# There's A Table in There Somewhere!



## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

*The Beginning*

Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.

I just happen to have a good supply material. Some of it was from an old store my great grandfather and grandad once owned, some is in an old house that belonged to by great grandad and an old barn built by my great uncle. Here's a few pictures of what we'll be starting with:

























Here's an endgrain view of the grade of heart pine I'm hunting. Notice how tight the growth rings are. this particular piece is only 2 1/2 inches wide. This stuff is almost as hard as red oak and full of pitch. While it's really tough on the tools, because of the pitch content it's really stable.


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## wdkits1 (Mar 21, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


Man that's a real bonanza of building stock.I expect that you'll have enough material for quite a few projects.Have fun and keep us posted


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## Jojo (Jul 11, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


Wow, that engrain almost looks like zebrawood! Good hunting.


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


I did not expect a good supply of fine pine from that old store/house., looks like every piece is rotten plank from outside. 
Good luck with your table building!


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


Thanks Folks!
Socal: I finally got a Lumber Wizard…we'll see how it works.

Woodworm: Much of that particular structure is rotten. Someone robbed the tin roofing to put on another buillding and just left it to the weather. Although sooner or later it will rot, heart pine is very weather resistant because of the pitch content and is termite risistant also.


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


Thanks Carl Rast for your reply.
I like pine as most of us do. I've been pilling up shipping palletes salvaged from dumping ground. I have little knowledge of wood species, by looking at the wood grain, I guess they are all pine. Is the board in this pic pine?









I managed to get 3-1/2" x 2" by 4ft to 5ft long and also 1" thick by 3" to 7"wide of various lenghts. But the bad thing with beautiful wood like pine is I do not use it for just any project. It is very hard to find pine in my country (dimensioned and laminated boards is available at IKEA store) so I always buy local species.

Thanks for sharing with us.
P/s : I bought a small metal detector after my jack plane hit a hidden brad. Now I have peace of mind working with shipping pallete.


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


You're certainly welcome Sir! That sure looks like some type of pine to me. The heart pine I've posted is all Southern Longleaf Pine. Besides, loblolly and some slash pine, that's about all we've got around here. Here's a picture of my pile in the barn that we've had since the early 70's.


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


Wow!
If your barn is just 50miles away from here in KL, I would be happy to give you hand clearing it and extracting the nails and brads for you and some for me….LOL.

I enjoyed looking at others' shops, tools and lumber!
Thanks.


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *The Beginning*
> 
> Good morning folks. I recently got a commission to build a harvest table for some of my fine relatives who are in the process of building a new home. They have the same affection for heart pine that I have so that's what we're going use for stock. They recently sold a beautiful old home that had some beautiful kitchen cabinets built with old growth heart pine. I wish I had some pictures to post here, but I don't. Anyhow, as part of the deal, I promised to blog the whole process, so here it will start.
> 
> ...


That sounds like a fair deal to me…lol.


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

*Milling the Stock for the Legs*

I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.








Of course I had my trusty Lumber Wizard to make sure I got them all.








Good news and bad news. First for the good news. I pulled lots of nails.








Now the bad news, a bunch of them broke off due to age and rust. 








Normally just a few aren't much problem depending on what the board is going to be used for. If the legs were just going to be square and straight, I'd just take a nail set and drive them a little deeper so as not to booger up my jointer and planer blades. But in this case, since these are going to be inside tapered legs, I don't have that option. Sooo, I dropped back and punted. I have some old beams from the same lumber pile.








I thought these next two pics were worth showing just to give you an idea of how old this stuff is. The first picture is a motise in which the tenon has broken off. If you look closely, you can see the tenon pin still intact. The second pic is a tenon on one the the same set of beams. These are about 8"x 8".
















What I ended up doing was dragging out a 4×9 that just happened not to have any nails in it. 








It was slightly twisted, so the first thing I did was joint up a flat edge.








There was some termite damage, but not much. I'm not sure, but as hard as this stuff is, they might have dentures now.








Once I jointed both short sides down past the termites, I ripped it down the middle on the bandsaw. I wish you guys could smell this stuff. Smells just like Pine-sol. There's no wood quite like old heart pine.








Next, I cut them into 32" lengths and squared up an adjacent edge on the jointer. After several trips back and forth between the planer and jointer, I had the base stock for the legs. These are about 3-7/16" square.
















Stay tuned…......


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## kiwi1969 (Dec 22, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


Yeah smell'o'vision sure would be good. I love pine.


