# End table set - build



## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Starts with a need*

A piece of furniture fulfills two functions. The first is functional and the second is aesthetic. This is a fancy way of saying we need it to do something and want it to look nice.

My living room has a big sectional sofa and 'my' spot is at one corner which has a built-in recline and my daughter has 'her' spot which is the opposite corner which also has a built-in recliner. The room is too long for the sectional to go back into the corner of two walls so it sits with one side against a wall and the second side comes out into the room. I sit in the corner that is along the wall and I have an end table. Its a my Shaker style end table that I made as one of my first woodworking projects. It functions but it wasn't really built for this function and as such its about 2" too high. The end that protrudes into the room doesn't have an end table. One of the reasons is that because it is already protruding into the room, the table needs to be rather small. Specifically it needs to be narrow and yet have a bit of length to it.

In terms of function, I wanted both the same size but they only need to hold lamps, drinks and maybe a couple of heavy text books from time-to-time as my daughter is currently taking Engineering in university and likes to study there sometimes. Neither table needs drawers as the coffee table already has one. I then measured out the size I would need and did some sketches.










In terms of design, my daughter likes 'black stuff' and her room is full of Ikea black stuff. I'm slowly trying to get her to see and understand the beauty of wood. I decided to build these in a simple imitation of the style of Anthony Buzak - a set with ebonized black bases and a top consisting of an exotic veneer framed to show it off and with ebony inlay to add nice contrast.

The goal is for her to take these end tables at some point in her life and have them in a style that suits her.


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## GrandpaLen (Mar 6, 2012)

Ottacat said:


> *Starts with a need*
> 
> A piece of furniture fulfills two functions. The first is functional and the second is aesthetic. This is a fancy way of saying we need it to do something and want it to look nice.
> 
> ...


Looking forward to following your build.

I agree with your thoughts of 'form Following function' and your build has the forethought of a second life.
Your daughter will take a little of family and home to her new home one day.

Best Regards. Grandpa Len.
Work Safely and have Fun.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Selecting the woods*

The end tables will be built out of four species of wood.

bases (which will be ebonized)
veneer for main part of tops
ebony inlay
accent wood to frame veneer

For ebonizing I wanted to try the vinegar and iron method outline in this article from Popular Woodworking. I also wanted a fairly tight grain so I chose cherry. I had stock for the aprons but needed some 8/4 stock for the legs.

The veneered main part of the tops of course offers a huge variety of choices. Looking through the selection at VeenerSupplies I was struck by the look of Pelin burl so I ordered some. I got three sheets of which I will need only one for these tables so I'll lots left.










I buy ebony inlay pre-made from Matt over at Inlay Bandings. I buy mine 1/8" x 1/8" by whatever longest he currently has in stock (usually 30" or 36").

For the border wood I decided on African Mahogany and plan on staining it down a bit. I have some boards in the shop for a future project and I'll only need about half of one.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Selecting the woods*
> 
> The end tables will be built out of four species of wood.
> 
> ...


BLOG IT, BLOG IT. I love a good build blog. I want to see the ebonizing of the cherry. Great looking veneer! Do you have a vacuum set up or are you using a press?


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Selecting the woods*
> 
> The end tables will be built out of four species of wood.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your encouragement.

Yes for my veneering I have a vacuum setup. I describe it here - http://lumberjocks.com/Ottacat/blog/39423


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Ottacat said:


> *Selecting the woods*
> 
> The end tables will be built out of four species of wood.
> 
> ...


I like the plan and wood choices.


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## woodshopmike (Nov 5, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Selecting the woods*
> 
> The end tables will be built out of four species of wood.
> 
> ...


You'll be really happy with the results ebonizing cherry. It gets really dark, I mean black! I did a article on my blog covering the process. I read through the article you listed and here are a few things that I did to get "better" results.

- wash the steel wool in a solvent to remove oil. They are normally treated with oil to prevent rust. This also prevents the vinegar from reacting as quickly. You'll also end up with oil in your ebonizing solution if you don't remove it first.

- using a jar with a plastic lid is better than one with a metal lid. The metal lid can rust onto the jar making it a bit harder to remove. I've used both and the plastic lidded jar is nicer, but don't sweat it too much.

Aside from that, I'll say to not expect the solution to just drain right through the coffee filters. I filtered my first batch and it took for ever. I don't know if it was just the kind of filter I used, but i started poking little holes in it because it took so long to drain. The next time I made the solution I didn't bother draining it.

