Round Dining Table Build - Entirely with Festool (and Shaper Origin)

[smorgasbord]

From Festool USA's Build Series:=LPZSwMXXUxJe-JIq

Interesting to watch a Festool only build, but using lots of individual tools:
•TS60 KEB F
•TS75 EQ
•CSC SYS 50 EBI
•OF 1400 REQ-F
•DOMINO DF 700 EQ-Plus
•DOMINO connector range SV-SYS D14
•Carvex PSC 420
•CT 48 E AC HEPA
•CT 15 HEPA
•Kapex KS 120
•CXS 12
•RO 150 FEQ
•Shaper Origin
•MFT 3

Festool doesn't make a jointer or planer, so he had the stock prepped by his mill.

Kind of overkill to use a Shaper Origin instead of a circle cutting jig to make the 60" round top, but hey, if you've got it might as well use it, right? Although a small center hole at the bottom would have come in handy for centering the top onto the base later.

Heavy use of the DF700 (and no DF500 since all the stock here is pretty thick):
Tabletop glue-up using dominos since the boards weren't perfectly flat, but I don't think they needed to be so long.
I don't know why gluing up the two halves of the tabletop used the D14 connectors, except to show them off, but maybe some can come up with a possible explanation?
Also, an interesting use of the long dominos to join the two crossed base members. I personally would have done half laps in each (which I would think could be cut on the CSC SYS 50 with a flat topped blade, or even the OF1400 with a straight bit), but the domino method should be plenty strong and fits in with the overall building theme here.
And some interesting cuts for the angled stretcher/leg joints, using the DF700's big fence capacity to stack two mortises vertically.
Finally, used the domino to cut slotted openings for screwing the base to the top to allow for wood movement.

He mentions dust extractors at the beginning, but doesn't get into their use at all. Demonstrated using the 36mm hose on the TS75 and router to capture more dust, as well as the router attachments. Nothing on the differences between the CT48 and CT15 though.

Also, good to see a Festool project all out of solid wood. And to those claiming a DF500 is the one to get, this project demonstrates why some woodworkers like myself chose the DF700 instead.

 

[luvmytoolz]

That was a really good video. I get the connectors being used simply because it looked like he had no way to clamp the entire width.

That was an awful lot of Shaper tape there, I think a circle jig as you mentioned would have been far better and more realistic/practical, although given how I over-engineer everything I do I'm not one to talk! ;-)

Really great looking table though, very nice!

 

[Svar]

Kind of overkill to use a Shaper Origin

It's a marketing video, off course its an overkill. For a project like this most would use one saw, a router, and a card scraper with no loss of productivity.

 

[smorgasbord]

That was an awful lot of Shaper tape there, I think a circle jig as you mentioned would have been far better and more realistic/practical, although given how I over-engineer everything I do I'm not one to talk! ;-)
Really great looking table though, very nice!

To show off the SO, they should have done an elliptical table. That way they could have refined a "fat ellipse" in software, downloaded to the SO, and then cut it. That's the kind of thing that one would have had to build templates for and then route, and the SO would have been much faster and more accurate. Instead of a 60" table they could have done a 50" x 64" table or 48" x 62" or something that would still seat as many people comfortably, if not more so. It would have also made the base a little more interesting to be not fully symmetrical.

I think the build shows the versatility of the Domino DF700 - from top glue-ups to screw expansion slots to angled leg joinery, the latter being a real time-saver/ease-of-use/mistake-preventer. That said, I was surprised he didn't mention the leg set that's part of the CSC SYS 50 EBI acting as outfeed support for the rips. I did appreciate him switching to clamping the track saw rails to get a better cut, and talking about that, though.

 

[timwors]

I really enjoyed this video (and the rest of the series is good too). There's a lot of quite subtle tips in these videos, especially regarding the Domino.

Not owning a DF700 - and never likely to either - I did wonder how much could be achieved using just a DF500. I thought it could certainly be used to achieve alignment, e.g. for the top, but the leg to brace assembly might need strengthening.

He lost me with the use of the Origin + jigsaw + router just to cut a circle! Love the idea of making it an ellipse, that would have been more impressive.

 

[peter halle]

I like Brent's series.  They illustrate possible true life usage of the tools.  I imagine that they went circular versus elliptical for the table top due to the fact that a circular top can be cut and trued up in many different ways including the commonly used router.

Peter

 

[smorgasbord]

Not owning a DF700 - and never likely to either - I did wonder how much could be achieved using just a DF500. I thought it could certainly be used to achieve alignment, e.g. for the top, but the leg to brace assembly might need strengthening.

Here's a DF700 usage deep dive in this video:
A) Tabletop glue-up alignment (14mm x 100mm long tenons) Material 40mm thick
B) Tabletop final glue-up connectors as long clamp replacements
C) Stretcher center cross (dual sides with a through mortise) (Brent said 14x100 tenon again, but since he drilled two 50mm mortises and then also through the thick center stretcher I bet he used 14x140 tenons) Fence height at 15 and 40 for a double stack.
D) Stretcher to leg mortises (14mmx140mm tenons, 70mm mortises)
E) Slots for top holding screws to allow for wood movement

One at a time then:
A) Sure, you could use 10x50 tenons for alignment. The fence height can be set to 20mm.

B) The DF500 connectors should work, even though they'll be much closer to the bottom than the top. I'd just use long enough clamps and forgo the connectors completely. Someone might try to disassemble the top later and would be surprised.

C) This is a tough one. This is a classic long grain to end grain joint, so the double long tenons help give it strength. If you wanted to do it with a DF500, I'd do separate joints on each side of the through cross-member, but with only 25mm of depth that's not a lot of leverage. You might figure out a way to use quad tenons on each joint, but the middle ones would hit each other since the piece is only 40mm thick. My choice, even with a DF700, would be a half lap and no dominos. Could even cut them on the CSC SYS I bet.

D) This is interesting. On a second viewing (to compile this list), I noticed that Brent's orientation of the dominos isn't optimal. You want the flat part of the domino to be glue to long grain. This doesn't matter much on the stretchers since the dominos are mostly inline with the grain, but on the leg, having them horizontal means the flat part of the domino is against end grain in the leg.

I would rotate the domino orientation, but this means a small complication since the legs and stretchers aren't the same thickness and you want them centered on each other. I'd calculate the thickness difference, divide by two, and that's the differnce in fence heights - center the mortise on the stretcher using the fence, then add that calculated difference to the fence height for the legs (or do in the other order and subtract). There would also be a small complication in the marking of center on the sides, but as long as you don't wrap the marks but instead hold the pieces such that the sides are flush for the marking you should be OK. This will produce a stronger joint.

It also would enable using 10x50s - You could probably use a double stack - one from each side, but maybe with 8x50s you could have a quad setup. Maybe.

E) 8mmx20mm deep slots for the screws would be easy to cut with the DF500

On balance, I think this project is do-able with a DF500 as long as you change C to a classic half-lap joint instead.

Any comments on my weak "D" joint analysis?

 

[smorgasbord]

BTW, the video I link below uses a half-lap for the big cross members, dominos to attach to the verticals:


And uses a jig, not a SO, to cut the 60" circle.