Posts from the ‘Trestle Table’ Category
I have been delinquent in posting pictures of the finished walnut trestle table. I never really got any suitable photography done and now it has taken up its daily duty in our kitchen. It’s been about a year since I finished it, and it has a few battle scars, but it still looks great and has even more character.
It’s been a long time since the last post on the trestle mostly becuase the majority of the progress has been shaping, sanding, and pre-finishing. Oh, and also becuase a new born makes it a smidge harder to get into the shop. But none the less, the last couple weeks have been fruitful and I’m beginning to feel like I’m turning the corner which is a good thing becuase there are still at least two more projects I want to complete before a show in November.
After my sanding regiment I glued and pegged my loose tennons into the trestle uprights followed by pre-finishing all my components. Next, I assembled each of my end sub-assemblies with draw bored tennons. I found a large pencil sharpener is excellent for tapering the end of the dowels.
Finally, I did the big glue-up yesterday and got my through tennons wedged with some small bits of maple.
I still need to shape, sand, and finish the upper stretchers. Those were a mid-stream design addition but overall the base is nearly complete so I started milling my boards for the top.
Despite being on baby watch for the last week, I managed to make some progress on the trestle base. I was hoping to be a father on father’s day this year, but it looks like no luck. So I spent the last couple weekends in the shop rough milling components, cutting joinery and doing some initial shaping. After milling out the basic blank for the sides of the trestle I laid out all the curves and the mortise for the cross stretcher. Before cutting the curves on the bandsaw I setup the drill press to hog out the waste for the stretcher mortise and the peak of the inner hyperbolic curves.
Next the 1/2 inch mortises were cut in all the trestle components for the loose tennons.
After cutting components out on the bandsaw I faired all the curves with a combination of oscillating spindle sander and spokeshave. It’s at this point in a project when things seem like they’re moving pretty fast, but then reality sets in when your realize how much shaping and sanding there is still to come.
I’m giving this piece a subtle pillowed look. To achieve this I first used a small beading router bit to remove the bulk of the waste and leave two shoulders which I then blend away with the spokeshave.
By the end of the day today I had gotten all of the initial shaping done. I’ll leave sanding to another day.
One quick peak at the mocked up assembly!
Aaron M. Wells 