On the morning of Sunday, April 15th, Morton and I exchanged ideas about trestle tables, spurred on by a recent sketch of a table on which he was working. That got me yearning to build a trestle table.
I documented my progress live on Twitter which was useful because each update had a time stamp so followers could see the rate at which I progressed. Here is a list of the previous Sessions:
Session 1 – Flat Boards are Boring;
Session 2 – Playing with Slabs;
Session 3 – From Two Slabs to One Table Top;
Session 4 – Clamping Odd Shapes and Sketching on Wood;
Session 5 – Routing Pockets for Battens;
Session 6 – Making Battens and Installing Countertop Connectors;
Session 7 – Installing Battens and Flattening the Underside;
Session 8 – Make Your Tools Work for You and Flattening the Top;
Session 9 – Mortises the Slow Way (or Why I’m Buying a Domino XL);
Session 10 – Curvy Legs are Always Good;
Session 11 – Straight Lines on Wonky Surfaces;
Session 12 – Fitting the Mother of all Mortise & Tenon Joints;
Session 13 – Making Things Better, Worse, then Better;
Session 14 – Battens and Complicated Tenons, Again;
Session 15 – The Trestle Comes Together Session;
Session 16 – Angled Mortises and Tenons;
Session 17 – Two Feet for Two Legs;
Session 18 – Attachment Strips and Power Carving;
Session 19 – Refining the Sculpted Base;
Session 20 – A Little Sanding, then Lots More Sanding;
Session 21 – Preparing for a Big Glue-Up;
Session 22 – Fitting and Joining the Table Top;
Session 23 – The Bottom of the Top;
Session 24 – Profiling the Table’s Edge; and
Session 25 – Completing the Bottom Edge.
(If you are not familiar with the format used on Twitter, every update, or “tweet” below starts with a username, being the author of that tweet. Sometimes, you see two or more usernames in a tweet. The second (and third, etc) usernames are preceded by a @ symbol and are people to whom the author is talking. The other symbol you see is #, which serves as a category. I try to remember to categorize all my tweets pertaining to this project under #flairww.)
FlairWoodworks I don’t have much time to work today, but I want to finish the work on the table’s underside. #flairww -2:38 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks I bored holes in the underside of the battens for T-nuts. #flairww -2:41 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks I bored a 7/16″ clearance hole and 3/32″ holes for the four prongs. #flairww -2:43 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks I need to buy two 1″ x 7/16″ bolts to fasten the base to the top. #flairww -2:57 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks Then I’ll trim the mounting strips flush to the surface of the battens. #flairww -2:57 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks Last picture of the day! #flairww -3:07 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks I know you’re as anxious as I to see the table on its feet. With a little Photoshopping, I got this. (Thanks to my friend Mike for lending me his sky hook!) #flairww -4:11 PM Jun 7th, 2012
GenWoodworks @FlairWoodworks looks great! -3:14 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks Thank you! #flairww RT @GenWoodworks:@FlairWoodworks looks great! -4:13 PM Jun 7th, 2012
LaMacchiaDesign @FlairWoodworks when’s the big flip coming? -4:02 PM Jun 7th, 2012
FlairWoodworks That’ll happen in the next session, Session 27! #flairww RT @LaMacchiaDesign: @FlairWoodworks when’s the big flip coming? -4:13 PM Jun 7th, 2012
DyamiPlotke I love it! -6:09 PM Jun 7th, 2012
In the next session, the top will be flipped and I will start work on the top side, including reflattening it and profiling the top edge. I’ll bet that you can’t wait!
Share what you think of this project so far in the comments section.
Sculptural Woodwork by Chris Wong 