# Barnsley Reproduction Build



## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Starting*










Fine Woodworking Magazine published an article many years ago of a table that Sydney Barnsley built in the 1920's.
The table is now in a museum in Cheltenham England. The article had original drawings that I redrew in Sketchup.
I traveled to England last year to see the original and I have just procured some old white oak barn beams that I am going to use for the undercarriage. The table fascinates me and will require a lot of hand work and chip carving.
It may take a while, but I will try and keep posting regularly. Barnsley did some incredible work and was responsible for much of the arts and crafts style of furniture. If you get a chance to go to England, don't miss Cheltenham.


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

stevo_wis said:


> *Starting*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Very cool.

I love this piece. I have been on two different arts and crafts odysseys in England/Scotland. I went to that Cheltenham museum and to Rodmartin manor to see Barnsley furniture. Looking forward to the build.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Preparing the Legs*

I rough cut the oak barn beams, jointed, planed the four legs and let them sit overnight.

























After marking out for stretcher mortise, beveling the edges, and turning the pads on the bottom of the leg I headed to the mortiser. I don't have a 7/8" mortise chisel, and I also wanted a very clean mortise as the tenon is a through tenon. What I did was to use a 3/8" chisel and stayed away from the scribe line. I then went back and cleaned up the mortise by hand with a chisel.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Laying out Chip Carving*

My next task is to chip carve the bevels on the four legs. The diamonds are 1 1/64 across the diagonals. The 1/64 was needed to ensure that the top and the bottom were a half diamond. Since the carved area is 25 3/8 long, by carving 25 diamonds each a little over 1" I avoided a partial diamond.









I printed the pattern and glued the paper on to the legs and plan on just carving through. Since my printer can only print up to 11 inches, each pattern was made of three pieces. I enlisted my wife to help cut and paste the patterns onto the 2 areas on each leg. Next is to start carving in the next post.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Starting Chip Carving*

My last photos of my paper layout were hard to see, so I shot them again and have also included a practice piece to show what I am trying to accomplish. The triangles that are removed have no depth at the base of the triangle and the chip is removed down 1/8 at the apex.










I have done a little chip carving with a knife into soft material before. For this project however, since it is white oak and I wanted to make sure my lines were straight, i decided to chip carve with a pair of bench chisels. I used a wide chisel that just incises a shallow line across two of the squares. I was hoping that this would give a nice straight line on the diagonal and it worked quite well.










To actually carve out the triangle, i placed a 3/4 chisel in the incision and using a mallet drove straight down to the 1/8 depth at the apex and nothing at the base. I chiseled both sides and kept the chisel bevel to the waste side.
After the two sides are chiseled, I then gently push the chisel from the bottom with the chisel parallel to one of the triangle sides. I then repeat for the other side and clean up as needed.



















1 1/4 hour later I had done one row of triangles. Only fifteen more to go and hopefully I will get faster, but I also dont want to make mistakes so I am taking my time. The photo doesnt show the 1/8 depth very well, but the chips are coming out nicely. After all the paper is removed I will go over for a final cleanup.


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## greenwoodbodger (Jul 7, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Starting Chip Carving*
> 
> My last photos of my paper layout were hard to see, so I shot them again and have also included a practice piece to show what I am trying to accomplish. The triangles that are removed have no depth at the base of the triangle and the chip is removed down 1/8 at the apex.
> 
> ...


When carving oak, I have a problem with chip out are you doing anything extra to avoid this?


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Starting Chip Carving*
> 
> My last photos of my paper layout were hard to see, so I shot them again and have also included a practice piece to show what I am trying to accomplish. The triangles that are removed have no depth at the base of the triangle and the chip is removed down 1/8 at the apex.
> 
> ...


Greenweedbodger,
I haven't done anything special to tame the chip out. On my practice piece, the remaining squares did chip a little and I think it was me just scraping too hard to get the paper off. I am not a really experienced carver so others may know better than me. I want this to be perfect if possible and the only thing I am doing is trying to keep the chisels really sharp and shaving just a little at a time. I would like to hear more about your ideas too. Good to see another bodger.


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

stevo_wis said:


> *Starting Chip Carving*
> 
> My last photos of my paper layout were hard to see, so I shot them again and have also included a practice piece to show what I am trying to accomplish. The triangles that are removed have no depth at the base of the triangle and the chip is removed down 1/8 at the apex.
> 
> ...


Looking good!


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*One Leg Carved, on to the Frame*

I finished carving one leg with all but the tenon at the top. The carving went well and turned out great.










I will carve the rest in my spare time and will use shop time to build the frame which supports the table top. The view here if from the bottom looking up under the top.










Each of the pieces are 3 1/8 wide and 2 1/2 thick. The joinery is draw bored mortise and tenons. The tenons are each 2 inches wide and 3/4 thick and present a challenge as most of the joinery is at 45 degrees and the mortises can't be done on a machine. Eventually I will have to cut slots for the buttons as well as the mortised for the tops of the legs to fit into.

Here is an x-ray view showing the internal joints. I also printed out a full size plan to lay on my bench to assemble the entire frame on.










Today, I got all the rough machining done on the frame pieces and stickered them overnight. I will do the final machining tomorrow.

I am working on a support block that I can clamp to the work piece and use it as a guide for a chisel to cut out the mortise. I am hoping to incorporate a drilling guide into it as well. I will post a photo of the block in the next entry.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Mortising Guide Block*

I have 16- 45 degree mortises to chop in the frame and the stretcher for this table. I made this guide block and the photo below shows the half assembled block with the two angled guides that I will chisel to. The small block with the holes in it are a drill guide that I will use to drill out waste before chiseling. That guide will be slipped into the block loosely and after drilling it can be pulled out for chisel work. I am hoping that the drill guide holds up but I have a buddy who said we could make it out of aluminum if need be. 









The next photo shows the guide and drill bit in place in the assembled block. When actually drilling I will put a C-Clamp across the entire jig.










This photo shows the position of the chisel when chiseling to the guide block.










Next I will start layout on the blanks and start drilling and chopping.


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## bunkymarie (Nov 24, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Mortising Guide Block*
> 
> I have 16- 45 degree mortises to chop in the frame and the stretcher for this table. I made this guide block and the photo below shows the half assembled block with the two angled guides that I will chisel to. The small block with the holes in it are a drill guide that I will use to drill out waste before chiseling. That guide will be slipped into the block loosely and after drilling it can be pulled out for chisel work. I am hoping that the drill guide holds up but I have a buddy who said we could make it out of aluminum if need be.
> 
> ...


Very nice mortises! Thanks for the updates. Can't wait to see the finished product!


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## jiggles (Nov 26, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Mortising Guide Block*
> 
> I have 16- 45 degree mortises to chop in the frame and the stretcher for this table. I made this guide block and the photo below shows the half assembled block with the two angled guides that I will chisel to. The small block with the holes in it are a drill guide that I will use to drill out waste before chiseling. That guide will be slipped into the block loosely and after drilling it can be pulled out for chisel work. I am hoping that the drill guide holds up but I have a buddy who said we could make it out of aluminum if need be.
> 
> ...


Stevo,

Remember the jig I made you for the back slats on the Windsor chairs. I used a bushing from the hardware store for the drill bit guide. If you still have the jig, pop the bushing out and try it.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Frame Layout Complete*

Most of the layout is complete for the frame parts. I did not do the button holes or the curved ends of the diagonal pieces yet. My thinking is that I want to get all of the mortises finished, then go back to cut everything to length, make the tenons and curved ends, button holes, and finally bevel the lower frame edges. It is really helpful to have a full size drawing, as no measurement is needed, I just had to transfer from the drawing to the actual blanks. The mortising guide block from the previous entry made for easy drawing of the mortises. There is lots of opportunity to bevel something the wrong direction, and double checking against the drawing helps minimize mistakes.
The plan is rather light and doesn't photograph well but it shows fine in the shop.










Here is the long stretcher in place on the drawing and one mortise drawn out. I realized that some of the mortise could be drilled with a mortiser machine so I divided the mortise in two parts. The part with the two XX's can be cut with the mortiser at 90 degrees and the part with the single X will have to be drilled and chiseled at 45 degrees. The left side of the XX part will also have to be chiseled, but is under the surface.










Next will be actually cutting the mortises and tenons.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Still chopping, here is what I am building*










Someone mentioned that she liked the blog, but didn't know all of what I was talking about. With that in mind, here is a picture of the model from below. I am working on the frame that is just under the table top and is at the top of the legs. I am currently chopping mortises and while the jig works well, there is still a significant amount of hand chopping and there are eight mortises to chop. When that is done, I will finish cutting to length, cutting tenons, diagonal ends, mortises that the buttons fit into, cutting the curved ends, beveling edges, drawboring, and gluing the frame up.
This will take a while but please stay tuned.


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## PeteCollin (Nov 2, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Still chopping, here is what I am building*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Boy, it looks like sumo wrestlers will be able to fight on top of that thing!


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Mortises are finally finished*

The diagonal mortises were much more work than I expected. That plus a busy work schedule and holiday made for slow going. It took a very long time to chisel out the sharp points of the mortise and the hard oak was tough on my chisels. While the guide I made worked pretty well for the finally trimming, I found that it helped to use a small bit and drill out the four corners freehand to save a quite a bit of chopping. My drill went outside my layout line in the photo, but this will be covered by the tenon's shoulder so it is fine.










I also found that a small wooden tenon was helpful to test to make sure that all the waste was cleared and the the mortise walls were flat.










I still need to cut mortises for buttons and for the top of the legs to fit into, but next I will cut the tenons.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Straight Tenons Finished*

I am almost finished with the straight tenons that go through the end pieces of the frame. Almost, in that the ends will be shortened and beveled, but I will hold on that until the entire frame is ready to glue, so that they don't get damaged until then. The two tenons are very straight forward but they do show and I took my time so that there were no gaps. First I just nibbled away at the cheeks with my table saw.










After I sawed the cheeks, I used a handsaw to cut the shoulder on the narrow side of the tenon and the width of the cheeks. Then to get that perfect fit, I used my shoulder plane to plane the shoulder to fit.










Next I again planed the cheeks until they fit as well










Finally assembling the first pieces of the frame, placing them on the full size drawing shows that I am right on.










Next will be cutting the eight diagonal tenons on the shorter pieces.


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## Brodan (Nov 1, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Straight Tenons Finished*
> 
> I am almost finished with the straight tenons that go through the end pieces of the frame. Almost, in that the ends will be shortened and beveled, but I will hold on that until the entire frame is ready to glue, so that they don't get damaged until then. The two tenons are very straight forward but they do show and I took my time so that there were no gaps. First I just nibbled away at the cheeks with my table saw.
> 
> ...


I appreciate the details you are sharing. As a newbie to LJ and furniture builds, your blog is very informational. Great project. I'll watch for more.


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

stevo_wis said:


> *Straight Tenons Finished*
> 
> I am almost finished with the straight tenons that go through the end pieces of the frame. Almost, in that the ends will be shortened and beveled, but I will hold on that until the entire frame is ready to glue, so that they don't get damaged until then. The two tenons are very straight forward but they do show and I took my time so that there were no gaps. First I just nibbled away at the cheeks with my table saw.
> 
> ...


Stevo,

This certainly has a lot of critical details. Thanks for sharing.

L/W


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Diagonal Tenons Almost There*

The diagnonal tenons can be shaped on the table saw almost identically to the way a 90 degree tenon would be made. I cut the inside cheek cut very carefully and then quickly nibble out to the tenon's tip.








