# Mission Style Pedestal Table



## dczward (May 23, 2011)

*Planning the build*

After finishing a windows seat/banquette in my kitchen, I needed a table to go in front of it. For the design, I want several things:

- single pedestal
- split top to accommodate leaves
- mission style, qtr sawn white oak
- octagonal top

I'd been hunting around for some plans and ideas, and none were exactly what I wanted. Two sources were…

- plans I'd bought from Woodmagazine.com for a "Mission Dining Table". It shows great info on making the octagonal top, but the edge profile and the pedestal & feet design are too busy, and a little gaudy for my tastes…










- the current, modern Stickley furniture catalog shows a single pedestal table that has a great looking set of feet & pedestal…










With those two sources as my starting point, I set out to do my design. I had to guess on the base parts, with no measurements. After struggling with all those curved surfaces in Sketchup, I decided to lay it out with full scale drawings, and then a full scale prototype using pine. This process was great, and really helped me figure out how I was going to do the joinery, as well as having something full size to put in the space to determine the exactly table top size, height, etc. So I guess I'm doing the Stickley table with an octagonal top, more or less.

After about seven hours in the shop, I had this in my kitchen…




























The size and base shape as prototyped is perfect, but the hight is about 1" too low. I'm glad I went to the trouble to do this. I've ordered a pair of equalizer wooden slides and should be able to pick up the lumber next weekend.

Till next time…


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## Bigrock (Apr 16, 2010)

dczward said:


> *Planning the build*
> 
> After finishing a windows seat/banquette in my kitchen, I needed a table to go in front of it. For the design, I want several things:
> 
> ...


Hi:
I think you did the correct thing by building a proto - table. Now it will pay big dividens. I did not check the height on a Night Stand and it should have been a inch taller.
I like your design and I wish there were more places you could go to find good Arts & Craft Designs for furniture. The designs look simple, but you have be real carful because don't cover up anything with moldings.
Have Fun building this table.


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## CABT (Jun 22, 2017)

dczward said:


> *Planning the build*
> 
> After finishing a windows seat/banquette in my kitchen, I needed a table to go in front of it. For the design, I want several things:
> 
> ...


I was wondering if you still have plans for the base in Sketchup? If you do would it possible for you to email it or add it the the 3D warehouse in sketchup.

Thanks


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

dczward said:


> *Planning the build*
> 
> After finishing a windows seat/banquette in my kitchen, I needed a table to go in front of it. For the design, I want several things:
> 
> ...


Hi CABT,

I don't have any Sketchup plans for it. I started using Sketchup, but abandoned it to just make full scale template & mock ups. Otherwise, I would.


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## CABT (Jun 22, 2017)

dczward said:


> *Planning the build*
> 
> After finishing a windows seat/banquette in my kitchen, I needed a table to go in front of it. For the design, I want several things:
> 
> ...


Hi Douglas,
Thanks for your quick reply. When you were making the feet for the base I see in one picture they looked like they were glued together before the feet were shaped. Did you cut each board to shape before you glued the boards together?

Thanks


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

dczward said:


> *Planning the build*
> 
> After finishing a windows seat/banquette in my kitchen, I needed a table to go in front of it. For the design, I want several things:
> 
> ...


Hi CABT,

For the feet, I laminated each of the two cross pieces together first, forming two chunky rectangles, then cut them to shape on the bandsaw, making the curves. I then cut the half-lap joint, and glued them to each other to form the "x". Does that make sense?


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## CABT (Jun 22, 2017)

dczward said:


> *Planning the build*
> 
> After finishing a windows seat/banquette in my kitchen, I needed a table to go in front of it. For the design, I want several things:
> 
> ...


Hi Douglas,
How did you make the mortises in the feet? Did you cut the mortises after you glued all the pieces of wood for the feet or did you cut the middle board in smaller pieces to make the mortise?


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

*Getting the Materials *

I was able to make it out to my hardwood supplier today, with cut list and measuring tape in hand. I made for the quarter sawn white oak section, and went to town. I quickly realized my cut list was overly optimistic regarding the widths I would find (does any cut list survive contact with the hardwood store?), and I had to make a lot of adjustments to for what was on hand. Somehow, I thought I'd be able to get more 10" or greater wide boards, but the majority were 8" or so. Not a big deal, and after being picky about finding some great looking pieces for the top, and good ray flecks generally, I'd found my material. It took going through about 90% of the pile, so the job of re-stacking what I'd moved took a while.

