Craftsman Nightstand

Good looking job!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Outstanding! – Thanks for the plans as well! – Looking forward to seeing the finished work.

-- The Gnarly Wood Shoppe

Looks like it’s coming along nicely. Very impressive! I’ll check out the plans. Thanks!

-- Tom, Michigan ~ Working with a renewable resource called wood

Very nice! Great Sketchup work too! Thanks for the link

-- JC - Central PA - www.affyx.com

great looking stand

This is really a nice looking piece of furniture. Thanks for the plans as well. Something like this has been mentioned on my “why can’t you build that” list.

Thanks for sharing.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Nice design great progress pictures.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Looking nice. Good job with SU too.
And welcome to LJs.

-- Stevethepeeve -- I'm no rocket surgeon

I am currently building a mission style ottoman and I am going to attempt my first through mortise and tenons, have any words of wisdom JL? BTW, looks great and thanks for the sketch up drawing!

-- Dan in Central Oklahoma, Able to turn good wood into saw dust in the blink of an eye!

I like the details and the design.

-- Genius is immediate, but talent takes time.

Nice progress so far. Keep it going.

-- Maplewood, MN

I love the lines on this nightstand! Beautiful!

-- Living on the square...

Looking good JL, great job with Sketch Up too.

-- I've cut that board three times and it's still too short!

Hi guys, thanks for all of the positive comments. I want to reply to Dano’s question:

I used a wedged mortise and tenon for the front stretcher on this piece. I’m still not 100% sure I like the way I put a bevel around the edge of it. I may still just cut it flush. Anyway, here’s how I made it:

Mortise: I used my drill press to drill from the show side to the back (using a sacrificial backer to protect from blowout) I then cleaned the hole with my firmer chisels. I drew a line 1/2” in from the outside face of my 3/4” side frame and drew the outside face of my tennon on the frame as well. At the intersection of these two lines I drew a 7 degree angle using my bevel gauge going out to the face of the frame. So the outside height of my mortise is about 1/4” wider than the inside. I then chiselled a slope from the outside face to the line 1/2” in. I used a small triangluar file to round over the transition a bit too.

Tenon. I made the tenon on the table saw with a dado blade and allowed and extra 3/8” projection. I drew a line on the tenon 1/4” from the shouler to show where the transition was. I also drew lines 1/8” in from the sides of the tenon to represent the “bendy” parts of the tenon. This 1/8” width should be adjusted depending on the stiffness of the wood. Too thin and they just snap off, too thick and they don’t bend. The right way to do it would be to make some and get the right dim by trial and error but frankly I just eyeballed it. I cut these this strips on the bandsaw and made sure to pass my 1/4” line to make sure that the wedges don’t bttom out.

Wedges: I made my wedges out of jatoba. the pointy part of the wedge should match the width of the kerf in the tenon and should splay out at the same angle as the inside of the mortise.

Assembly: I put the tenon about 1/2’ way through the side and then applied some glue to the tenon faces for reinforcement. Then I push the tenon through fully and tap the wedges in. Put them both in and take turns tapping them in a bit at a time so that one wedge dowsn’t take up all the movement.

I used a sharp low angle block plane to chamfer the edges of the through tenon. Do the short ends first and back up your cut with some scrap so you don’t break off the tips.

Hope this helps.

Great and thanks for the plans/

-- Terry Roswell, L.A. (Lower Alabama) "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans."