# Butcher Block Kitchen Table



## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*The Plan*

It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.

Here is my first design, based loosely on a table here.










Pretty simple, but this will be my first attempt at a real furniture piece. I've been practicing hand cutting mortises, so hopefully this build will be pretty straight forward. I bought 40bf of poplar today (~12bf of which is 8/4 for the legs), which I also plan on using for the butcher-block style top. I don't know how well poplar would stand up to abuse, but really this is more of a side-board for our kitchen than a cutting board, so I think it will be ok.

Any comments or critiques on the design are always welcome.


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## ArcticTroy (Jan 5, 2010)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


Not sure if a poplar top will withstand normal cutting board use. The preferred wood for that is normally hard maple. I made one similar a couple years ago. Let me know if I can help in any way. Great project.


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## beckerswoodworks (Dec 26, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


Poplar is definately not hard enough for a cutting board and it's a bit porus. Stick with hard maple like Troy suggests. Even for just a work surface it's too soft.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I didn't think poplar was that far down on the Janka scale, but it's quite a bit softer than I thought (softer than doug fir and yellow pine…). I had debated getting some maple for the top, since I only have a small amount of soft/ambrosia maple left, but I'm wanting to do this on the cheap since I'm buying S3S material. I wasn't wanting to use my jointer/planer while our house was on the market, cause I still don't have proper dust collection and they make a pretty good mess.

Maybe I'll try and find some pallets for free with some maple/oak in them…


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


The only reason poplar is a hardwood is because it has leaves instead of needles. It'll be fine for the structure. Nice design by the way. That'll make a great addition to your kitchen. Hope all goes well with the house.


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## freidasdad (Mar 22, 2010)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


here's a thought----I've used poplar for cutting boards and they don't hold up very well as already mentioned--we used the boards for awhile and then resurfaced them until we ran out of board--in your current situation you might do the same thing with the lumber you've already purchased--make the top thick enough to resurface a couple of times--don't attach it permanently---and when you get back into the full swing of wood working you can make a permanent top out of hard maple


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## PeteH (Jul 12, 2012)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


Well I can see this is quite an old thread, so I have a question about the project and how it has held up. I'm looking at doing a butchers block counter for a 6 foot long section of counter with an overhanging bar (at counter height). How did this top wear? Should I spend the extra money on the maple, or use the poplar I already have? I know everyone says I should, but I want to hear it from somebody who tried poplar for this purpose.

Thanks.

As a note, I'm doing this for appearance, not to have a 6' x 3' cutting board.

EDIT: So I may have jumped the gun on asking this. Although I don't see a decision on the wood to use on the top, I do see maple and cherry later on in the blog. Does that mean you ditched the poplar idea?


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


Yep, it was ditched. I was convinced by the fact that on the Janka scale, poplar is actually softer than pine. I don't use it as a cutting board, but it does get a fair amount of traffic in our kitchen so something that soft would not have been good as a table top surface. The base is still poplar and has held up very well (amazing to see how much the shelf contracts into the breadboard ends during the winter - over 1/16th on each side), and the maple/cherry top is also doing very well. I have not noticed any dings in it despite my wife setting her purse on it just about every day.


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## PeteH (Jul 12, 2012)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Plan*
> 
> It feels good finally to be getting back to wood working. During late December-February, my garage was just too damn cold to work in, despite having two space heaters going (the wife was too scared of propane-based heat sources, so those were nixed…). Then, in February, we decided to put our house on the market - so all free time started going to fixing things up and getting our house ready to sell. That's all done with, so it's time to get some wood working done.
> 
> ...


Excellent. Thanks for the insight. I'll probably go ahead and do maple. That table does look wonderful, by the way.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Progress on the Legs*

I got the legs all milled up, 1 3/4" square, and cut the bevels on the bottom. I screwed a fence to my mitre gauge, which had a block of wood glued to it which allowed me to keep the bevels somewhat consistent. I say somewhat, because I think my mitre gauge didn't lock down when tightened, as there is a very slight variation in the bevels so they don't meet up in the back on all the legs. Obviously nothing to care about - the only way you'd be able to see the variation was if you flipped the table over and locked at the inner-most corner of each leg.