With all that done, I brought my haul back to my shop, stickered it up, and am waiting for it to acclimate. I'm really happy with the pieces I got, and can't wait to start rough sizing and milling them.

Kitchen Table (some assembly required):




























Oh, and you can see in the first picture the table slides I'd ordered. Those are going to be great.


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

dczward said:


> *Getting the Materials *
> 
> I was able to make it out to my hardwood supplier today, with cut list and measuring tape in hand. I made for the quarter sawn white oak section, and went to town. I quickly realized my cut list was overly optimistic regarding the widths I would find (does any cut list survive contact with the hardwood store?), and I had to make a lot of adjustments to for what was on hand. Somehow, I thought I'd be able to get more 10" or greater wide boards, but the majority were 8" or so. Not a big deal, and after being picky about finding some great looking pieces for the top, and good ray flecks generally, I'd found my material. It took going through about 90% of the pile, so the job of re-stacking what I'd moved took a while.
> 
> ...


Looks like you got some nice QSWO there. I've got a long love affair with the stuff myself. Because of the way it's sawed, quartersawn doesn't yield a lot of wide boards. Price to pay for the sweet rays. It'll be fun to watch your build.


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## kenn (Mar 19, 2008)

dczward said:


> *Getting the Materials *
> 
> I was able to make it out to my hardwood supplier today, with cut list and measuring tape in hand. I made for the quarter sawn white oak section, and went to town. I quickly realized my cut list was overly optimistic regarding the widths I would find (does any cut list survive contact with the hardwood store?), and I had to make a lot of adjustments to for what was on hand. Somehow, I thought I'd be able to get more 10" or greater wide boards, but the majority were 8" or so. Not a big deal, and after being picky about finding some great looking pieces for the top, and good ray flecks generally, I'd found my material. It took going through about 90% of the pile, so the job of re-stacking what I'd moved took a while.
> 
> ...


I love the "some assembly required". If only that assembly was easy, but maybe we would not love to work the wood so much then. Take care .


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

*Base to Top*

I've made a lot of progress in the last few weeks. First I marked up the lumber, orienting grain and appearance for the various parts…



















Then I proceeded to cut everything to rough size.

Laying out the curved pieces for the pedestal and cutting them to size…




























I then moved on to the feet…




























And starting fitting the pedestal and feet together…




























Everything went pretty well, and the experience of making the pine mockup really paid off. Then I ran into some issues with the cross pieces at the top, the ones that attach to the plywood and table slides. I didn't really plan that out, and ran into some fussy issues that forced me to build those parts twice, while adjusting the top tenons. The result worked out fine, but it really was a detour I should have avoided.










While working on the base, I was able to glue up the top and leaf parts.























































And finally, it was time to cut the top and leaves to size…



















Next up is cutting the apron pieces, fitting them, then final adjustments before finishing.


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## whitebeast88 (May 27, 2012)

dczward said:


> *Base to Top*
> 
> I've made a lot of progress in the last few weeks. First I marked up the lumber, orienting grain and appearance for the various parts…
> 
> ...


very nice,great workmanship.thanks for sharing.


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## Bigrock (Apr 16, 2010)

dczward said:


> *Base to Top*
> 
> I've made a lot of progress in the last few weeks. First I marked up the lumber, orienting grain and appearance for the various parts…
> 
> ...


It's looking good, and very nice looking Quarter Sawn White Oak.


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

*Completing the top, putting it all together*

I made a lot of progress this past week. After getting the top together and cut to shape, I fitted it onto the sliders, and attached the tabletop levelers, to see how that would work, and to take a look at it all with the leaf pieces in place…




























success!










The table sliders worked smoothly, and the top looks great all together. I then spent some quality time with the smoothing plane, raking light, and card scraper to get the top in final shape…










some tearout…










tearout 98% gone…










I then had to cut the apron pieces. These would have the edges beveled at 22.5°, and then joined and glued together with a 1/4" spline. The apron needs to "float" over the table, so it is just held to the top with table fasteners, except near the split, where they are screwed in to a cleat.



