Because the shoulder will hide where the tenon actually enters the mortise, i can cut the tenons to width with the bandsaw. The tenons can slightly narrower than the mortises as they will match up to end grain which gives little glue strength, and they are covered in any case. after cutting, I trimmed the entire shoulder with a chisel to get a nice line that does show.










One joint at a time I tried each tenon into it's mortise. They had a way to go, so it was time to break out the shoulder plane.









An old trick to fit dovetails (and dental work), is to color one surface with something that will rub off onto it's mating piece when fit together. A pencil blackens the mortise here and the joint is pushed together as tightly as it will go.










Pulling the joint apart shows the black transferred to the high spots on the tenon. These tight areas are holding the joint apart and need to be shaved down.









A few light cuts with the shoulder plane readies the joint for another trial fitting. I repeated it until the joint seated all the way.









The joint is not perfect yet but very close which is good enough until the next step.










After each joint is fitted and compared to the plan it is time to assemble all the joints for a first fitting together with it's neighboring pieces. The geometry of the assembly requires all of the joints be assembled at the same time with not a lot of clearance.









Some of the junctions actually fit worse than they did when the joints were fitted alone. A final tuning of all the joints will be the topic of the next blog entry.


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

stevo_wis said:


> *Diagonal Tenons Almost There*
> 
> The diagnonal tenons can be shaped on the table saw almost identically to the way a 90 degree tenon would be made. I cut the inside cheek cut very carefully and then quickly nibble out to the tenon's tip.
> 
> ...


Stevo,

Nice work! All those angles and joints look pretty tricky. I'm having a hard time getting four mitered corners of a rectangular box to fit together!

L/W


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## Brodan (Nov 1, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Diagonal Tenons Almost There*
> 
> The diagnonal tenons can be shaped on the table saw almost identically to the way a 90 degree tenon would be made. I cut the inside cheek cut very carefully and then quickly nibble out to the tenon's tip.
> 
> ...


Looks terrific Stevo. Pretty complicated assembly. I really appreciate your step by step detailed description of the mortise and teno layout and construction. I am using mortise and tenon joinery in my current build ( first time). I find your post very helpful. Thanks.

Dan


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## bunkymarie (Nov 24, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Diagonal Tenons Almost There*
> 
> The diagnonal tenons can be shaped on the table saw almost identically to the way a 90 degree tenon would be made. I cut the inside cheek cut very carefully and then quickly nibble out to the tenon's tip.
> 
> ...


Beautiful work!


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Final Fitting and Draw Boring*

I wasn't satisfied with the fit that I talked about in the last entry so I called my mentor Dick. Dick is the best sharpener, dovetail cutter, and jointer that I know, and he came over. The two sides went together but still had a gap of 1/16 in a couple of places. After a while, Dick thought that I needed a miter jack or we could make one. So we made essentially a guide that wrapped the work piece on three sides to guide a chisel. Shaving very fine amounts and pushing the chisel at an angle gives very good control and doesn't require much effort. By matching the piece to the jack, and a little undercutting, we trimmed until the joint was as good as it could get. A dry fit looked much better but I won't know for sure until the glue up happens.









The joints are going to be draw bored with 3/8 pegs. Drilling the mortise first, then moving the hole 1/16 towards the shoulder in the tenon will actually bend the peg and draw the joint as tight as possible. First I drilled all the mortise pieces with a 3/8 brad point in my drill press.









A dry assembly with all pieces together is next and the holes are marked with both a pencil and pressing down with the brad point to mark the exact center of the hole.


















Finally all the tenons are drilled 1/16 closer to the shoulder.









Next will be final mortising, and final cutting.


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## bunkymarie (Nov 24, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Final Fitting and Draw Boring*
> 
> I wasn't satisfied with the fit that I talked about in the last entry so I called my mentor Dick. Dick is the best sharpener, dovetail cutter, and jointer that I know, and he came over. The two sides went together but still had a gap of 1/16 in a couple of places. After a while, Dick thought that I needed a miter jack or we could make one. So we made essentially a guide that wrapped the work piece on three sides to guide a chisel. Shaving very fine amounts and pushing the chisel at an angle gives very good control and doesn't require much effort. By matching the piece to the jack, and a little undercutting, we trimmed until the joint was as good as it could get. A dry fit looked much better but I won't know for sure until the glue up happens.
> 
> ...


Hey that Dick is a great teacher. I took my first wood plane class from him!


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## Brodan (Nov 1, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Final Fitting and Draw Boring*
> 
> I wasn't satisfied with the fit that I talked about in the last entry so I called my mentor Dick. Dick is the best sharpener, dovetail cutter, and jointer that I know, and he came over. The two sides went together but still had a gap of 1/16 in a couple of places. After a while, Dick thought that I needed a miter jack or we could make one. So we made essentially a guide that wrapped the work piece on three sides to guide a chisel. Shaving very fine amounts and pushing the chisel at an angle gives very good control and doesn't require much effort. By matching the piece to the jack, and a little undercutting, we trimmed until the joint was as good as it could get. A dry fit looked much better but I won't know for sure until the glue up happens.
> 
> ...


Stevo, looks good. Interesting pulling the joint tight with the offset peg hole.

Always learning. thanks

Dan


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Button mortises, Final shaping, and Bevels*

I am almost done with the frame. Below is a shot of what the frame will look like.










I recruited my grandson Phin to run the mortiser. There are lots of them in the sides for button holes and one for each of the legs to fit into.



















The ends of the frame are cut with a nice gentle S curve. Two lines are drawn on the pieces because the S curves also need to be beveled.



















Nothing leaves a better finish than the drawknife and it is very enjoyable.


















No sandpaper here, but I did have to touch up the ends with a little scraping.










A little more drawknife work makes for easy work on the bevels.










The bevels are what really set this table apart in my estimation.










All that is left is to make some pegs and drive it all together.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Gluing up the Frame*

I was finally ready to glue up the frame. It happened that my friends Terry and Kris came over and were there for the glue up. The joints really can't be clamped easily, but the 3/8" pegs and the offset in the draw bored holes pulled it together. I whittled a oak spindle down to about 7/16" in diameter and then drove it through a steel plate that was drilled at exactly 3/8". I forgot to take a picture of the dowel making, but will include one later.