Just as a refresher, here's what the finished project is supposed to look like:










I used my circular marking gauge to mark out the mortises, since I don't have a fancy mortise gauge this took a while. I set the gauge for the top, and marked that out for all 8 mortises, followed by the bottom, middle, and sides. I didn't adjust the marking gauge until the same line had been marked for each mortise. I also indexed the mark off the same corner each time, so that the offsets would be the same.

I then took each leg to my drill press and aligned the fence so my forstner bit hit smack middle on the center line of the mortise at the top and bottom and started drilling. All told, it took me about an hour to mark and drill out each of the 8 mortises - not bad in my opinion, considering these are my first non-practice mortises 

I took the rough drilled mortises to my bench and clamped them down, and started to clean them out with a 1" and a 1/4" chisel. This is a really fast process, as my forstner bit is 1/4" as well, so there's not too much waste to clean up. The latest edition of (I think) Woodsmith magazine has a really good article on doing mortises with a drill press this way. The marking lines are used to line up your chisels, so be sure when you're drilling you don't get too close to them. As the article says, it's best to use a bit that's a little undersized, but 1/4" is my smallest forstner bit so I make do with what I have. For the first cuts with the chisel, just make tiny cuts around the perimeter of the mortise to establish the mouth. Then, with the 1/4" chisel, work from the middle to each end to clean out the waste. Once the mouth is established, you can pretty much chisel all the way to the bottom of the mortise (at least that's what I do). A little bit of cleanup is all that's required usually, and I can do each mortise in about 5-10 minutes.

I've got two legs done so far, the two on the right in this picture. You can see the rough drilled mortises I've got left to do:










And here's the view showing all eight:










Once these mortises are done, I'll probably start working on the top stretchers, followed by the bottom stretchers and the center shelf. I'm really liking poplar, it works really easy, even if it does produce a really fine dust when cutting/planning it - only marginally better than the dust MDF makes (but at least the poplar doesn't hang in the air, requiring extensive lung protection).


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *Progress on the Legs*
> 
> I got the legs all milled up, 1 3/4" square, and cut the bevels on the bottom. I screwed a fence to my mitre gauge, which had a block of wood glued to it which allowed me to keep the bevels somewhat consistent. I say somewhat, because I think my mitre gauge didn't lock down when tightened, as there is a very slight variation in the bevels so they don't meet up in the back on all the legs. Obviously nothing to care about - the only way you'd be able to see the variation was if you flipped the table over and locked at the inner-most corner of each leg.
> 
> ...


How did you cut the mortises?


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Progress on the Legs*
> 
> I got the legs all milled up, 1 3/4" square, and cut the bevels on the bottom. I screwed a fence to my mitre gauge, which had a block of wood glued to it which allowed me to keep the bevels somewhat consistent. I say somewhat, because I think my mitre gauge didn't lock down when tightened, as there is a very slight variation in the bevels so they don't meet up in the back on all the legs. Obviously nothing to care about - the only way you'd be able to see the variation was if you flipped the table over and locked at the inner-most corner of each leg.
> 
> ...


I used a 1/4" forstner bit on a drill press to remove most of the waste, and then used a 1" and 1/4" chisel to square it up.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *Progress on the Legs*
> 
> I got the legs all milled up, 1 3/4" square, and cut the bevels on the bottom. I screwed a fence to my mitre gauge, which had a block of wood glued to it which allowed me to keep the bevels somewhat consistent. I say somewhat, because I think my mitre gauge didn't lock down when tightened, as there is a very slight variation in the bevels so they don't meet up in the back on all the legs. Obviously nothing to care about - the only way you'd be able to see the variation was if you flipped the table over and locked at the inner-most corner of each leg.
> 
> ...


Good start


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*More Progress, and a Bandsaw Restoration Update*

Haven't had much time to work in the last few weeks, my wife and I are in the process of selling our house/buying a new one, and we finally got a contract on our house! We also had our contract accepted for the house we want, so we've been in the process of getting inspections and tests and all the crap you have to go through. Thankfully, we only had a few minor things to correct in our house (fire detectors in every room, our garage stair case railing had more than a 4" gap in one spot… etc.), so we're pretty much in the clear.

So, of course today I get to do some woodworking finally 

After finishing up the mortises on the legs, I finally put my stacked dado blade to use and made the stretchers/tenons. That was a lot of fun, and went very quickly thanks to the dado blade (Oshlun 8" if anyone cares). I didn't take a pic, but I had all of the tenons fit to the mortises pretty well, just one or two to clean up a little.