I had to make a jig for the router table to hold the beveled edges flush to the fence when running them through the slot cutter…










With those pieces cut, I could proceed to the assembly. I decided to do both halves at the same time to get one glue up with the band clamp…




























After the glue dried, I decided to add another detail to the pedestal. Is a cosmetic addition to each intersection to the pedestal pieces to add a little more interest to the column. But I had to take a 3/4" x 3/4" piece, and do a big 45° bevel 1/4" in on one face. That's too tiny to safely do on the table saw, so I tilted my band saw table 45°, made the cut, then planed down the rough face. I didn't have a bevel jig for planing, so i had to make one…



















I then just glued those on.

I finished fitting the apron pieces to the leaves by screwing them to a cleat, and then finally attached the top to the base, added the leaves, and finally got to see every part together at last…














































ta-da!



















OK, so it looks like a table finally. Next up is applying the finish.


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## Robb (Aug 18, 2007)

dczward said:


> *Completing the top, putting it all together*
> 
> I made a lot of progress this past week. After getting the top together and cut to shape, I fitted it onto the sliders, and attached the tabletop levelers, to see how that would work, and to take a look at it all with the leaf pieces in place…
> 
> ...


Great looking table! Can't wait to see it with the finish on.


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## sras (Oct 31, 2009)

dczward said:


> *Completing the top, putting it all together*
> 
> I made a lot of progress this past week. After getting the top together and cut to shape, I fitted it onto the sliders, and attached the tabletop levelers, to see how that would work, and to take a look at it all with the leaf pieces in place…
> 
> ...


Great story - thanks for bringing us along.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

dczward said:


> *Completing the top, putting it all together*
> 
> I made a lot of progress this past week. After getting the top together and cut to shape, I fitted it onto the sliders, and attached the tabletop levelers, to see how that would work, and to take a look at it all with the leaf pieces in place…
> 
> ...


Nice job on the table. I really like how it looks without the leaves. Great shape. 
What finish do you have in mind?


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

dczward said:


> *Completing the top, putting it all together*
> 
> I made a lot of progress this past week. After getting the top together and cut to shape, I fitted it onto the sliders, and attached the tabletop levelers, to see how that would work, and to take a look at it all with the leaf pieces in place…
> 
> ...


Pinto - I'm doing a TransFast dye, Dark Mission Brown, then spraying amber shellac, and a General Finishes top coat to help it stand up to all the whiskey I'm likely to spill on it over the years.


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## LeeJ (Jul 4, 2007)

dczward said:


> *Completing the top, putting it all together*
> 
> I made a lot of progress this past week. After getting the top together and cut to shape, I fitted it onto the sliders, and attached the tabletop levelers, to see how that would work, and to take a look at it all with the leaf pieces in place…
> 
> ...


Great work on this table. Really nice.

Lee


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

dczward said:


> *Completing the top, putting it all together*
> 
> I made a lot of progress this past week. After getting the top together and cut to shape, I fitted it onto the sliders, and attached the tabletop levelers, to see how that would work, and to take a look at it all with the leaf pieces in place…
> 
> ...


Sounds great! I'll be watching for the next post.


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

*Applying finish and completing the build*

After a few weeks away due to travel and rainy weather, I was finally able to finish the table. The formula I was following was similar to what I used on an earlier folding step stool water based Transtint dye, sprayed shellac, and then as this was a table, Arm-R-Seal oil & urethane topcoat.

I started with the dye, first wetting everything to raise grain, and then light sanding with 220 to knock down the stander uppers. I then mixed the Transtint Mission Brown dye power with distiller water. I'd used this before, and gotten good results, but somehow I talked myself into thinking I'd made too "light" of a mix, and went much heavier this time, making the mix very dark. I applied it to my project, and after foam brushing it on, letting it stand a bit, and ragging it off, let it dry.

Now, if you've ever used water dye before, you know about this phenomenon: after applying the dye, your project looks like crap. It doesn't matter if you're gently coloring, or going at it hard, it looks like crap at this stage. I knew this was coming, but added to that was the fact that I'd never mixed the dye this strongly before, and my piece had this super matte, dark chocolate color that was awful. I kept telling myself it would look fine when the shellac was added-after all, that's how this finish gets its great look. But that didn't stop me from agonizing that I'd screwed it all up, and was maybe going to have to try and rag some of it off to make it lighter. Thanks to my travel ,and the life/weather, I had about three weeks to worry myself about it.