After applying glue, we used the draw pins to pull the joints together, inserted the dowels, and pounded them through with a hammer. The joints pulled together very nicely. While the joints were not clamped, we did use bar clamps to hold the assembly flat to the bench.










The dowels were then sawn close to the frame, and finished up with a chisel.



















All but the final scraping before finishing is complete. I am going to defer that until the entire table is ready to finish.

This pair of joints took much longer than I expected. I think I would be the slowest timberframer ever and if I had farm animals, they would wait a long time for shelter if I had to do many of these joints.

Next is fitting the legs into the frame.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Gluing up the Frame*
> 
> I was finally ready to glue up the frame. It happened that my friends Terry and Kris came over and were there for the glue up. The joints really can't be clamped easily, but the 3/8" pegs and the offset in the draw bored holes pulled it together. I whittled a oak spindle down to about 7/16" in diameter and then drove it through a steel plate that was drilled at exactly 3/8". I forgot to take a picture of the dowel making, but will include one later.
> 
> ...


This looks really good. It is e a very interesting project. I haven't been following with, but I will from here anyway. Nice work!


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## Brodan (Nov 1, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Gluing up the Frame*
> 
> I was finally ready to glue up the frame. It happened that my friends Terry and Kris came over and were there for the glue up. The joints really can't be clamped easily, but the 3/8" pegs and the offset in the draw bored holes pulled it together. I whittled a oak spindle down to about 7/16" in diameter and then drove it through a steel plate that was drilled at exactly 3/8". I forgot to take a picture of the dowel making, but will include one later.
> 
> ...


The joints look great! I like the way you pulled them all tight with the offset dowel holes.


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

stevo_wis said:


> *Gluing up the Frame*
> 
> I was finally ready to glue up the frame. It happened that my friends Terry and Kris came over and were there for the glue up. The joints really can't be clamped easily, but the 3/8" pegs and the offset in the draw bored holes pulled it together. I whittled a oak spindle down to about 7/16" in diameter and then drove it through a steel plate that was drilled at exactly 3/8". I forgot to take a picture of the dowel making, but will include one later.
> 
> ...


Stevo,

Those were some tricky joints and you mastered them!

L/W


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Legs Trimmed and Installed*

I mentioned last time that I would show how I make my dowels for drawboring. I use a drawknife to get them to about 1/2 inch in diameter and then pound them through a dowel plate. First I make sure that they go through the 1/2" diameter hole, then finally to 3/8" finished size. I bought the plate and it works well, though Roy Underhill says to just take a plate of iron and drill through them and leave any ragged edges on the plate's holes to help cut the dowel. 








It was time to install the legs temporarily so my friend Kris sawed the top tenon on each of the legs slightly oversized.
He used a stop and a clamp to make sure that all the legs would end up the same length.








Kris spun the legs and did all four sides of each leg.









A little touch up with the shoulder plane gave a perfect fit.









The legs are inserted but they can't be glued in until the stretcher is finished. I also forgot to drill the frame for drawboring the tops of the legs, but I will do this later after the stretcher is fitted.










My friend Terry and I attended the 18th century furniture conference last weekend and I was able to talk to a timberframer there who gave me some tips on fitting diagonal tenons. More will come on this topic as I build the stretcher.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Legs Trimmed and Installed*
> 
> I mentioned last time that I would show how I make my dowels for drawboring. I use a drawknife to get them to about 1/2 inch in diameter and then pound them through a dowel plate. First I make sure that they go through the 1/2" diameter hole, then finally to 3/8" finished size. I bought the plate and it works well, though Roy Underhill says to just take a plate of iron and drill through them and leave any ragged edges on the plate's holes to help cut the dowel.
> 
> ...


Your dowel making is a tried and true method Stevo, but there is another way as shown here that you might like even better.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Legs Trimmed and Installed*
> 
> I mentioned last time that I would show how I make my dowels for drawboring. I use a drawknife to get them to about 1/2 inch in diameter and then pound them through a dowel plate. First I make sure that they go through the 1/2" diameter hole, then finally to 3/8" finished size. I bought the plate and it works well, though Roy Underhill says to just take a plate of iron and drill through them and leave any ragged edges on the plate's holes to help cut the dowel.
> 
> ...


Mike, I like your dowel maker! With either maker, I like to draw knife the dowels rather than saw them because the dowel keeps the long grain intact. 
Thanks Mike.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Making the Table Top*










My friend suggested that we take a intermediate cabinet class at the local technical school. I had attended such a class many years ago, and even though we both have nice shops and have been woodworking for a long time, we signed up. The class workshop is almost brand new and full of state of the art machines including several saw stops, a 10 inch jointer, an unbelievable sliding table saw, and a 42 wide belt sander. The instructor is good and the students all seem great and all are at different experience levels. While most of this build is done by hand, the thought of flattening my table top by hand makes the wide belt sander look very attractive. So, I temporarily have stopped work on the stretcher and instead picked up some 8/4 oak for the top. The top calls for 3 planks that are approximately 13" wide and 77 inches long. My wood supplier had one 13" wide piece, but I had to glue up for the other two. I managed to get my truck stuck in the snow twice along with a few dents getting to my shop door. My wife pulled me out with our John Deere Gator and I loaded the planks into the gator and hauled them to the shop.

I prepared the stock in the usual way. First jointing the best face, then thickness planing, jointing the best edge square to the reference face, ripping to width, and then jointing the sawn edge. I left the boards long for now. 
The planks are all down to 1 3/4" thickness and as you can see they are all very straight.

Here are the planks after preparation. The outer planks are each made up of two boards and I was able to get a very nice grain match.