My thinking is that it's just little iron particles that are in the solution and those aren't going to soak into the wood anyways. Also, it's not like the ebonizer is a top coat finish, so you'll be sanding a little after application just to knock down the raised grain. Also, I just dip a brush or rag into the container, I don't shake the thing up before application, so the solids should be settled in the bottom. If they do find there way to the top the stuff you didn't filter out will just get sanded off the surface and end up on the floor anyways… Just a thought.

I'm looking forward to seeing you progress on you build and that is a NICE!!! piece of veneer you have.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Selecting the woods*
> 
> The end tables will be built out of four species of wood.
> 
> ...


woodshopmike - thanks for the tips on ebonizing, I'm sure they'll come in handy.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Preparing for ebonizing*

After reading several articles on ebonizing I decided to stack the odds in my favour by using the two-part process outlined in the article in Popular Woodworking. The article indicates to do an initial preparation of your wood using a bark tea made from Quebracho bark. This adds a lot of extra tannis to the wood which are what later react with the vinegar / steel solution. This seemed logical given using just the vinegar and steel solution works best on woods with high tannin content such as oak and walnut.

So I ordered two pounds of Bark tea from Van ********************'s (the minimum order).

Next I bought a litre of Heinz vinegar, got a used plastic Folgers coffee container and some #0000 steel wool from Lee Valley. It is advertised as being completely free of oil so I just tore off a good section and put it in the vinegar.

I did this all a few days ago as it will take time for the steel wool to dissolve and the bark tea to arrive.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Off to the lumber store*

The next step in the build was to head off t my local hardwood supplier for a piece of 8/4 cherry for the legs of the tables. My go to supplier here in Ottawa is KJP Hardwoods. They are a really nice family owned and run business. The have an extremely broad selection of wood - both in variety of species and good quantities of all the common ones.










I was able to get a nice sized piece of 8/4 cherry. I didn't know whether sapwood would ebonize differently so I got a piece that was almost all heartwood. The grain would be mostly hidden by the ebonizing and each leg was going to be 1 1/4" wide so I got a piece just wide enough to cleanly get four legs which translated into a piece about 6" wide. The stock lengths were pretty much all 8'.

Time to head home.










I don't have a truck or a trailer so I have to mission all my hardwood home in my car. I can fit 8' lengths of 8/4 wood by dropping the passenger seat and laying them from the back deck to the front dash. I usually have a dish drying mat that I use as a cushion for the front dash but I forgot it today. Needless to say this is a one-person trip.

Oh look, a couple of pieces of walnut slipped in and followed me home. That seems to happen a lot…


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## j1212t (Dec 7, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Off to the lumber store*
> 
> The next step in the build was to head off t my local hardwood supplier for a piece of 8/4 cherry for the legs of the tables. My go to supplier here in Ottawa is KJP Hardwoods. They are a really nice family owned and run business. The have an extremely broad selection of wood - both in variety of species and good quantities of all the common ones.
> 
> ...


Those walnut boards are sneaky that way, happens to me pretty regularly as well..


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Off to the lumber store*
> 
> The next step in the build was to head off t my local hardwood supplier for a piece of 8/4 cherry for the legs of the tables. My go to supplier here in Ottawa is KJP Hardwoods. They are a really nice family owned and run business. The have an extremely broad selection of wood - both in variety of species and good quantities of all the common ones.
> 
> ...


I know, one trip its a couple of walnut boards, the next previous one a really nice piece of canary wood, the time before that it was some figured maple…


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Bases, Part I*

With all the cherry stock ready it is time to mill the stock and then cut all the pieces to their final dimensions. The stock from my lumber store typically comes rough finished on two sides and fairly straight (unless one edge is a live edge).

I normally spend a lot of time inspecting each board and choosing the sections i want for each piece. Even though the bases will be ebonized I was uncertain if sapwood would ebonize differently so I took the time to ensure each piece was all heartwood and almost completely free of knots and other defects. For jointing and planing I prefer to work with boards 2' to 4' long as they will usually joint easiest (less overall bow) and are more easily handled through the planer.

To crosscut the boards to the length I like to work with them for jointing and planing I use my table saw as I don't have a mitre saw.










After rough cutting and jointing the pieces are ready for the planer.










After planing I then cut the pieces to width and then to length. For cutting to length I first square off one end. I then use my Incra setup to cut to exact length. The important thing is to cut all pieces that are supposed to be the same length at the same stop setting. That way if they are off, they are all off equally and it won't matter in the end. Here are all the pieces.