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## cabinetmaster (Aug 28, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


Good looking heart pine. I can't wait to see the final results.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


Nice recovery and some great looking wood.


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## oldskoolmodder (Apr 28, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


It's almost hard to believe you can get such beautiful results form what it looked like before hand. Probably what it looked like when it was first used all those years ago.


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## griff (Feb 6, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


Looking good


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


Thanks Guys!
Socal: you're right, knives don't last long when milling sand. I try to at least blow it off with the air hose before planing & jointing. The piece I actually ended up using was pretty pristine and is pretty dang dry. Been sitting in the barn for the last 40 years and then moved to my garage for the last year. I figured on putting the straight/QS grain to the outside and putting the taper to the inside.


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## BigBard (Jan 19, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


Very good post, love the detailed pictures and descriptions. I'm staying tuned!


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## miles125 (Jun 8, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Milling the Stock for the Legs*
> 
> I went down to the my lumber heap down in the barn and retrieved a couple of 4×4's, a 4×6 and a long (16') 1" thick board of variable width. My intent was to get enough stock for the table legs and aprons. As you can see, there are plenty of nails to be pulled.
> 
> ...


Beautiful wood! You need a set of slide handle nail pullers. They're great for broke off rusty nails with minimal gouging of the wood. Do a search on ebay, which is where i got mine. Well woth the cost.


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

*Basic Design & Milling the Aprons*

Here's the basic design that I'm using on the harvest table. I probably should have put this in the first part of this blog, but better late than never. This table will be a classic Shaker design. All mortise and tenon joinery and finished with Waterlox.








I milled some more stock tonight. All I got accomplished tonight was the base stock for the end aprons. But in the process, I found what I call the "real deal" heart pine. Generally, you can judge how "old growth" it is by how much it weighs. The heavier it is, the tighter the grain is. I found a couple of 10' 1×6's that fit the bill. 
Here's a closeup of the old saw marks before it hit the jointer. I scrubbed it with a steel brush and hit it with the air hose before jointing a face. As Socalwood commented last night, dirt isn't very good for knife life. 








As far as heart pine goes, anything more than 24-30 rings per inch qualifies it as old growth. To my surprise, when I cut out two 3' pieces, I was treated to the following sight.








I count around 40 rings per inch. That's some really tight stuff. In other words, it took 40 years for the tree this came from to grow 2 inches in diameter. When the Europeans first came over in the late 1400's there was a big forest of Southern Longleaf pine that stretched from where Virginia is now down to Florida and from the east coast to about the Missisippi River. The English proclaimed it as "The Kings Pine" and used it for ships masts and the like. Sadly by 1900 it had just about all been cut. This stuff was shipped or floated all over the US. If you've watched "Ax Men" on the History Channel you may have seen an episode where modern logging operations retrieve sunken logs at the bottom of the Missisippi and Boston Harbor and other bodies of water that on which were used to move this timber.
Here's a couple more pictures of what I milled tonight. In the second one, I couldn't resist wiping it with mineral spirits to provide a sneak peek at what the finish will look like.
















I don't know about you, but it looks pretty sweet to me. More to come.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Basic Design & Milling the Aprons*
> 
> Here's the basic design that I'm using on the harvest table. I probably should have put this in the first part of this blog, but better late than never. This table will be a classic Shaker design. All mortise and tenon joinery and finished with Waterlox.
> 
> ...


beauty!


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Basic Design & Milling the Aprons*
> 
> Here's the basic design that I'm using on the harvest table. I probably should have put this in the first part of this blog, but better late than never. This table will be a classic Shaker design. All mortise and tenon joinery and finished with Waterlox.
> 
> ...


That is really beautiful. 
Keep milling them (at night) as long as you do not wake your neighbours up.


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## spanky46 (Feb 12, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Basic Design & Milling the Aprons*
> 
> Here's the basic design that I'm using on the harvest table. I probably should have put this in the first part of this blog, but better late than never. This table will be a classic Shaker design. All mortise and tenon joinery and finished with Waterlox.
> 
> ...


Can't wait!


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Basic Design & Milling the Aprons*
> 
> Here's the basic design that I'm using on the harvest table. I probably should have put this in the first part of this blog, but better late than never. This table will be a classic Shaker design. All mortise and tenon joinery and finished with Waterlox.
> 
> ...


Thats is some great looking wood.


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## mattg (May 6, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Basic Design & Milling the Aprons*
> 
> Here's the basic design that I'm using on the harvest table. I probably should have put this in the first part of this blog, but better late than never. This table will be a classic Shaker design. All mortise and tenon joinery and finished with Waterlox.
> 
> ...


