you want them to be and what diameter you want. I went with 9/16”. Anymore would have been too overpowering for the piece, any less, an understatement. The cherry ones from Lee Valley were about 3/8 I believe. Way too small.

I planed a bunch of Walnut down to 9/16” and cut some blanks the width and height of the pulls I wanted. Oh and it is imperative that the thickness be slightly less than the diameter otherwise you’ll be doing a lot of sanding later.

I apologize, I got a little carried away before taking pictures so my “blanks” already show some of the next steps so please ignore that fact ;-)

Step 2:

Now, after getting mildly discouraged at how much more work you still need to do, it is time to figure out how to turn these into handles.

The first jig I made serves dual duty, first it is to predrill the screw holes, and then drill some retaining pin holes. But more on these later.

Now after drilling these holes, I knew I would need a few of these drilled blanks to serve as parts for later jigs.

Step 3: Lets give this baby curves. Inside first.

This one is quite easy in fact. The very sharp curve on the inside I figured could be done with a forstner bit. Here is the jig for that.

Step 4: Outside Curve

This is the most simple of all operations but one of the trickier to set up. I figured out what the diameter of the outer curve would be and made a pivoting jig to use with the bandsaw. Being over cautions I used some toggle clamps, and found out I didn’t need them. However they made good “handles” and kept the fingers away from the blade. Here you can also see what the retaining pins were for. They are simply split pins I picked up at the hardware store.

Step 5: Now it gets tricky! Routing the outside edge.

This jig took some brain power to come up with but I think the pictures show how it works. The retaining pins hold the blank and a template in place while the toggle clamp holds down the template. The jig is then free hand routed on a router table.

Be sure to get the bit dead center of the jig. This operation has to be done in two passes. The first router pass starts just to the left of center of the pull and move the jig to the right. Next flip the pull over in the jig and route the other side. I made the mistake of trying to shape one from the very left side but the router grabbed the end grain and ripped the blank right out of the jig. Fortunately, the jig was still in one piece but the pull was trashed. First casualty.

Step 6: Inside curves

Deceptively simple. Another Band Saw jig.

Hey! Now it’s starting to look like a pull. But what about those sharp inside edges?

Step 7: Inside Radius.

Taking a look at the pulls I bought, I noticed the inner radius was not complete but looked like two smaller radii. This makes better sense as it makes for a tougher pull and I was not about to try this next step out with the bullnose bit!

WARNING! This next step is not for the faint of heart! The next jig requires the bit to be pretty high above the table so either make sure you’ve got a bit with a mile long shank (as mine did) or a collet extender.

The next jig utilized some pins that fit into the predrilled screw holes. The pull is then clamped into place with the toggle clamp and help laterally by the pins. Still, there is a huge potential for kick back and breakage. (Remember, I started with 42, 3 were used for jigs, only 36 lived through this ordeal).

You must set up the jig so that there is still a bearing surface for the bit to ride on on the inner surface. This is also a two part operation, fortunately I was able to shape the pull from left to right in one pass, flip over the pull, and shape the other side.

Step 8: Finish!

I sanded the pulls down to 320 grit, oiled, and spray lacquered them on (you got it!) another jig which held all the pulls in the air by their predrilled screw holes.

So that’s it for making custom wood pulls. The great thing is that I didn’t have to make any “sacrificial” jigs so the next time I want some larger sized cherry, maple, or anything else pulls, I’ve got the jigs already made.

It only took 1 (long!) day to get all of these made, while also making the jigs at the same time. However, I probably spent a good part of the previous day trying to figure out all the steps needed and sketching the jig designs. This was definitely a challenge but worth every bit!

Hope you enjoy!