Next I rough assemble them on my workbench to verify I haven't made any big mistakes. At this point I also determine the exact orientation of the legs (riftsaw sections facing forwards), and which sides of the aprons I want facing outwards. I then label each piece and put appropriate marks on the ends of the legs.










Next steps are to do the joinery which I'll do with my Domino, then I'll taper the legs and then I'l glue everything up. That will be in Part II


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Bases, Part II*

With all the stock milled and cut to size it was time to do the joinery of the aprons to the legs. I use the Domino so it was a matter of properly aligning the boards and drawing pencil marks. Because the legs are 1 1/4" thick, and the aprons 3/4" thick there is a difference of 1/2". To do the marking I place a 1/2" piece of scrap plywood under the aprons so they align evenly with the legs.

Because the aprons will be offset 1/4" from the edge of each leg it is important to get all your reference lines on the exterior edges of the legs and aprons. You then plunge all the mortises into the aprons and then adjust the Domino fence down 5mm and plunge all the legs. By having marked exterior edges on both, this ensures the offsets are completely even on all four sides. I chose 5mm as the offset because I wanted it just shy of of 1/4". I could have chosen 6mm for an offset is closer to a true 1/4". The slightly bigger offset on the inside will be completely hidden from view.

I'm using 8mm x 40mm dominos and I offset them between the front and side aprons, using one domino per apron. At this size you can't put both front and side dominos at the same location because the 20mm plunge depth will overlap. I find dominos hold extremely well and a base on this scale was fine with only one domino per joint.

After the joinery was done I tapered the inside faces all four legs for both sets. I have simple homemade tapering jig that I setup for each taper. I brad nail in stop blocks so I remove and replace them for each specific taper. The leg is held with an adjustable clamp. The jig works well. I tapered each leg down to 3/4" by 3/4" at the feet. I then sanded the legs 80 and 120 grit to smooth them out and remove the inevitable burn marks on the cherry.

I did the glue-up in two stages. I first glued up the front and back leg / apron paris for both tables. To manage glue squeeze out I like to tape the joints. Once these partial assemblies were done I removed the tape and cleaned up the remaining squeeze out with some angled sanding contour grips from Lee Valley.

I then taped and glued up the short sides and finished gluing up the base assemblies. here they are in the clamps.










Once the were dry I then removed the remaining tape, cleaned up the remaining squeeze out again and then sanded both assemblies 80, 120 and 220 grit.










The whole process - milling, joinery, tapering, sanding, glue-up and final sanding took about 8 hours spread out over two days.

Next step - ebonizing those bases.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Ebonizing the legs*

My vinegar and steel wool solution is ready. After a few days the steel wool had completely dissolved so I even added a bit more. By the time I was ready to ebonize it too had dissolved. I tried filtering the solution through a coffee filter but it was too thick and I had to squeeze it out.

Before starting the ebonizing, I wetted both pieces to raise the grain, let them dry and sanded them again to 220.

The Quebracho bark tea powder arrived.










Given one heaping tablespoon makes enough for both bases I think I have a lifetime supply. You put the powder in a container and add enough hot water to make a paste. You then add more water and progressively dilute the past until you've made about a quart. It has a moderately strong and very distinctive smell.

Now I take the bases, a foam brush and proceed to coat each piece in the tea mixture.










I then let both pieces sit for an hour to let the tea penetrate into the wood. Now I start with the vinegar / steel solution. The big thing the article emphasises is that the tea will contaminate your vinegar solution if you use a brush or towel on the wood and then dip it back into the vinegar mixture. To work around this I put the vinegar mixture into a spray bottle and sprayed it onto the piece and then used a foam brush to spread it evenly around.

The ebonizing effect starts right away but takes time to darken. I did both pieces and then set them aside to dry. I'd estimate they were 60% black and they dried with a chalky appearance. After they were dry the next step is to apply another coat of the tea mixture. This makes a big difference, taking away the chalky appearance and making the wood about 80% black. Here is a photo of one at this stage. It looks pretty black but close inspection would reveal it wasn't yet fully black.










So I then did another treatment of the vinegar solution, let them dry and then another coat of the tea solution. At this point the pieces were extremely black.










Once the bases were dry I finished them with 2 coats of GF High Performance. I stopped at two coats as the legs has a very nice appearance of being protected but not too shiny or plastic looking. I used a water-based finished because it is nice and clear and allowed the black to show very nicely. I was very happy with the results.