That IS some nice looking lumber!!


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

*Tapering the Legs*

For any of you that were following this, I'd like to apologize for the time gap between #3 & #4, but I had to get my garden planted and also do a little work for the community. I'll blog the community work later.

Anyhow, now that all the stock for the legs has been milled square, it's time to taper the legs. The legs on this particular table are rather large, so I had to come up with an alternate method to the table saw. I had recently read an article in one of the wood magazines that used a thickness planer and the bandsaw to taper the legs. I figured I'd give it a shot.

After marking the tapers on the rough stock. I went to the band saw to cut the rough tapers. After making sure the BS blade is absolutely square to the table surface, I cut on the outside of the line by about 1/32". Be sure to stay away from the line. 1/16" is no problem. More is better than too close because if you dip too close or into the line, you'll decrease the flat area to the top of the taper where the cheeks of the tenon will rest. I cut too close on one and had to decrease the width of the apron by about 1/2". In this particular case, it worked out ok because I wanted more clearance for ones legs when sticking them under the table. But beware!








Next, I took a peice of 4×6" pine that had some termite damage and cut a notch for the leg to rest in, thereby creating a planing sled to mill the taper. This doesn't have to be pretty, but must be absolutely square and flat on the outer dimensions. The cutout for the leg doesn't have to be perfectly shaped to the leg, but must consistently cradle it so that it does not move while traveling through the planer.
















The tapered face of the leg needs to be parallel to the top surface, maybe 1/16" or so above the top. As the fat end is put into the planer, we'll need to trim the front of the sled down to 1/4" or so below the leg so that the planer rollers will pull on the leg and not the sled.








Next, run this thiing through the planer until the face of the taper is planed to where you want it. Be sure the head is locked and just leave it like it is. Rotate it one time do the other face. Repeat this 3 more times for the other three legs.








I couldn't believe how easy and repeatable this method is. If your stock is good and square and consistently dimensioned, this is really a piece of cake. What a set of legs!
















After setup, this process went so fast, that I went ahead and cut the mortises on my mortiser. 








Next comes cutting the tenons on the apron stock. Thanks, Carl.


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## spanky46 (Feb 12, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tapering the Legs*
> 
> For any of you that were following this, I'd like to apologize for the time gap between #3 & #4, but I had to get my garden planted and also do a little work for the community. I'll blog the community work later.
> 
> ...


Progress! Can't wait to see the finished product!
Thank for sharing.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tapering the Legs*
> 
> For any of you that were following this, I'd like to apologize for the time gap between #3 & #4, but I had to get my garden planted and also do a little work for the community. I'll blog the community work later.
> 
> ...


Great progress. Nice job.


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## kiwi1969 (Dec 22, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tapering the Legs*
> 
> For any of you that were following this, I'd like to apologize for the time gap between #3 & #4, but I had to get my garden planted and also do a little work for the community. I'll blog the community work later.
> 
> ...


Truly wonderful grain on that leg. Wish I had some of that here, should look great when it,s done.


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## mattg (May 6, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tapering the Legs*
> 
> For any of you that were following this, I'd like to apologize for the time gap between #3 & #4, but I had to get my garden planted and also do a little work for the community. I'll blog the community work later.
> 
> ...


Well that's one way to taper legs without a tapering jig!! Smart idea!!


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

*Cutting the Apron Tenons*

Once the mortises have been cut in the legs, it's time to cut the tenons on the aprons. After cutting the apron stock to the correct length and measuring the depth of the mortise we'll cut the shoulders of the tenon joint on the table saw. These aprons are 3/4" thick, therefore the tenon should be 1/4". Using the Kreg miter gauge, I'll carefully saw the shoulders. I should have used a zero clearance insert, but was too lazy to make another, so I just used the oem insert. The Forrest WWII blade is about brand new, and produced practically zero chip out. 
















After cutting the shoulders, we'll go to the bandsaw and cut the short side of the tenons.








Then, it's back to the table saw to cut the rest of the tenons using a tenoning jig. I thought I took more pictures than this, so this is the only shot I got of this part.








I used a digital caliper to make the tenons exactly 1/4" thick.








The tenons will fit with some encouragement from a dead blow hammer, but this is too tight for me. I try to make mine fit snug, without adding much force to insert into the mortise. So, using a shoulder plane, I'll shave a little off at a time to "sneak up" on the correct fit.
