The 13" wide center plank was too wide for my jointer, so it went straight to my 15" planer. It was very flat so it turned out fine. It was however very heavy and it was all I could do to joint the edges without wobbling.










I glued up in stages, doing each of the outside planks separately and as you can see I put lots of clamps to work. I would much rather overdo it than not get a good glue joint.
The second outside plank was glued up in the same way and both allowed to cure overnight.










Tonight, my wife helped and we glued the now three planks together which needed longer clamps and it will sit until tomorrow. Next week I will load it up and take to the night class for the widebelt sander.


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## Bob06 (Feb 16, 2015)

stevo_wis said:


> *Making the Table Top*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I like your cawl system. It gets the clamps off the table and provides cawl at the same time. Why didn't I think of that?!


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Making the Table Top*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


They work well. They used to get full of glue, and then my buddy suggested putting packing tape on the edges and now the glue just pops off. I need to make another set and maybe just a little longer.


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

stevo_wis said:


> *Making the Table Top*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Stevo,

I bet that top is HEAVY! I'm glad I'm not your helper! LOL The table is coming along very nicely.

L/W


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Top is Flattened*

I was able to take my top to the night class I have been attending. They have a beautiful wide belt sander. It has two belts and it was set up with 120 and 150 grits. 
Before sanding, i just hit the high spots with my Bedrock 606. 
The machine is very accurate to the point where the second belt is set just a few thousands deeper than the first belt so that it grinds out the grooves from the rougher grit. It only takes about 8 thousands of an inch per pass and it took about five passes on each side to come up with a perfectly flat and silky finish. It did take three of us to feed, catch and flip the top.









I had thought about using a table saw to rip and cut the top to length, but it was quite difficult to handle the top. The school also has a Festool track saw so I used that to rip the table to width, then cut to length, and finally cut off the corners of the top. I had never used a Festool before and it was dead on accurate and very easy to use. The saw and track are are great tools and if they would cut the price by 2/3 I would own one. 









Finally I wrapped cardboard and cutoffs on all four edges and shrink wrapped the entire table. Even though I can't lift the table alone, I can lift one end and using some rollers I was able to get it into my truck, haul it home, and then reverse the process to get it into my shop. The top still needs butterfly keys cut into the table and chip carving done on the edges. I am going to have to put that off for a while and get back to finishing the stretcher.


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## bunkymarie (Nov 24, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Top is Flattened*
> 
> I was able to take my top to the night class I have been attending. They have a beautiful wide belt sander. It has two belts and it was set up with 120 and 150 grits.
> Before sanding, i just hit the high spots with my Bedrock 606.
> ...


That looks beautiful! Must be heavy!


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

stevo_wis said:


> *Top is Flattened*
> 
> I was able to take my top to the night class I have been attending. They have a beautiful wide belt sander. It has two belts and it was set up with 120 and 150 grits.
> Before sanding, i just hit the high spots with my Bedrock 606.
> ...


Stevo,

I've never had the pleasure of working with any Festool equipment, but I do agree with you about the price. As a hobbyist, I certainly can't legitimize its cost.

I'm glad you were able to take advantage of the school's equipment (and a couple of helpers) to get that top sanded.

L/W


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Top is Flattened*
> 
> I was able to take my top to the night class I have been attending. They have a beautiful wide belt sander. It has two belts and it was set up with 120 and 150 grits.
> Before sanding, i just hit the high spots with my Bedrock 606.
> ...


The Festool is fantastic from all reports. I think it would be a great investment for a professional woodworker. I so seldom even use a circle saw that I sure wouldn't consider buying one. I'm looking forward to seeing the carving you will be doing on the table top. It is sure to be a classic that will be around for a long time to come.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Top is Flattened*
> 
> I was able to take my top to the night class I have been attending. They have a beautiful wide belt sander. It has two belts and it was set up with 120 and 150 grits.
> Before sanding, i just hit the high spots with my Bedrock 606.
> ...


The carving is just chip carving like what I did on the legs, plus the butterfly keys will also add a nice touch I think.
Stevo


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## greenwoodbodger (Jul 7, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *Top is Flattened*
> 
> I was able to take my top to the night class I have been attending. They have a beautiful wide belt sander. It has two belts and it was set up with 120 and 150 grits.
> Before sanding, i just hit the high spots with my Bedrock 606.
> ...


It's's cheating using a wide belt sander, the bedrock would have done a better job.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Top is Flattened*
> 
> I was able to take my top to the night class I have been attending. They have a beautiful wide belt sander. It has two belts and it was set up with 120 and 150 grits.
> Before sanding, i just hit the high spots with my Bedrock 606.
> ...


I can see there is a heckler in the bunch. It did work well to hit it with the 606. If I only had a bedrock 602 then I would really be in business. In truth the belt sander was too good to resist.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Back to The Stretcher*









It has been a while since I posted, but I have been working on the lower stretcher that connects the four legs. This is a repeat of what I did with the frame but the stretcher has a few additional features. The stretcher through mortises pass through the legs and since the joinery all shows it must be precise. In addition, the hayrake portion of the stretchers have curves cut into them which makes the glue up a bit more challenging. I am keeping the work pieces rectangular as long as possible and after all the joinery if finished, I will cut the curves.








When joining the frame earlier, the most difficult part was dealing with the sharp 45 degree points on the mortises and tenons. I talked to a timber framer who said that in most timberframing 45 degree joints the points are squared off. While this slightly reduces the tenon size, it greatly simplifies the mortise chopping and also allows each piece of the assembly to be inserted and removed independently of the rest of the assembly. So that is what I did and the pencils above are pointing to the once sharp points which are now cut at 90 degrees.










