Night Tables - 2 Uses for a Domino

[HarveyWildes]

I'm building a couple of night tables that are designed to hang on the wall rather than stand on the floor.  The part that backs to the wall is built from three pieces of wood.  The two outside pieces are called "laurel" in Ecuador, but they're not the same as laurel in the US.  The inside piece is nogol (Peruvian Walnut).  The nogol is about 3/4" thick, and the laurel is about 1 1/4" think.  The laurel pieces overlap the Nogol, and stand proud of the nogol on the front side, while all three pieces are aligned to be flat on the back.

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There are two shelves.  The bottom shelf is attached to the back with box joints.

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The top shelf is captured in blind sliding dovetails in the two outside pieces of laurel.

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One of the design problems I faced was how to cut the box joints accurately across all three back pieces.

I could have just clamped the back pieces, but the clamps always seemed to be getting in the way.

I could have glued the back pieces up, but that would have meant also gluing in the middle shelf because of the blind dovetails.  I wasn't ready to do that until I had all of the pieces cut and sanded.

I finally used my Domino to cut mortise and tenon joints that would keep the pieces aligned while cutting the box joints.  Note that the joints were tight enough that I could dry fit the pieces together and stand them on edge.  I couldn't have gotten the same precise alignment and tight fit with biscuits.  It took about 1/2 hour to think of it. another 1/2 hour to rethink it because it seemed too simple, and about 10 minutes to actually do it.  I did have to think about depth alignment a bit so that everything fit tight.

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So that took care of design problem #1.  I'll describe #2 in a reply.

 

[HarveyWildes]

On to the second design problem.

The sliding dovetails used to attach the top shelf don't have the strength to hold over time.  So I decided to put some supports under the shelf to keep it sturdy.  Four Dominos per support up into the shelf.  The first picture is the best one I have before I glued them up, and it's not very good quality.  The second picture shows the supports in the overall context of the piece.

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To attach the back of the supports tightly to the back, I'll either use Miller dowels, or if I think I can do it accurately enough with longer Dominos, I might try that.  I haven't done the math yet, but I'm not sure if can get a deep enough mortise through the back with the right sized domino.  Miller dowels should work fine if I go that route.

 

[ear3]

Excellent work and description.  Very tasteful wood combo.  Curious about the channel and keyhole routed in the back of the center piece.  Is that to fit some sort of wire running up the back for a light fixture?

 

[HarveyWildes]

Yes - my son wants to mount a rock salt fixture to the top.  I'm actually going to provide him with a separate mounting board that will go on the top, so that he can change the fixtures over time without worrying about messing up the main part of the back.  I think it will also provide a little visual interest at the top, but it's hard to say without the fixture.

There are also cord slots at the back center of each shelf to allow alarm clocks, chargers, etc. without the cords hanging over the sides.

Hopefully I'll remember to post pictures when it's done, but that is probably a month or two away.

 

[sancho57]

Very nice work, well done and a great idea of hanging night tables