Next using a chisel, I'll pare a chamfer on the end of the tenon to aid in insertion. Notice the worm holes in the end. This side will go to the inside, so you won't see it.








This looks like a pretty crisp joint to me. So, I went ahead and glued up the end sections of the table.
















Once these dry for 24 hours, I'll glue up the rest of the base up.
Next we'll resaw some stock for the top.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Cutting the Apron Tenons*
> 
> Once the mortises have been cut in the legs, it's time to cut the tenons on the aprons. After cutting the apron stock to the correct length and measuring the depth of the mortise we'll cut the shoulders of the tenon joint on the table saw. These aprons are 3/4" thick, therefore the tenon should be 1/4". Using the Kreg miter gauge, I'll carefully saw the shoulders. I should have used a zero clearance insert, but was too lazy to make another, so I just used the oem insert. The Forrest WWII blade is about brand new, and produced practically zero chip out.
> 
> ...


Nice looking joints.


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## Tangle (Jul 21, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Cutting the Apron Tenons*
> 
> Once the mortises have been cut in the legs, it's time to cut the tenons on the aprons. After cutting the apron stock to the correct length and measuring the depth of the mortise we'll cut the shoulders of the tenon joint on the table saw. These aprons are 3/4" thick, therefore the tenon should be 1/4". Using the Kreg miter gauge, I'll carefully saw the shoulders. I should have used a zero clearance insert, but was too lazy to make another, so I just used the oem insert. The Forrest WWII blade is about brand new, and produced practically zero chip out.
> 
> ...


Very well done. Just can't live with out a shoulder plane.


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## mattg (May 6, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Cutting the Apron Tenons*
> 
> Once the mortises have been cut in the legs, it's time to cut the tenons on the aprons. After cutting the apron stock to the correct length and measuring the depth of the mortise we'll cut the shoulders of the tenon joint on the table saw. These aprons are 3/4" thick, therefore the tenon should be 1/4". Using the Kreg miter gauge, I'll carefully saw the shoulders. I should have used a zero clearance insert, but was too lazy to make another, so I just used the oem insert. The Forrest WWII blade is about brand new, and produced practically zero chip out.
> 
> ...


I need me a shoulder plane!! That is a real nice joint, nice and tight to the shoulder!!


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Cutting the Apron Tenons*
> 
> Once the mortises have been cut in the legs, it's time to cut the tenons on the aprons. After cutting the apron stock to the correct length and measuring the depth of the mortise we'll cut the shoulders of the tenon joint on the table saw. These aprons are 3/4" thick, therefore the tenon should be 1/4". Using the Kreg miter gauge, I'll carefully saw the shoulders. I should have used a zero clearance insert, but was too lazy to make another, so I just used the oem insert. The Forrest WWII blade is about brand new, and produced practically zero chip out.
> 
> ...


ever thought of selling "videos"?...................thats quite a tutorial!!!!


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

*Tabletop - Resawing Beams & Lessons Learned*

I bounced out of bed Saturday morning eager to make some more progress on the table. I went down to the shop and inspected what I had glued up the night before. Everything looked good so I went ahead and glued the end sections together with the long side aprons. I also installed the corner braces which I made from a piece of white oak I had laying around. 
















I pinned the tenons with 3/8" oak dowels and sanded flush.








Feeling pretty good about the progress, I started the milling process for the table top. I had two beams that were about 4×9". First I trimmed a half inch off the long side so that I had a piece 8" wide as I only have an 8" jointer.








Next, I jointed one face then squared up the adjacent side so I would have a flat faces to run against the bandsaw fence and table.








When I built my router table, I made a large subsantial fence that I can set on the bandsaw and use for resawing. I had just bought a 3/4" 3 tpi Timberwolf resaw blade and was eager to see how it performed.
























That new blade pretty much cut like a hot butter knife on the first three passes. Then on the last cut, about 1/3 of the way through, cutting all of a sudden became difficult and the blade began to wander. I thought the kerf was just full, but after completing the cut, and looking at it, it became apparent that my new bandsaw blade became a $42 nail finder. Duh..ohhh…...............what valuable lessons we learn on a daily basis. You see, I've got a brand new Lumber Wizard and in my hurry had not used it on the last beam.








If you look closely, you can see the ripples in the cut. I thiink I've got enough material left at the deepest cut to still mill up the top, but I was dead in the water without a sharp blade. I called Lumber Lady and she still had a new blade in stock and was even so gracious as to leave it out on the loading dock as I couldn't get there before closing time and of course they aren't open on Sunday. Even so, I'll have to hunt up some more stock as what I thought was enough wasn't. So, I guess I'm dead in the water till Monday. Argh…....!