When assembling the frame, i relied on the drawboring to pull the joints together and they moved slightly during the glue up. This time, I made clamping cauls that I will be able to pull tightly and align everything before the drawboring holes are drilled. The above is a dry run and the cross piece isn't yet fitted perfectly. 
Next post will show more stretcher work.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Back to The Stretcher*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is looking very good Stevo.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*template for butterflies*

I am been working very hard for the last month at my day job (have to knock that off), and so progress has been slow. 
Our guild als0 had a sharpening day yesterday with Dick Christensen showing handsaw sharpening as well as chisel and scraper sharpening. Dick is the best sharpener that I know. 
All of that plus spring coming and firewood cutting beckoning makes it tough to work on the table and I also picked up a second 8 inch jointer which is another long story.

I have the stretcher all cut and just need to bevel edges with a drawkife and assemble it. I will include photos in my next blog entry.

I am on the road now and this is a quick note to show the beautiful template that my friend Terry made me on his CNC. I was talking to him about routing the holes through the table top and he not only made me a template, but threw in two extras in case I damaged one. What a guy! Here is a screen shot of the top showing the butterfiies 
and the template. More to come.


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## Brodan (Nov 1, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *template for butterflies*
> 
> I am been working very hard for the last month at my day job (have to knock that off), and so progress has been slow.
> Our guild als0 had a sharpening day yesterday with Dick Christensen showing handsaw sharpening as well as chisel and scraper sharpening. Dick is the best sharpener that I know.
> ...


I hear you about the day job and life cutting into "shop time".


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Slight Delay Via Nottingham*

My friend Terry and I attended the Bodgers Ball in Nottingham England a couple of weeks ago. Bodgers are the guys who go into the woods and turn chair legs with spring pole lathes.

While this doesn't have a lot to do with the Barnsley table, we did stop and see the original table in Cheltenham, but not before we headed to High Wycombe which is north of London a short drive. High Wycombe was the center of chairmaking around the turn of the 20th century turning out upwords of 4700 chairs per day. We had also wanted to stop in to see Stuart Lindford's shop there, but sadly they are out of business. Lindford was the last chairmaking shop in High Wycombe but is no more. I did get a shot of the bodger on the door, which I may try to duplicate.










They did have a fine museum there though and most of the museums we went to were free. Restaurants were scarce in High Wycombe, so we ate in Marlow on the River Thames.










The next day we went to Oxford, but didn't see much except a lot of traffic. On the way we stopped at my favorite brewery, Wychwood which is owned by Prince Charles. I got an 8 pack of delicious porter to to lug home. 
We stopped in Cheltenham which has a museum showing the Barnsley Table. They also have a collection of many other arts and crafts pieces that are well worth the stop. Here is a some shots of the original table. I had seen it before, but I am glad that I stopped again, as there were some minor differences to what I had remembered.



























There are many other incredible pieces including this chest, the corner of a wonderful settee and finally a carved chair.



















Next a stop in Worcester, to see Peter and Patrica Hindl of Ashem tools who make the wonderful trapping planes and rounders. They didn't know we were coming but when we introduced ourselves, they invited us in for a four hour visit including two sets of tea. Peter was just about to do an aluminum casting so we watched and it was extremely interesting. Terry especially liked it as he is in the aluminum tank business.




























Peter showed us his prize Austin Healy that he used to date his now wife so many years ago. It was amazing how welcome this couple made a pair of lost Americans feel.



















After driving in the rain to Nottingham we found our B and B which was a farmhouse. Here is the bridge across their driveway along with a great oil burning kitchen stove.


















Next, some pictures from the Bodger's Ball itself.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Slight Delay Via Nottingham*
> 
> My friend Terry and I attended the Bodgers Ball in Nottingham England a couple of weeks ago. Bodgers are the guys who go into the woods and turn chair legs with spring pole lathes.
> 
> ...


Looks like you had a great visit. Nice car and superbly built antique furniture.


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## JR45 (Jan 26, 2012)

stevo_wis said:


> *Slight Delay Via Nottingham*
> 
> My friend Terry and I attended the Bodgers Ball in Nottingham England a couple of weeks ago. Bodgers are the guys who go into the woods and turn chair legs with spring pole lathes.
> 
> ...


Pleased to see that you had a great trip to England. You should try to get to Yorkshire on your next visit as we have plenty of small furniture workshops here including Robert Thompson's "Mouseman" workshop and museum. We also have lots of micro breweries for you to sample!
Jim


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Robin Hood and Little John (Bodger's Ball Part 2) *

Little John (Terry) and I headed out to the Bodger's Ball on the Saturday morning of our trip in Walesby, just outside Nottingham. Terry was hoping to find a bow and several arrows to try some archery, but of course, I only needed two arrows.
There was a large marquee (tent) that held a lot of the contest entries, vendors, and auction items. There were also many folks set up outside with tents and caravans. There were probably 400 total people there and I am told that attendance doubles when the ball is held in the South of England. 









The focus is of course on green woodworking and hand lathe work. There were springpole lathes, treadle lathes, and some other interesting hybrids. What wasn't there were power lathes.





































There were some interesting characters that made an appearance.



















There were lots of hand turners of course. The highlight of the event was called "log to leg". Contestants are given a 18 inch billet, split , along with a sample leg to duplicate. First the blanks are shaved on the shave horse, then turned on the spring pole lathe. The winner is the shortest time to complete two legs, but they are also judged on quality against the sample leg. The winner last year completed two legs, completely, in 7 1/2 minutes.









There was a bowl carver.










There were many hand made objects for a competition and classes.



















And chairs, all hand made.




























Here is my favorite. This chair was completely done by a 12 year old Chairmaker.










Spoons.










Bowls and brooms.



















Green panel woodworking.










I love this shaving horse that holds spoons as well.










Of course a stop to Sherwood was obligatory along with the church that Robin and Marian were married.



















There were tons of other pictures. If I could figure out how to upload all of them to instagram I could post all of them. If anyone has a hint of how to get them there from my computer, let me know.

I am heading out on vacation, but hopefully I can post one more entry soon.
One more hint on the next one, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse".