When I finally made it back to the shop, I tested some shellac on the least visible piece; the plywood board that the split sliders attach to. And to my relief, THERE was the color I was looking for! So, it was time to HVLP spray shellac. I'd ordered some garnet shellac flakes for the first time-previously I'd just used amber shellac from a can. It was garnet shellac from shellac.net, and I'd picked up some 90+ proof denatured alcohol to mix it in. After the flakes had dissolved, I loaded it into the sprayer, and started applying it. It was looking great, and the "chocolate" from the dye combined with the shellac to make the ray flecks pop, and the whole thing developed a deep, rich, textured glow. But, it turns out I didn't mix enough of the garnet shellac, and ended up mixing in amber shellac as I went. It looked and worked fine, and I laid down 4-5 thing coats, sanding lightly in between.

After the shellac was dry, I moved on to General Finishes Arm-R-Seal, a wipe on urethane and oil mix, and I chose a satin. This stuff levels very nicely. I applied 3 coats of it with a foam brush, and let each coat sit 6-8 hours before wet sanding with 400, 600, 800 (respectively) grit wet-dry paper wetted with mineral spirits to level the nibs.

And then, I was able to re-assemble, and set it in our kitchen. I'm thrilled at how it turned out. I'll post a project on this soon with better pictures.


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## sgmdwk (Apr 10, 2013)

dczward said:


> *Applying finish and completing the build*
> 
> After a few weeks away due to travel and rainy weather, I was finally able to finish the table. The formula I was following was similar to what I used on an earlier folding step stool water based Transtint dye, sprayed shellac, and then as this was a table, Arm-R-Seal oil & urethane topcoat.
> 
> ...


Looks fantastic.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

dczward said:


> *Applying finish and completing the build*
> 
> After a few weeks away due to travel and rainy weather, I was finally able to finish the table. The formula I was following was similar to what I used on an earlier folding step stool water based Transtint dye, sprayed shellac, and then as this was a table, Arm-R-Seal oil & urethane topcoat.
> 
> ...


Dye then shellac, wow looking at the table I would have sworn it was stain over dye. 
At any rate, the finish and the table look great. The color is classic arts and crafts, and it highlights the figure in the oak so nicely. 
What ratio of dye did you mix?
I have used Transtint Brown Mohogany mixed 1 oz / qt of water and it sure gets dark quickly.

Nice technique, and great project!


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

dczward said:


> *Applying finish and completing the build*
> 
> After a few weeks away due to travel and rainy weather, I was finally able to finish the table. The formula I was following was similar to what I used on an earlier folding step stool water based Transtint dye, sprayed shellac, and then as this was a table, Arm-R-Seal oil & urethane topcoat.
> 
> ...


Very nice. Your making me want to try some dyes again.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

dczward said:


> *Applying finish and completing the build*
> 
> After a few weeks away due to travel and rainy weather, I was finally able to finish the table. The formula I was following was similar to what I used on an earlier folding step stool water based Transtint dye, sprayed shellac, and then as this was a table, Arm-R-Seal oil & urethane topcoat.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing this project. It is a great looking table and I really like the finish.


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## Brit (Aug 14, 2010)

dczward said:


> *Applying finish and completing the build*
> 
> After a few weeks away due to travel and rainy weather, I was finally able to finish the table. The formula I was following was similar to what I used on an earlier folding step stool water based Transtint dye, sprayed shellac, and then as this was a table, Arm-R-Seal oil & urethane topcoat.
> 
> ...


Wow! that came out great. My wife would love that colour. I've got to do six internal mahogany doors soon (not looking forward to it) and I hope they come out as nice as your table did.


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## DennisLeeZongker (Jul 25, 2008)

dczward said:


> *Applying finish and completing the build*
> 
> After a few weeks away due to travel and rainy weather, I was finally able to finish the table. The formula I was following was similar to what I used on an earlier folding step stool water based Transtint dye, sprayed shellac, and then as this was a table, Arm-R-Seal oil & urethane topcoat.
> 
> ...


Sweet Table!!!


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