At any rate, I got four pretty nice boards out of it, the only problem is I need to more to have enough and beams like this are scarce. I may have to go with three narrower ones before this is done.
















Stay tuned, the saga continues…...............


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tabletop - Resawing Beams & Lessons Learned*
> 
> I bounced out of bed Saturday morning eager to make some more progress on the table. I went down to the shop and inspected what I had glued up the night before. Everything looked good so I went ahead and glued the end sections together with the long side aprons. I also installed the corner braces which I made from a piece of white oak I had laying around.
> 
> ...


look forward to more


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## Julian (Sep 30, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tabletop - Resawing Beams & Lessons Learned*
> 
> I bounced out of bed Saturday morning eager to make some more progress on the table. I went down to the shop and inspected what I had glued up the night before. Everything looked good so I went ahead and glued the end sections together with the long side aprons. I also installed the corner braces which I made from a piece of white oak I had laying around.
> 
> ...


Looking good so far. It sure is fun to work with the old barn wood, isn't it. I built a harvest table similiar to this one out reclaimed barn floorboards.


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## wildfire (May 3, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tabletop - Resawing Beams & Lessons Learned*
> 
> I bounced out of bed Saturday morning eager to make some more progress on the table. I went down to the shop and inspected what I had glued up the night before. Everything looked good so I went ahead and glued the end sections together with the long side aprons. I also installed the corner braces which I made from a piece of white oak I had laying around.
> 
> ...


Gosh that really stinks..probably the ONLY nail in the lot too wasn't it? Hope you get to continue with your project soon. Looks great!


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## Emeralds (Aug 24, 2008)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tabletop - Resawing Beams & Lessons Learned*
> 
> I bounced out of bed Saturday morning eager to make some more progress on the table. I went down to the shop and inspected what I had glued up the night before. Everything looked good so I went ahead and glued the end sections together with the long side aprons. I also installed the corner braces which I made from a piece of white oak I had laying around.
> 
> ...


Boy do I own that teeshirt. So often have I worn it that my wife has had my name embroidered on it.

"SlowDownJoe"


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tabletop - Resawing Beams & Lessons Learned*
> 
> I bounced out of bed Saturday morning eager to make some more progress on the table. I went down to the shop and inspected what I had glued up the night before. Everything looked good so I went ahead and glued the end sections together with the long side aprons. I also installed the corner braces which I made from a piece of white oak I had laying around.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the encouragement. When you get in a rush, you pay for it sometimes. LOL Emeralds…I think I've already worn out a few of those t-shirts. Pat: yes that's an 18" Rikon. Great machine. As soon as I round up some stock I'll post some more. Thanks again.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Tabletop - Resawing Beams & Lessons Learned*
> 
> I bounced out of bed Saturday morning eager to make some more progress on the table. I went down to the shop and inspected what I had glued up the night before. Everything looked good so I went ahead and glued the end sections together with the long side aprons. I also installed the corner braces which I made from a piece of white oak I had laying around.
> 
> ...


Bad luck. It's is a law of nature that you only hit metal with a brand new blade. We have all been there. My condolences.


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

*Resawing the rest of the table top and well crap....more lessons learned!*

We had our family reunion last weekend, so by brother was in town. Long story short, I didn't get much done last week. Last night saw me get back at it. In the last blog entry, I had encountered a nail and ruined my brand new band saw blade. I went to the Woodzone and bought a brand new 1"-3tpi blade LumberLady. I spent most of the evening putting the blade on and fine tuning my band saw.

Last weekend, I went over to my place in Swansea and found some great stock in the old barn on my Great Grandad's old homeplace. I blogged this almost two years ago, and near the end, I posted a picture of the end of a small beam. This is the stock that I chose to finish resawing for the table top. There were two 16' long 5×5's just sitting inside. I don't know where they came from, but they looked very old and weathered. You could see where the termites and pine beetles had taken their toll on them as I had to just cut out the usable parts.

First, I went over them with wire brush to remove most of the dirt and years of crud that had accumilated. I was delighted to learn that these apparently hadn't been used for anything, as they didn't have even one nail between them. I made sure and used my Lumber Wizard this time. Next, I squared two sides on the jointer. I was really impressed with the grain and realized that this stuff was the true essence of "heart pine". Tight grain, full of pine tar and just beautiful. 