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Robin Hood and Little John (Bodger's Ball Part 2) *
> 
> Little John (Terry) and I headed out to the Bodger's Ball on the Saturday morning of our trip in Walesby, just outside Nottingham. Terry was hoping to find a bow and several arrows to try some archery, but of course, I only needed two arrows.
> There was a large marquee (tent) that held a lot of the contest entries, vendors, and auction items. There were also many folks set up outside with tents and caravans. There were probably 400 total people there and I am told that attendance doubles when the ball is held in the South of England.
> ...


Thanks for your post Stevo. Those Bodger events look like a lot of fun with lots of interesting stuff. I probably ought to take a trip to England to see one sometime.


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

stevo_wis said:


> *Robin Hood and Little John (Bodger's Ball Part 2) *
> 
> Little John (Terry) and I headed out to the Bodger's Ball on the Saturday morning of our trip in Walesby, just outside Nottingham. Terry was hoping to find a bow and several arrows to try some archery, but of course, I only needed two arrows.
> There was a large marquee (tent) that held a lot of the contest entries, vendors, and auction items. There were also many folks set up outside with tents and caravans. There were probably 400 total people there and I am told that attendance doubles when the ball is held in the South of England.
> ...


very interesting, thanks for the pictures and info.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*"A Horse, A Horse, my Kingdom for a Horse". (Bodger's Ball Part 3)*

"A Horse, A Horse, my Kingdom for a Horse".










Terry and I left Nottingham after the Bodger's Ball and Liecester was right on our way south. Richard the Third was uncovered during construction of a parking lot last year. DNA testing plus the fact that he had been beheaded and had a hunch back proved that it was in fact Richard who had been buried for several hundred years after dying in battle. A new burial place was constructed in the Liecester Cathedral and it was dedicated just a month before we got there.



















We had a few days left in our trip, so we headed south of London where our first stop was the Edward Barnsley workshop in Petersfield. Edward was the nephew of Sidney and the shop is now part of the National Trust. The shop adds young apprentices each year and they get an excellent woodworking education in an actual working shop. The products made there are gallery quality.














































The shop not only does one of-a- kind commissions; in addition they do production runs. The shop was just finishing up over 100 dining chairs for a college nearby.




























That evening in our hotel, we met a retired chemistry professor from Cambridge. He hangs out with Prince Phillip during graduations and invited us to see Cambridge next trip.
We headed down to Sussex to stop in with James Mursell who does Windsor chair classes. A class was going on when we stopped in with five or so students doing a steam bending. James and the students were very friendly and in fact James had a Barnsley table that his father had commissioned from Barnsley many years ago. I didn't get any photos, but it was well worth the stop.

Our last stop was in Chichester at the Weald and Downland open air museum. The museum has many reconstructed buildings, a blacksmith, a working mill, and much more.










We were even able to find Terry a job there.










That was it for England, and as you can see even driving on the left, I only had one small parking incident, though I did put some extra loops around the roundabouts and a few scares into Terry.










While my blogging is infrequent, I actually have made some progress my table, so back to table building for the next entry.


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## JR45 (Jan 26, 2012)

stevo_wis said:


> *"A Horse, A Horse, my Kingdom for a Horse". (Bodger's Ball Part 3)*
> 
> "A Horse, A Horse, my Kingdom for a Horse".
> 
> ...


That was some trip that you had. Glad that you enjoyed it. The Barnsley furniture pictures are excellent.
Jim


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *"A Horse, A Horse, my Kingdom for a Horse". (Bodger's Ball Part 3)*
> 
> "A Horse, A Horse, my Kingdom for a Horse".
> 
> ...


Thanks for the great pics and text. The English woodworking traditions run deep and I have learned quite a few really useful things from some contemporary English woodworker's articles.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Assembling the Stretcher*










It has been a couple of months since I have posted but I have been slowly coming along with the Barnsley Table. The stretcher had a lot of carving and bevels, but they are finished. It had some interesting joinery issues as well. 
The stretcher has almost the identical joinery that the upper frame has. I made one change here to simplify construction and that was to not have an acute point on the tenon. The pencil is pointing to the squared off tenon. Doing that made the mortise much faster to cut and also made adjustments easier. I am told that is what timber framers do.










Before carving, the diagonal joinery was given a dry run. It was easier to do that joinery while the pieces were still square.










The stopped rip cut was made on the table saw along with the end tenons. The bandsaw cut the curves.

















A template was used to draw all the bevels.










Off to the shaving horse to cut all the bevels.



















Next the stretcher was clamped, glued, and drawbored.










The legs were drilled, tenon ends were drilled offset 1/32 with a doweling jig. The offset will pull the joint tight.




























Next is gluing the entire undercarriage.


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## Kiwib0y (Aug 8, 2015)

stevo_wis said:


> *Assembling the Stretcher*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The tenon work looks amazing and the shaped legs are cool.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Assembling the Stretcher*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You are more talented with a drawknife than I. This is coming along nicely, and it is a great project full of challenges.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Assembling the Stretcher*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Lots of great work and interesting joinery here Stevo. Looking forward to seeing it completed.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

stevo_wis said:


> *Assembling the Stretcher*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That is some awesome joinery!


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Assembling and Gluing the Undercarriage*









I have glued up the undercarriage, which includes everything below the table top except the buttons holding the top on.

The top of the leg where it is mortised into the top frame, and the mortise and tenons where the stretcher goes through the legs are draw bored. I applied glue and used a draw boring alignment pin to pull the joints as tight as possible and then also put a clamp across the joint to hold it when the pin is removed until the dowel is driven through.









I glued and assembled the four lower joints and but left the top joint fitted but unglued. This way I only had four joints to glue leisurely while working alone. A four inch dowel was glued and hammered into the draw bore hole. After destroying a couple of dowels with the hammer, I realized that a wooden block would protect it and by drilling a depth hole into the block, it would prevent the dowel from being flared from the hammer, and would also leave an exact amount of the dowel still proud.









After hammering, the joint is complete. Also shown is the block with its hole. The block worked very well.