However… I'm going to have to redo them because of todays work…

Today I glued up the panel for the bottom shelf, and got a little lazy - the plank I selected for it was just a little bit narrower after glue-up than the stretchers I made (for the overall depth of the table). So, I'm just going to trim 1/2" - 1" off the short stretchers.

Here's a pic of the legs dry-fit with the lower shelf:










The shelf is made up of three boards glued together, which came out pretty well (considering this is only the second time I've tried this). I still have a little cleanup of the glue lines and some more scraping/sanding, but it's pretty close to being done. I just need to scrape the rest of the board, because I can feel the tiniest divet where I over-scraped the glue lines.

*Bandsaw Restoration*

Also, I finally got to paint another piece of the bandsaw today - the main body:










I'm getting close to finishing up with the painting, just have the removable upper/lower wheel covers to do, along with the edge of the table and a few more small parts that I'm being lazy about sanding/taping off.

The suggestions from the last update were all great, and I've overcome the issues I was having (definitely waiting too long before top-coating). Since I've adjusted my technique, I've had zero problems:










After curing, the bubbling on the flywheel pretty much went down, so I'm just going to leave it as is - it's a bandsaw not a pro auto body job


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## dcutter (Mar 27, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *More Progress, and a Bandsaw Restoration Update*
> 
> Haven't had much time to work in the last few weeks, my wife and I are in the process of selling our house/buying a new one, and we finally got a contract on our house! We also had our contract accepted for the house we want, so we've been in the process of getting inspections and tests and all the crap you have to go through. Thankfully, we only had a few minor things to correct in our house (fire detectors in every room, our garage stair case railing had more than a 4" gap in one spot… etc.), so we're pretty much in the clear.
> 
> ...


How do you plan on attaching the bottom shelf to the legs? Will you use a dowl or is there a support underneath the shelf?

Thanks


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *More Progress, and a Bandsaw Restoration Update*
> 
> Haven't had much time to work in the last few weeks, my wife and I are in the process of selling our house/buying a new one, and we finally got a contract on our house! We also had our contract accepted for the house we want, so we've been in the process of getting inspections and tests and all the crap you have to go through. Thankfully, we only had a few minor things to correct in our house (fire detectors in every room, our garage stair case railing had more than a 4" gap in one spot… etc.), so we're pretty much in the clear.
> 
> ...


The legs have a 45 degree notch cut into them, and the shelf has a matching cut on each corner - so the shelf just sits in the notch and will be glued that way. I haven't decided, but I may do an edge banding around the shelf to hide the end-grain portion and to make it look a little nicer. If anyone gets Woodsmith magazine, they did a veneered table with a similar configuration an issue or two ago.

To create the notch, I created a simple jig by setting my table saw blade to 45 and cut a bevel on each side of a piece of poplar, so the shape was something like this: \__/ I then ripped that in half and oriented the beveled edges so it created a 90 degree cradle. I glued/nailed these to piece of 1/4" plywood and used that on my sled to cut the notches in leg. I used a stop for the leg to ensure that the top of the notch was consistent on all 4 legs, and then used a caliper to mark 3/4" down from that to ensure the notch was perfectly sized for the shelf.

I can take some pictures of the setup if anyone's interested. The jig wasn't perfect, but it was good enough


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Mostly Done Except for the Top*

Here's the dry-fit, the tape's on there to keep it from falling apart when I adjust things/check for square. All the stretchers have been resized to match the shelf size:


















Here's a detail of how the leg holds the shelf:










I still need to clean that up a little since there's a bit of a gap on all 4 legs, which means I may need to trim a little off the stretchers again (maybe just 1/16" or so from each end).

As for the top, I know this is supposed to be a butcher-block table, but I'm seriously considering just making a flat panel for the top instead, since all I have is poplar currently. My other option (since I do have a little maple left) was to make a butcher block top out of alternating pieces of maple/poplar. I figure the top will be removable with buttons, so if I made it out of some combination of poplar I could always remove it in the future and put a more durable top on it if I actually wanted to use it for cutting/etc.