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Ottacat said:


> *Ebonizing the legs*
> 
> My vinegar and steel wool solution is ready. After a few days the steel wool had completely dissolved so I even added a bit more. By the time I was ready to ebonize it too had dissolved. I tried filtering the solution through a coffee filter but it was too thick and I had to squeeze it out.
> 
> ...


Looks great Otta. I've enjoyed the blog.


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## GrandpaLen (Mar 6, 2012)

Ottacat said:


> *Ebonizing the legs*
> 
> My vinegar and steel wool solution is ready. After a few days the steel wool had completely dissolved so I even added a bit more. By the time I was ready to ebonize it too had dissolved. I tried filtering the solution through a coffee filter but it was too thick and I had to squeeze it out.
> 
> ...


Great results, it's lookiing good.


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## CharlesNeil (Oct 21, 2007)

Ottacat said:


> *Ebonizing the legs*
> 
> My vinegar and steel wool solution is ready. After a few days the steel wool had completely dissolved so I even added a bit more. By the time I was ready to ebonize it too had dissolved. I tried filtering the solution through a coffee filter but it was too thick and I had to squeeze it out.
> 
> ...


Looks good , I am not familar with the tea you have used, got a link by chance . I am assuming your using the tea to put tannin in the wood so it will react with the vinegar/SW mix. I have used strong gree tea for this , but this tea has me intrigued.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Ebonizing the legs*
> 
> My vinegar and steel wool solution is ready. After a few days the steel wool had completely dissolved so I even added a bit more. By the time I was ready to ebonize it too had dissolved. I tried filtering the solution through a coffee filter but it was too thick and I had to squeeze it out.
> 
> ...


Charles, this post has both a link to the source for the Quebracho bark tea and a link to the article in pop wood where I first read about it - http://lumberjocks.com/Ottacat/blog/39680


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Veneering the top*

Veneering a top when your veneer is already big enough that you can do it by trimming down the veneer to fit the table top size is quite easy. You don't have to worry about doing any jointing and taping pieces together.

The pelin burl I ordered was the first species I've used that wasn't naturally flat. Fortunately had also ordered some flattening solution from Veneer Supplies for just such a situation. My single sheet of veneer was big enough for both table tops and even a spare. I started by rough cutting them oversized. Given the veneer was rippled and a bit brittle I had to do this carefully. I slightly split one piece because of this so I quickly added blue tape.

Next I soaked down all the pieces in flattening solution and let it soak in.










Once they were flexible I put them on sheets of absorbent towels and placed them between two sheets of MDF. Ideally I would then have placed the assembling in a vacuum press for the 2-day drying period but my vacuum press is the continuous run type and I didn't want it running for two days. So I put the sandwich on the floor and then piled on every heavy thing in my shop - a portable planer, my compressor and a few other things.










After two days the veneer was nice and flat and I did my veneering using 18mm baltic birch plywood as the substrate. For a backer veneer I went to another local dealer and bought some paper-backed sapele veneer to use as the backer veneer. They didn't have mahogany and the sapele was the closest match to my planned mahogany frame. Of course nobody may ever look under the table but these small details matter to me. With everything glued up, into the press they went.










I used a medium brown glue and the spots of veneer tape are covering small holes in the burl veneer. They'll fill with glue and hopefully blend in. The holes are around 1/16" in size. When they came out of the press I was surprised at how many tiny pinholes there were that the glue came up through that I hadn't noticed before. When the glue was fully cured I broke most of them off with a sharp chisel and I'll sand down the rest.

I also did a third piece in a separate pressing to be used for testing finishes. Once they came out of the press I propped them up on the bases to get a feel for how things might start looking.










Next is to make the border frame and do the ebony inlay.


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Ottacat said:


> *Veneering the top*
> 
> Veneering a top when your veneer is already big enough that you can do it by trimming down the veneer to fit the table top size is quite easy. You don't have to worry about doing any jointing and taping pieces together.
> 
> ...


I also did a third piece in a separate pressing to be used for testing finishes

Smart man.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Veneering the top*
> 
> Veneering a top when your veneer is already big enough that you can do it by trimming down the veneer to fit the table top size is quite easy. You don't have to worry about doing any jointing and taping pieces together.
> 
> ...


First off let me thank you for the blog. I love builds that are blogged. I am too unorganized to do it, and my shop is an embarrassment to woodworkers the world over.
I have seen that solution for flattening veneer, but I just use distilled water and it seems to do the job. Have you ever tried water. If so did you notice that the solution did a better job?
I probably dont need to warn you about sanding with care. Do not spot sand, that veneer is thinner than you think.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Veneering the top*
> 
> Veneering a top when your veneer is already big enough that you can do it by trimming down the veneer to fit the table top size is quite easy. You don't have to worry about doing any jointing and taping pieces together.
> 
> ...


jumbojack, I haven't tried distilled water so I have no basis for comparison. I was already ordering a bunch of stuff from Veneering Supplies so the incremental cost of the softening solution wasn't much.