After installing the new blade, I commenced resawing. About 3/4's of the way through, the saw slowed down, got noisy and the blade started to wander. Crap, another nail I thought! After finishing the cut, I discovered that all that pine tar and pitch had accumulated on the blade and bearing guides. Sooooo, I commenced to cleaning the blade. I ended up putting a liberal amount of mineral spirits on a rag and wiping down the blade after scraping most of it off with a piece of board. After looking at the guide bearings, I decided to re-tune the band saw. The pine tar was everywhere. At this point, I had been at it for a couple of hours and was really aggravated and a little tired. While having the side's of the wheel well on the band saw open and spinning it with my hand, I was greeted with a very painful sensation on the end of my thumb. 
Whilst squealing like a little girl, I discovered that I had let the end of my thumb get in between the blade and the bottom wheel. To make a long story short, it had just pinched off a piece of skin about the size of a pea. This is where the "lesson learned" part comes in.








Soooo, upstairs I went and while freaking out my wife and baby, I cleaned up in the sink, applied a bandage and then went back downstairs, determined to make the best of a really crappy situation. It didn't take long to realize it was time to take my not so happy a$$ to bed and continue the fight another day.
Tonight I went back downstairs, finished tuning up my bandsaw and started finishing my resaw of the table top. Things went much better tonight as I was rested and knew what I had to both concentrate on and avoid.
On round two, I did a couple of things to help the re sawing effort. The first one is to put a light coat of mineral spirits on the blade to help keep it from letting the pine tar stick to it. The other one was to stop about half the way through and clean the blade. Here's a shot of the gummed up blade.








Here's a couple of shots of the resawed boards showing worm holes that have been gummed up solidly with pitch.
















Here's another shot of the end of the beam which shows the tight grain and apparent old age.








I thank the Good Lord I've still got most of my thumb and really glad that the BS wasn't even turned on. A valuable lesson indeed. 
Stay tuned, glueing up the top comes next!


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## scrappy (Jan 3, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Resawing the rest of the table top and well crap....more lessons learned!*
> 
> We had our family reunion last weekend, so by brother was in town. Long story short, I didn't get much done last week. Last night saw me get back at it. In the last blog entry, I had encountered a nail and ruined my brand new band saw blade. I went to the Woodzone and bought a brand new 1"-3tpi blade LumberLady. I spent most of the evening putting the blade on and fine tuning my band saw.
> 
> ...


Even a small bite from a bandsaw can leave big teeth marks. Glad it isn't any worse.

Allways remember saftey! Unplug before working on ALL tools. Thank God it wasn;t running!

Keep it safe.

Scrappy


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Resawing the rest of the table top and well crap....more lessons learned!*
> 
> We had our family reunion last weekend, so by brother was in town. Long story short, I didn't get much done last week. Last night saw me get back at it. In the last blog entry, I had encountered a nail and ruined my brand new band saw blade. I went to the Woodzone and bought a brand new 1"-3tpi blade LumberLady. I spent most of the evening putting the blade on and fine tuning my band saw.
> 
> ...


I really do believe the bandsaw is the most dangerous machine in the shop and hides it's true nature under a guise of of being a safe machine.


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## CedarFreakCarl (Apr 21, 2007)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Resawing the rest of the table top and well crap....more lessons learned!*
> 
> We had our family reunion last weekend, so by brother was in town. Long story short, I didn't get much done last week. Last night saw me get back at it. In the last blog entry, I had encountered a nail and ruined my brand new band saw blade. I went to the Woodzone and bought a brand new 1"-3tpi blade LumberLady. I spent most of the evening putting the blade on and fine tuning my band saw.
> 
> ...


The lesson learned here is if you're going to spin the wheels by hand, do so on the side where the blade comes off the wheel and not vice versa.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

CedarFreakCarl said:


> *Resawing the rest of the table top and well crap....more lessons learned!*
> 
> We had our family reunion last weekend, so by brother was in town. Long story short, I didn't get much done last week. Last night saw me get back at it. In the last blog entry, I had encountered a nail and ruined my brand new band saw blade. I went to the Woodzone and bought a brand new 1"-3tpi blade LumberLady. I spent most of the evening putting the blade on and fine tuning my band saw.
> 
> ...


The trials of working on a band saw and being careful with a band saw

It's surprising that we buy sharp blades and then wonder how that sharp blade go to that soft flesh.

Sometimes when things look gunky we can forget that underneath all that gunk is something sharp.

I've found that a spray cleaner called easy green or something like that does a great job getting the gunk off blades and wheels. I spray it on and wipe it down with a paper towel.


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