I'm not really beholden to the original design (I've already scrapped the middle shelf), since this is all a learning experience for me. This piece is a first for me on many levels: first mortise/tenon joints (mortises hand cut, well at least after I used the drill press), first panel glue up, first time I've worked with 8/4 material… the list goes on. First and foremost - this is the first piece of furniture I've ever tried to build, so I'm happy as long as I finish it somehow


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *Mostly Done Except for the Top*
> 
> Here's the dry-fit, the tape's on there to keep it from falling apart when I adjust things/check for square. All the stretchers have been resized to match the shelf size:
> 
> ...


it looks great!

FYI: Butcher block is usually referring to a long grain thick panel made of thin strips. the End grain version is usually explicitly referred to as 'end grain butcher block' if thats what you meant.

one more thing- curios about the shelf - is there anything to allow for wood expansion on the shelf? it looks like flat sawn maple, and fairly wide which means it would be subject to some expansion/contraction (figured I'd ask this now since this is still dry fit…)


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Mostly Done Except for the Top*
> 
> Here's the dry-fit, the tape's on there to keep it from falling apart when I adjust things/check for square. All the stretchers have been resized to match the shelf size:
> 
> ...


When I say butcher block, I was thinking of doing an edge-grain version - not the end-grain version. Now, however, I'm considering scraping that completely and just doing an edge-glued panel for the top.

As for the shelf, I thought of expansion, but wasn't too worried about it. Like I said in an earlier post, I've seen tables with a similar design and assumed the legs would bow out with enough flexibility to handle the cross-grain expansion. I was considering just gluing the stretchers at the top and letting the grooves hold the shelf in place without glue. The shelf is made of edge-glued poplar boards, with the grain reversed for the middle panel to help avoid cupping.


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *Mostly Done Except for the Top*
> 
> Here's the dry-fit, the tape's on there to keep it from falling apart when I adjust things/check for square. All the stretchers have been resized to match the shelf size:
> 
> ...


Nice looking table.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Breadboard Ends*

Purplev pointed out something in a comment on my last blog entry for this, and it was something that had occurred to me - however I chose to ignore it on the basis of "I've seen other tables built the same way, so mine shouldn't have any problems…". Of course, that's idiotic, and I'm man enough to admit it  So, I started thinking of potential solutions, and when it hit me it was so obvious I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner - breadboard ends! I had noticed the glued up panel was already developing a slight cup, so this will both address that issue and the issue of wood expansion during the seasons. The bread board ends will have the mitred corners which will be fit into the legs, and glued. The panel can then expand and contract all it wants, and my table won't explode - win/win.

So, to get to it: I started by cutting the breadboard end pieces, just over an inch wide each. The tongue will be 1/4" with 3/4" tenons, so this gives me a little over 1/4" of wiggle room. I then re-cut the panel to compensate for this new width, and used my dado blade to cut the 3/4" tongue. on both ends of the panel.

Next, I setup my router with a 1/4" straight bit and cut the 1/4" groove in each breadboard end. I took these over to the drill press and hogged out the mortises (after marking and measuring where all the tenons would be, of course) and squared them up with chisels. Finally, I cut the tenons out of the tongue on the panel using my dovetail and coping saws and fit them up. Here's the results after a little clean-up for fitting:




























I need to go get a dowel, so I haven't drilled the holes for those yet, but overall I'm happy with how these came out (yet another first-ever attempt). I also need to cut the ends to length now that everything's cut and fits well. Once the ends are attached for good, I'll mitre the corners for fitting in the legs, and then do another dry-fit.


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> Purplev pointed out something in a comment on my last blog entry for this, and it was something that had occurred to me - however I chose to ignore it on the basis of "I've seen other tables built the same way, so mine shouldn't have any problems…". Of course, that's idiotic, and I'm man enough to admit it  So, I started thinking of potential solutions, and when it hit me it was so obvious I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner - breadboard ends! I had noticed the glued up panel was already developing a slight cup, so this will both address that issue and the issue of wood expansion during the seasons. The bread board ends will have the mitred corners which will be fit into the legs, and glued. The panel can then expand and contract all it wants, and my table won't explode - win/win.
> 
> ...