Blogging builds isn't very hard with today's camera phones. My shop is also messy and the photos are 'selective'  However I'm glad you are enjoying it.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Adding the frame*

With the veneering of the two panels done it was time to make and attach the frames. I used mahogany for the frame and had a piece on hand with some awesome chatoyance. After milling the mahogany I cut it well oversized lengthwise in preparation for cutting the mitred corners.

I don't cut my mitres by measuring them. The measurement needs to be on the inside of the mitre and can't easily be set. I guess I could take that length and then factor in the width of the wood and do some math with the Pythagorean theorem to figure out the proper length but I prefer the following.

I take the veneered panel and the four border boards to my table saw. I use one of those Incra gauges with a sacrificial fence that has already been passed through the blade. This shows me exactly where the blade is going to cut. I then take each of the four border pieces and cut the right-hand side of the board at 45°. Then I place the first frame board in its spot on the centre panel and position it exactly. I then take a pencil and score the left side of the border piece. I then flip the border piece upside down and use a combination square to draw a 45° line from that mark on the top of the board.

Next, I take the board to the mitre gauge and setup the wood so that this marked line aligns exactly with the part of the sacrificial fence where the blade will cut. I then cut the board. This can be very accurate. I will then test fit my piece. I always err on cutting slightly oversized as I then come back and do the Charles Neil 'sneak up on it' method. With the mitre gauge setup I can trim off as little as 1/64th at a time. I then repeat until all four pieces are done.

Glueing up can be a challenge. You want you four mitres tightly glued together and you want your frame dead even to the top of your veneered panel. If it isn't even you can't exactly throw it through a drum sander to flatten it. To ensure all these dimensions stay in alignment I use dominos. I put a domino in each mitre corner to hold them together and I put 6 dominos between the frame pieces and panes to keep them aligned at the top. For the mitred corners I use 8×40 dominos and for the frame and panel alignment I use 5×30 dominos. Once prepared, it looks like this.










The actually glueing process is different. Due to the way the dominos go in the mitres you can't glue on one side, do the next and so on. You will find that when you align with mitre domino that the frame to panel dominos won't align. To help this I cut the dominos into the frame at the exact domino size. However in the panel I change the domino setting to cut at their widest oversize setting. This gives some leeway to slide things together. Thus a different approach is required and here is one that works for me.

I use Titebond III to get the most working time. I start by gluing in the dominos into the frame and one into each of the mitre corners. After inserting each one I take a paper towel and wipe off the glue squeeze out. It may be another 10 minutes before the whole thing is brought together and this squeeze out can start to dry on you. Next, set your four frame pieces on edge and spread glue on all the inner sides. Do not put glue on the mitre corner or on the dominos. Next, take your panel and apply glue to all four of its outside edges. The end grain of the plywood will absorb the glue quickly which is why you do the frames first. Now go back to the frames and apply glue to all the dominos and all the mitres. You will now have glue on all surfaces and yet nothing put together. Put two frame parts together at one of their mitre corners but don't push it all the way in. put these into their matching domino holes in the panel but also don't push them all the way in. Next do this with the third frame piece and then the forth. When you are done you will have all the dominos in their mating holes but nothing pushed together. Your frame won't even yet be contacting you panel. Now alternate between tapping the two sides and then two tops together so the dominos in the mitres start going all the way together. This will draw the frame into the panel.

Once you get it most of the way stop and move the assembly to your clamps (which should be ready ahead of time). Use the two outside clamps right on the mitre corners to pull them almost fully together. Then add two clamps on top at the corners and tighten them to pull the corners together from the other direction. Alternate tightening until the corners are drawn together. Next add clamps to the centres to tighten the border fully to the frame. When its all pulled together, fully tighten your clamps. It will look like this.










Before the glue-up I put blue tape on the frame and veneered panel. This helps greatly with the glue squeeze out, especially to keep it out of the veneer where you have only a limited ability to sand.

Once the panel is dried I remove the blue tape and give it sanding at 120 to remove the inevitable bit of glue that gets on the frame. With the use of the dominos I've found the panels come out of the clamps aligned very well. Now the next step is to do the inlay.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Adding the frame*
> 
> With the veneering of the two panels done it was time to make and attach the frames. I used mahogany for the frame and had a piece on hand with some awesome chatoyance. After milling the mahogany I cut it well oversized lengthwise in preparation for cutting the mitred corners.
> 
> ...