After the four lower joints were complete, clamping the frame tightly to the leg allows the draw boring through the frame and the four top joints along with glue. The gluing is now complete and the undercarriage is left to dry.









Trimming the dowels flush with a chisel completes the undercarriage except for finishing. 









Next buttons !


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Assembling and Gluing the Undercarriage*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's looking good now. Love the details, keep it coming.


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## kenn (Mar 19, 2008)

stevo_wis said:


> *Assembling and Gluing the Undercarriage*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I've just checked out Lumberjocks after being away from here for a while, what a great blog to discover upon my return. I've gone back to catch up with your entire progress. This is the type of info that makes Lumberjocks the best, real info from actual projects with everything shared. Thank you so much for posting this.

The table looks great and I'm looking forward to your continued progress.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Assembling and Gluing the Undercarriage*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You have done wonderful work on this challenging project. The joints all look very tight and well done.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*A Bucket O'Buttons*










There are 22 buttons that hold the table top to the frame underneath the table. They are approximately two by two inches and have these nice little bevels and wedges on the edges.










Rather than work with very small pieces, I decided to make strips of them, do what I could on a machine, cut them apart, then finish each small piece by hand. The x'd out areas need to be hogged out and then cut between buttons.










My radial saw seemed to be the safest and easiest tool so that I could see what I was doing and still keep my fingers.










The inside of the buttons have a rounded edge and my pencil can was about the right radius.










The radial arm cut a angled cut to sneak up on the rounded side.










A chisel finishes the rounding.










A block plane makes quick work of beveling the edges. It was a nice job on a fall day










The drill press drills and countersinks each button for the screw to pass through.










A true Bucket O' Buttons.










Next, cutting out butterfly mortises in the table top.


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

stevo_wis said:


> *A Bucket O'Buttons*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice tutorial, Stevo. Thanks for sharing.


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *A Bucket O'Buttons*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for the tutorial, Stevo.


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## Brodan (Nov 1, 2014)

stevo_wis said:


> *A Bucket O'Buttons*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice Stevo! I really enjoy following your build on your Barnsley table.

Thanks


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *A Bucket O'Buttons*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Fun to follow your nice blog on this build Stevo. I like those wedge bevels on the buttons, very stylish and one of the small things that make your project so special.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

*Butterfly Mortises*

Butterfly Mortises 
I know it has been a while but I am finally back to my table build.

The top of the table has 20 butterflies mortised into the top. In the original piece, these went all the way through the top and may have actually helped to hold the top together, but it is more likely that they were probably just decorative, as Barnsley has used them in several pieces. My friends all warned me that it would be much better to just rout a quarter inch deep or so, as going through is a lot more work. 
Well, the original went all the way through and I think that is the correct thing to do.

So there you go then!










If you recall, my friend had made me an aluminum template on a cnc and I finally got to use it. After layout and clamping, I first drilled what I could before I started routing. Sorry that the photo is washed out as the aluminum did weird things to the photo. If you look into the window reflections you can see the owner of the table (Joy) doing the photography.










Three holes into each mortise removed quite a bit of waste.










A template guide on my router made quick work of the remaining excavation down to a one inch depth.



















The router of course left round corners in the mortise and they needed to be chiseled out by hand.










The top side of the first mortise is finished and then repeated on the remaining nineteen mortises.










Flipping the table shows the bottom of the table top. I did get some tearout from the drill, but the router eventually took care of that.










Routing from the bottom with a pilot bit duplicated the mortise opening on the top side.










After again chiseling out the corners, the mortises are complete. I flipped it and clamped it to the side of my bench for the next operation.










Next, making and gluing three piece butterflies.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

stevo_wis said:


> *Butterfly Mortises*
> 
> Butterfly Mortises
> I know it has been a while but I am finally back to my table build.
> ...


Really nice precise work on those butterflys Stevo. I think you did the right thing putting them all the way through. I use butterflys on some of my projects, especially to hold jointed thin pieces together or to reinforce mitered corner joints as I have done on the bottom and corners of my wooden baskets. This allows me to make very lightweight baskets, but still extremely strong. I think they will ensure that your table top will never come apart at the seams and since the butterflys go all the way through it will be possible in the future to re-plane the top if needed without degrading or weakening them.



















Glad to see that you are getting this table finished as I'm looking forward to seeing the completed project.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Butterfly Mortises*
> 
> Butterfly Mortises
> I know it has been a while but I am finally back to my table build.
> ...


Stefang, thanks for the encouragement. Your work is stellar as well. I noticed your ball within a ball project. When I was 14, our class went to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis where they had an ivory ball with a screen pattern. It was approximately 4" in diameter. It was beautiful, but it also contained 6 levels of balls within it. Unforgetable.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Butterfly Mortises*
> 
> Butterfly Mortises
> I know it has been a while but I am finally back to my table build.
> ...


Stefang, thanks for the encouragement. Your work is stellar as well. I noticed your ball within a ball project. When I was 14, our class went to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis where they had an ivory ball with a screen pattern. It was approximately 4" in diameter. It was beautiful, but it also contained 6 levels of balls within it. Unforgetable.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

stevo_wis said:


> *Butterfly Mortises*
> 
> Butterfly Mortises
> I know it has been a while but I am finally back to my table build.
> ...


Stevo, excellent design and craftsmanship. I have a number of butterflies in my near future. I had thought to get closer to the corners with a metal-cutting blade in a scroll saw. Do you think that would work? Thanks.


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## stevo_wis (Feb 10, 2010)

stevo_wis said:


> *Butterfly Mortises*
> 
> Butterfly Mortises
> I know it has been a while but I am finally back to my table build.
> ...


AndCstyle,
I guess that a scroll saw might help. I was worried about going too far and the chiseling really went pretty quickly.
If you like arts and crafts, check out some of the Barnsley stuff at the Cheltenham Museum. I would guess that they have some of it online and if you get a chance to go there it is terrific.


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