You is making great progress on your table.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> Purplev pointed out something in a comment on my last blog entry for this, and it was something that had occurred to me - however I chose to ignore it on the basis of "I've seen other tables built the same way, so mine shouldn't have any problems…". Of course, that's idiotic, and I'm man enough to admit it  So, I started thinking of potential solutions, and when it hit me it was so obvious I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner - breadboard ends! I had noticed the glued up panel was already developing a slight cup, so this will both address that issue and the issue of wood expansion during the seasons. The bread board ends will have the mitred corners which will be fit into the legs, and glued. The panel can then expand and contract all it wants, and my table won't explode - win/win.
> 
> ...


Very nice looking breadboard ends! I did my first dining table very similarly. When the table top field shrunk a bit, I had ends that protruded a bit, showing the dado.

You might want to think about trimming off the tongue on the top field, and stopping the groove on the ends to keep that from happening. You could even use a small plug to use your existing ends.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> Purplev pointed out something in a comment on my last blog entry for this, and it was something that had occurred to me - however I chose to ignore it on the basis of "I've seen other tables built the same way, so mine shouldn't have any problems…". Of course, that's idiotic, and I'm man enough to admit it  So, I started thinking of potential solutions, and when it hit me it was so obvious I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner - breadboard ends! I had noticed the glued up panel was already developing a slight cup, so this will both address that issue and the issue of wood expansion during the seasons. The bread board ends will have the mitred corners which will be fit into the legs, and glued. The panel can then expand and contract all it wants, and my table won't explode - win/win.
> 
> ...


Heh, funny you should mention that - it was originally what I was planning. Unfortunately I got in a groove making the grooves and zipped the whole board right through the router bit. I decided it's not a big deal, most of the breadboard end will be buried in the leg anyway.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Progress in the new workshop*

Finally started getting things organized a bit in the basement, and had some free time tonight so I decided to pick up work on this. During the house move, some of the wood sat in a VERY hot car for a few days, and had warped a little bit (even the panel with the breadboard ends had cupped noticeably). To try and counter this, I stickered it in the basement for a few weeks with some weight on it to try and reverse the bends, and it seems to have worked fairly well.

So, where I'd left off was making the bottom shelf, by putting the breadboard ends on it. I was originally going to clip the corners to fit into the 45 degree grooves I had cut into each leg, but in a burst of inspiration I realized it would be better to have a square notch in each leg to maximize the gluing surface - and to make the joint look better overall. To accomplish this, I set my marking gauge and scored a line on each side of the grove so I had a consistent depth in from the corner. I then took a note from Tommy MacDonald's playbook, and used my chisel with a little hand pressure (no hammering) to establish the shoulder so the line didn't get pushed back. It's hard to see in this pic, but the small shoulder is there:










If you watch some of the 207 podcasts (formerly MLW) on cutting dovetails, you'll see what I'm talking about. I did that on both faces, and after that it's just chop, chop, chop:










After I got about halfway down, I started working from the other face (after establishing the shoulder). The end result is a nice 90 degree cut-out for my shelf:










It took about 10-15 minutes per leg, with the end result here:




























After reviewing my design, I'm thinking of adding some smaller (1" or so) stretchers on the short sides to help keep things square. The plan is to glue up the short sides first, and then glue up the long sides with the shelf in place. I figure having two sets of stretchers will make things a bit easier to glue up, as well as structurally more sound.

I'm really loving the way the poplar is aging already. Almost all of the green is gone and it's a nice tan/brown now. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do for the top… whether I'll keep it a butcher block table or make a simpler top with a profiled edge… stay tuned


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Sanding, Sanding, and More Sanding*

Tonight, I finished tuning up the shoulders of the stretchers, since I noticed that some of them were 1/32" or slightly more out of square on one or more edges… that's what I get for adjusting the fit of the cheeks with a sanding block. Also, I had to make the stretchers the correct length to match the shelf - the long stretchers were about 1/8" too long. So, I made a couple of paring blocks (also cut for paring dovetails), and cleaned everything up. A test fitting shows my table will be very close to square along the diagonal - I should be able to get it pretty good once I clamp it up.

Once all the paring was done, I took it all apart and started sanding everything with 220. Everything is looking great, though I might hit the lower shelf with another pass or two to make sure it's ready for gluing. I also went ahead and ordered a quart of Charles Neils wood conditioner - hopefully I can get results as good as his video shows.