That is really looking good. I like the sneak up on it approach. I set up my disc sander to get my final sneak up. This is/has been a great blog. Thanks again.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Inlay on table tops*

The inlaying process was one time I didn't take many pictures during this build. The process is relatively straight forward though when all you're doing is putting a simple inlay into a rectangular top. The tools are simple - a trim router equipped with a 1/8" bit, a chisel to square the corners and then some means to cut 45° ends in the inlay.

I've seen two techniques for routing inlay. One is to clamp a board to the top of your piece and use it as guide for your router. You need a spacer piece of wood that is the same width as the edge of your router base to the centre of your bit. This technique works well on a small table as your work surface where it is easy to clamp this guide board to your workpiece and the table top at the same time. They layout of my workbench would make such a process difficult. The alternate is to use the guide rail that comes with the router.

That was my choice although in some test cuts (always do tests) showed it was easy to accidently skew the router and go off course on the line. My guides had holes in them so I attached a longer rail of straight scrap wood which gave my guide rail a much longer and stable surface to work with. Then I set the rails to put the bit more or less right evenly between the veneered centre and the wood frame. The cuts need to end right at the edge of the veneer and border. On my first test cuts I tried just eyeballing my stopping point while routing however I found it easy to go too far. So I took another tip which was to put a piece of blue tape at each end of the cut. This made it easier to stop at exactly the right spot.

I'd start the cut by setting the router on a 45° angle and then lowering the running bit down somewhere near the edge of one the grooves you need to route. Then I'd route to my closest piece of tape and then come back and go all the way to my other piece of tape. They key was to go at reasonable rate so as to not stress the bit and to hold the router firmly with the guide firmly against the edge of the workpiece to ensure the routed line was nice and straight.

With all four lines routed I then used a chisel to make each corner a proper 90°. As I indicated in a previous blog post, I bought the inlay from Matt at over at Inlay Bandings. Each piece of banding was long enough to fit each edge so I didn't need to worry about using more than one piece on each side and blending them together with a scarf joint. I used a small mitre box and saw I picked up from LV to cut the 45° on one side. I'd then fit in the groove and mark the other side. I'd mark by holding the saw over the mitre and lightly scoring the inlay as I found pencil marks to be invisible on the ebony. I'd then cut this 45° in the mitre box and then use a sanding block to sneak up on an exact fit.

I did this all the way around the top until done. Make sure you don't press all four pieces down fully at the same time or you may have a heck of time getting them out in order to glue them. I then put a small bead of glue in the grooves and glued them in place. I didn't use much glue as didn't want to have to deal with much squeeze out. When done the glue dried I used a small scraper to flush the inlay and then gave the whole top a light sanding. When done they looked like this.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Inlay on table tops*
> 
> The inlaying process was one time I didn't take many pictures during this build. The process is relatively straight forward though when all you're doing is putting a simple inlay into a rectangular top. The tools are simple - a trim router equipped with a 1/8" bit, a chisel to square the corners and then some means to cut 45° ends in the inlay.
> 
> ...


Those tops are looking sweet!
Man I can hardly wait to see some finish on that burl. 
Watch out for that ebony, the dust will bleed into the adjacent pieces and is near impossible to remove.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Edge profiles and finish tests*

A small table with 3/4" top just doesn't look right - the proportions are all wrong. Even big tables with 3/4" table tops don't look right. Tables that keep a clean 90° edge on the top typically bevel the tops from underneath. That way when we you look you see a 1/2' or 3/8" edge view. This is common on Shaker end tables but is used elsewhere if you look.

However I wanted a different look. I didn't want an older looking profile like an ogee because to me that is more of a period piece edge treatment. I mentioned at the start of this build that this piece was partly inspired by the work of Anthony Buzak and he gives his tables tops these sweeping curves. The size and sweep of the curve is determined by many things - artistic preference, boarder diameter and overall size of the table. I don't know how he does his curves, possibly by hand, possibly using a shaper.

Given the scale of my table I wanted the curved round over but the shape isn't that of a normal router round over bit - instead it is a more sweeping curve. I looked around and decided to make it using just the profile part of a 'thumbnail' router bit.










The idea is to not raise (the bit is in a router table) the bit so high that it cuts the groove, only the curve. I did a couple of test pieces and then did the tops. Here is a picture of them complete but I'm sure future pics in this build will reveal the profile more clearly. I was quite happy with the results.