I've also decided what I'm going to do for the top - my company announced a talent contest, so I thought I'd try and wrap this table up and submit it as my entry. The tie in will be that I'm planning on using wood from pallets I get at work to make the top. We receive large shipments of computers on pallets, so hopefully I'll be able to find some decent wood that is in good enough shape - I just need to get a metal detector to make sure I don't run into any nails.

So, no pics tonight (not that much has changed since last time), but I hope to have the base glued up and ready to finish by this weekend. I also hope to start milling wood for the top as soon as possible too, I just need to double check that taking pallets from work is OK  As always, thanks for reading.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Glued Up*

Here's the glue up. First I glued the short sides together (no pics, sorry) with a spacer clamped below the legs near where the shelf would be, just to make sure everything stayed square. After both sides dried for a bit, I took the clamps off, cleaned up the squeeze out, and glued the whole thing together:










After the clamps came off, here's what it looked like:



















Everything is remarkably square - considering all of these pieces were in my car for a week during our house move - some of them had warped a bit (I let them acclimate to the new house with a little weight on them, which removed most of the bow). On the diagonals, I'm only about 1/16" off - again something I'm very happy about considering this is the first time I've made something with hand-cut mortise and tenons, along with the notch cuts in the legs for the shelf. Almost all of the joinery on this was hand cut - I did use a stacked dado blade to rough cut the tenons (and a drill press to hog out the mortises).

Now that the base is done, next comes finishing - another first…


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## wseand (Jan 27, 2010)

Jimi_C said:


> *Glued Up*
> 
> Here's the glue up. First I glued the short sides together (no pics, sorry) with a spacer clamped below the legs near where the shelf would be, just to make sure everything stayed square. After both sides dried for a bit, I took the clamps off, cleaned up the squeeze out, and glued the whole thing together:
> 
> ...


Looking good so far.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*First Coat of Stain Is On*

After testing out my sample piece, I decided to go for it with the table. This is a learning experience after all, isn't it?  Sanded out the second coat of conditioner this morning before work, and when I got home I started applying the stain. Here's the result:



















Overall, the process was easy - wipe on, wipe off - just kept trying to work in small sections so the gel stain didn't dry too much. One minute max, and I went back and started wiping excess off. The only thing I'd change is the application method - cloth rags were way too messy for the application (and difficult to get into some corners). I'm going to get some foam brushes tomorrow, to make application of the second coat a bit easier. I also need more light… after the fact I noticed a spot or two where I didn't get all the stain off, so I just took a few light swipes with some thinner to get the thick spots off - I figure it's easier to add color than remove it once it's on and dried completely.

So, now I just need to wait 24 hours or so, then I can start the second coat.


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## Robb (Aug 18, 2007)

Jimi_C said:


> *First Coat of Stain Is On*
> 
> After testing out my sample piece, I decided to go for it with the table. This is a learning experience after all, isn't it?  Sanded out the second coat of conditioner this morning before work, and when I got home I started applying the stain. Here's the result:
> 
> ...


Looking good! Thanks for taking the time to share.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Base Frame Done*










I did 3 coats of poly on the legs/aprons, and 5 on the lower shelf. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, though I did not sand the bottom shelf as well as I should have. I got antsy wanting to get it all together and thought I had sanded enough, though really all I did was clean up the joints between the boards - so the machine ripples are still evident at the right lighting angle.

But, for the first thing I've ever designed, built, and finished from scratch I think it's not too bad. The one question I had for the pros is: should I take some 0000 steel wool to it and then buff it out with wax? I've read that doing wax over poly is not generally recommended, but some sites say it's ok. Right now it's at a semi-gloss sheen, which I kind of like, so I don't know if I'd want to take it down to a satin finish with wax anyway.

So, now that the main finishing is done, it's time to start milling all the wood for the butcher block top…


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *Base Frame Done*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


looks great. as for buffing it out - if you are happy with the way it looks - why bother put in the extra work to change the way it looks? it really boils down to the look - and if you are satisfied with the look - it's done!


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*The Actual "Butcher Block" part of the table...*

Lots of cutting the last 2 nights…










It's not glued yet, the clamps are just there to help me hold it together and measure stuff. Tomorrow I'll start gluing the strips up 6 or so at a time, and run them through the jointer/planer all at once to ensure they're the proper thickness. Right now, they're just over 1" thick, so hopefully when I'm done they won't be 1/2"...

I've bailed on the end-grain idea - this is going to be edge grain. The primary reason is, I picked up this wood in my small car and had the guy cut the 8' boards down to 4' halves. In order to ensure nice clean lines I would have had to thickness everything to perfect thicknesses so they lined up all the way down. This is much easier, as I'm just thicknessing boards in multiples of 2" (with a little extra for saw kerf/jointing) so that I can just maintain symmetry across the width. I really don't want to mess with it that much, so I'll save the end-grain for the board I'm planning on making out of the scraps 

Finally, I may take the center strip of maple out, since right now it's just under 26" wide and I only need around 25" or so to have a nice overhang of 1" to 1.5". That just means I'll have a double strip of cherry running down the middle, which I'm OK with.

On an unrelated note - I finally got around to modding my tablesaw to use proper dust collection:










I got the 14" hood from Rockler, and made a platform that sits between the saw and the stand out of 1/4" birch plywood. There's also a bead of silicone around the edge to seal it up nicely. I got a wye also, and hooked it up to the 2" port coming out of the back as well:










As you can see from that pic, I have to manually move the hose around a bit while processing wood, but it's not bad overall. I'm looking forward to a future of having a Thein cyclone and proper ducting, but that will require some electrical work. I've got about 5 books on wiring, since in my locality you can do your own in-house wiring if you pass a test the city gives - so hopefully I'll be able to handle that myself.

Overall though, it is a revelation! I ran a piece of MDF through, slicing it into about 6 1" strips, and there was almost ZERO dust in the air. A little bit still escapes out the front, and a miniscule amount out the back, but I'd say it's 95% easy. After cutting all of those strips there was a light dusting in front of the saw, which was easily cleaned up with a few passes from the hand vac attachment. Most of it went here:










There is absolutely zero waste from the planer, and a tiny amount from the top of the jointer. I already have plans to mod the blade guard on my table saw, so I can try and catch the majority of the spray from that as well. I can't believe I waited this long to get my dust collector going, it is a night and day difference when milling wood. There used to be a massive mess everywhere, now 5 minutes of vacuuming and it's like I didn't do anything (the wide angle shot of the shop is AFTER I finished tonight)


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Actual "Butcher Block" part of the table...*
> 
> Lots of cutting the last 2 nights…
> 
> ...


Looking good.

FYI. it seems you have plenty of room to move the DC closer to your dust makers - you might be getting better results if the flex hose was shorter  are you planning on permanently ducting the DC?


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *The Actual "Butcher Block" part of the table...*
> 
> Lots of cutting the last 2 nights…
> 
> ...


The issue with the DC being that far away is, that's the only circuit I've found in my basement that will support it. Like I said, I'm studying up to take the test to do my own wiring, so I can add a circuit closer and then install smooth ducting in the shop with blast gates - the whole she-bang.

I'm not getting bad results as is, I've only got 30 feet of flex, which seems to be fine since I'm hooking direct up to each tool. The jointer and planer used to be the worst, and now I have zero clogs - which is impressive considering how crappy the Ryobi AP1301's dust collection port is. We'll see if that holds true after introducing a Thein collector to the mix, though there doesn't seem to be much of a drop off in CFM from them based on a very thorough dig through the forums at his site (I know dbhost is a huge fan, and many people have the same setup I do).

The only dust I have to manually clean up is being generated from the top of the table saw, but it's a relatively small amount. Still, I'll be building over the table collection. My blade guard is wide enough that I can at least mod it so that it has a 1" port, I just need to find a piece of plastic that transitions from square to round.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

*Nearing completion of the top (finally...)*

When we last left off, I had milled all the pieces for the top. Not long after that, I had glued them up in groups of 5-6 pieces each, and had run those through the planer to make them all a consistent thickness (just under 1", maybe 15/16"). Due to a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn't have a lot of shop time for the next month or so, but I've finally gotten some time back and have made more progress.

Earlier this week, I glued up the smaller sections into two halves, but in order to maximize the thickness I decided to flatten each half with my hand plane - my #4 to be exact, so more smoothing than flattening. This has worked out really well, considering it's the first time I've tried it. Yesterday I glued up the halves and finished flattening it as best I could.



