At this point I was also starting to finalize on my finishing. My biggest concern was getting a pleasing colour for the border to achieve three-way colour balance between the red tones of the pelin burl and the black of the base. I also needed to determine the best finish for the pelin burl. It was already dark and I was concerned about darkening it too much.

I took my spare veneered piece of burl, sanded it to 220 and then taped it in half and put GF High Performance on one side and Arm-R-Seal on the other. Once on the burl there was no contest, the pure water-based high performance looked aweful and the Arm-R-Seal looked great. The pelin definitely needed an oil in the finishing process to bring out the burl's depth and figure.

I tried a variety of dyes and dye combinations on the mahogany edges including some danish oils (light walnut and medium walnut). I decided I wanted a light brown colour with a hint of red. I found that was remarkably easy to achieve by using a single application of GF light brown dye stain on the mahogany. Here is a pic of some of the samples beside the burl and on the the bases to try and get an overall impression.










With the top finished and the finishes chosen, it was time to start the finishing process.


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## kati (Feb 8, 2014)

Ottacat said:


> *Edge profiles and finish tests*
> 
> A small table with 3/4" top just doesn't look right - the proportions are all wrong. Even big tables with 3/4" table tops don't look right. Tables that keep a clean 90° edge on the top typically bevel the tops from underneath. That way when we you look you see a 1/2' or 3/8" edge view. This is common on Shaker end tables but is used elsewhere if you look.
> 
> ...


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Finishing the tops*

The first step was to dye to mahogany frame components of the tops. As I indicated in my last post I found the GF light brown dye stain gave the look I wanted. I dyed them using a towel and obviously had to be careful not to get the dye on the veneered centre panel. Having the 1/8" ebony inlay as a buffer was key. I would apply the dye stain with one towel and then wipe it down with a clean one. It took a bit of work not to have overlap marks on each corner but the GF line of dye stains justly earn their reputation for being easy to work with. When done each piece looked like this.










Once the dye stain was dry, it was for the big reveal which to finally apply the Arm-R-Seal and bring out the beauty of that burl. The results below speak for themselves. I applied about 4 coats of gloss and then two coats of satin. Applying Arm-R-Seal is very simple, almost idiot-proof. I applied the first coat with a foam brush and did all the subsequent coats by wiping them on with a towel.

Top #1 - a very erratic burl pattern










Top #2 - a wonderful large even burl pattern










I couldn't have been happier.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Finishing the tops*
> 
> The first step was to dye to mahogany frame components of the tops. As I indicated in my last post I found the GF light brown dye stain gave the look I wanted. I dyed them using a towel and obviously had to be careful not to get the dye on the veneered centre panel. Having the 1/8" ebony inlay as a buffer was key. I would apply the dye stain with one towel and then wipe it down with a clean one. It took a bit of work not to have overlap marks on each corner but the GF line of dye stains justly earn their reputation for being easy to work with. When done each piece looked like this.
> 
> ...


Golly Bob Howdy, those look fantastic! Great choices on the stain selection. Man those turned out perfect.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Attaching the tops to the bases*

The nice thing about using tops made out of baltic birth plywood with veneered tops is that they can just be glued directly to the bases as wood movement isn't an issue. If the tops were solid wood the top would need to be attached using some mechanism that allowed for wood movement such as floating buttons or figure 8 thingy's.

For me it was a matter of a few simple steps. The first was to take a block plan to the bases and even up all the sides. During glue-up it was inevitable that a couple of the sides were a hair higher than the legs. Once they were ready I applied a bead of glue.










Before putting the glue on the base, I turned the tops upside down on my bench and laid out where the bases would go. I then drew on pencil lines. I then put a bead of glue on the tops inside the pencil lines.










I spread the glue on both the top and base and then put them together upside down on my bench. This is an occasion where a split-top bench deign comes in very handy. I then added clamps to hold the base firmly against the top.










The bit of glue squeeze out really doesn't matter. You'll also notice that I applied a coat of GF light brown to underside of the tops to even out the sapele veneer and mahogany frames.

Here is a first shot of the completed set.


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Ottacat said:


> *Attaching the tops to the bases*
> 
> The nice thing about using tops made out of baltic birth plywood with veneered tops is that they can just be glued directly to the bases as wood movement isn't an issue. If the tops were solid wood the top would need to be attached using some mechanism that allowed for wood movement such as floating buttons or figure 8 thingy's.
> 
> ...


Well Otta, this came together very well. I really like how the ebonized bases set up the burl. Striking!

Good build and blog - thanks!


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Attaching the tops to the bases*
> 
> The nice thing about using tops made out of baltic birth plywood with veneered tops is that they can just be glued directly to the bases as wood movement isn't an issue. If the tops were solid wood the top would need to be attached using some mechanism that allowed for wood movement such as floating buttons or figure 8 thingy's.
> 
> ...


WAY nice. This was a great Blog. I looked forward to your build and a cup of coffee these last few days. The extra effort is much appreciated. I was surprised to see you glue the tops down.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

Ottacat said:


> *Attaching the tops to the bases*
> 
> The nice thing about using tops made out of baltic birth plywood with veneered tops is that they can just be glued directly to the bases as wood movement isn't an issue. If the tops were solid wood the top would need to be attached using some mechanism that allowed for wood movement such as floating buttons or figure 8 thingy's.
> 
> ...


jumbojack, Thanks for your compliments. I've seen David Marks glue down veneered panels when the substrate is plywood so I hope there won't be an issue.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Attaching the tops to the bases*
> 
> The nice thing about using tops made out of baltic birth plywood with veneered tops is that they can just be glued directly to the bases as wood movement isn't an issue. If the tops were solid wood the top would need to be attached using some mechanism that allowed for wood movement such as floating buttons or figure 8 thingy's.
> 
> ...


oh, I dont think you will have any problems. the ply should remain stable and since you did veneer both sides that baby is a rock. No I was more thinking of, in the event, you needed to refinish or repair it would have been nice to remove the tops.


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## Ottacat (May 1, 2013)

*Wrapup - final thoughts*

Overall I was extremely pleased with this build. In terms of time spent it was one of the quickest projects I'vd done. I almost spent as much time blogging about the project as I did building it. I estimate it took me a maximum of 24 hours actually construction time for both tables. This was spread out over a couple of weeks and lots of non-working time was spent while glue-ups dried, ebonizing steps dried, finishes dried and so on.

If I was building another set I would do a few things different.

First, while using the bark tea and the vinegar / steel wool process to ebonize the cherry legs was interesting its not something I think I'll do again. The end result was a black base and while I can look at the tables and take pride in knowing the process to make them they could easily have been done differently. As a back-up I purchased a can of GF semi-gel black stain and tried it out on a piece of cherry. It covered extremely well and dried fast. It was completely black when done. If I was making the base again I would just use poplar (cheaper) and then stain it black (even with two coats it would be done in a couple of hours). This would have shaved about 4 hours, a good amount of money and a few days from the build time.

I wouldn't change anything about how I built the tops, the materials I used, the colours or the finishes. I am extremely pleased with them and wouldn't change any of those things.

I absolutely loved the pelin burl and certainly plan on using it more projects.



















The only change is I might have made the bases 1/2" to 1" smaller in all dimesions to give the top a bit more visible overlap. I like them the way they are but others might prefer a more traditional look.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

Ottacat said:


> *Wrapup - final thoughts*
> 
> Overall I was extremely pleased with this build. In terms of time spent it was one of the quickest projects I'vd done. I almost spent as much time blogging about the project as I did building it. I estimate it took me a maximum of 24 hours actually construction time for both tables. This was spread out over a couple of weeks and lots of non-working time was spent while glue-ups dried, ebonizing steps dried, finishes dried and so on.
> 
> ...


Sha-Zam!!! That's one heck-of-a nice top.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Wrapup - final thoughts*
> 
> Overall I was extremely pleased with this build. In terms of time spent it was one of the quickest projects I'vd done. I almost spent as much time blogging about the project as I did building it. I estimate it took me a maximum of 24 hours actually construction time for both tables. This was spread out over a couple of weeks and lots of non-working time was spent while glue-ups dried, ebonizing steps dried, finishes dried and so on.
> 
> ...


Start to finish; loved it. I commend you!


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## Nofrets1 (Nov 3, 2011)

Ottacat said:


> *Wrapup - final thoughts*
> 
> Overall I was extremely pleased with this build. In terms of time spent it was one of the quickest projects I'vd done. I almost spent as much time blogging about the project as I did building it. I estimate it took me a maximum of 24 hours actually construction time for both tables. This was spread out over a couple of weeks and lots of non-working time was spent while glue-ups dried, ebonizing steps dried, finishes dried and so on.
> 
> ...


The Pelin Burl is stunning and I really like the ebony trim in the tabletop frame! Terrific choice of woods!


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