Sorry for the low quality pics, our good camera is on loan to a friend on vacation, so all I've got is my phone.

The top is pretty flat, though I probably could have done better had I used my #8 instead (it still needs work to be tuned up, possibly a new blade since the original has some major pitting). I've currently got it sanded on both sides with 100 grit, though I had to sand a few spots extra since there was some tear-out on the curly maple sections, so I need to go over it again to knock down some high spots before moving up to 150. Overall though, hopefully I'll be ready to trim it to length within a week.

As always, thanks for looking.


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## dub560 (Jun 4, 2010)

Jimi_C said:


> *Nearing completion of the top (finally...)*
> 
> When we last left off, I had milled all the pieces for the top. Not long after that, I had glued them up in groups of 5-6 pieces each, and had run those through the planer to make them all a consistent thickness (just under 1", maybe 15/16"). Due to a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn't have a lot of shop time for the next month or so, but I've finally gotten some time back and have made more progress.
> 
> ...


looking great my friend


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Nearing completion of the top (finally...)*
> 
> When we last left off, I had milled all the pieces for the top. Not long after that, I had glued them up in groups of 5-6 pieces each, and had run those through the planer to make them all a consistent thickness (just under 1", maybe 15/16"). Due to a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn't have a lot of shop time for the next month or so, but I've finally gotten some time back and have made more progress.
> 
> ...


The breadboard ends are working great - I've actually been considering doing a follow-up to show the expansion/contraction of the shelf. It's pretty cool, since it's been so dry this winter the shelf is actually contracted in about 1/8" on each side from the breadboard ends - so it's doing its job. I haven't noticed any expansion in the top, but I'm sure it's there to a degree (the pieces were thinner and turned on edge, so it should be expanding less side to side as opposed to up and down a bit).

Different woods will contract and expand differently, and there are calculators online that will give you an estimate based on current humidity and the dryness of your lumber. The lumber I used for the bottom shelf was also plain-sawn, whereas using quarter-sawn or rift-sawn wood would have lessened the movement.


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## jmack77 (Dec 26, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Nearing completion of the top (finally...)*
> 
> When we last left off, I had milled all the pieces for the top. Not long after that, I had glued them up in groups of 5-6 pieces each, and had run those through the planer to make them all a consistent thickness (just under 1", maybe 15/16"). Due to a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn't have a lot of shop time for the next month or so, but I've finally gotten some time back and have made more progress.
> 
> ...


How did the table turn out?


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Nearing completion of the top (finally...)*
> 
> When we last left off, I had milled all the pieces for the top. Not long after that, I had glued them up in groups of 5-6 pieces each, and had run those through the planer to make them all a consistent thickness (just under 1", maybe 15/16"). Due to a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn't have a lot of shop time for the next month or so, but I've finally gotten some time back and have made more progress.
> 
> ...


It turned out well, I posted it in the project section. Going on 1.5 years later it's still holding up very well.Had a party a few months ago where someone set something on it and caused a water ring, but the high moisture didn't split the top


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## jmack77 (Dec 26, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Nearing completion of the top (finally...)*
> 
> When we last left off, I had milled all the pieces for the top. Not long after that, I had glued them up in groups of 5-6 pieces each, and had run those through the planer to make them all a consistent thickness (just under 1", maybe 15/16"). Due to a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn't have a lot of shop time for the next month or so, but I've finally gotten some time back and have made more progress.
> 
> ...


Just saw the pics of it. It looks really nice. My wife just added one to her "wish list" so I was looking around for some ideas.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

Jimi_C said:


> *Nearing completion of the top (finally...)*
> 
> When we last left off, I had milled all the pieces for the top. Not long after that, I had glued them up in groups of 5-6 pieces each, and had run those through the planer to make them all a consistent thickness (just under 1", maybe 15/16"). Due to a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn't have a lot of shop time for the next month or so, but I've finally gotten some time back and have made more progress.
> 
> ...


If I did it over again, I'd have made the top thicker (2" vs 1" currently), I just totally underestimated how much material I'd need since this was really the first thing I'd ever built. The main "gotcha" was simply the material loss from the saw blade kerf - 1/8" compounded over 24+ cuts added up. Thats what stopped me from making it end-grain, which was the original intention if you go back through the blog posts.


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