round mahogany dining table progress pics

[nydesign]

I'm building a 48" dining table while doing some work on my parents house. There's a small one car old garage I'm working in,
it's really too small to work effectively but I'm dealing with it  [unsure]

Sorry for the cell phone pics it's the only camera I had.
First shot is gluing up the boards for the top, they came S4S so I did not have to do any milling.

The next day I traced a 48" circle and cut around it with the jigsaw.

I made a lay out of the legs using the legs. I'm much better designing with models or the actual piece.
This let me figure out the angle I wanted to use, where the bracing would go and how it all looked under the top.

I used the domino with #8 by 50mm domino's to assemble the legs and clamped.

I took the legs already made and placed the opposite legs over them to make sure they would be the same size.
This also let me cut the braces without having to worry about measuring perfectly.

I began by gluing the cross pieces to the completed leg set.

Because the dominos coming off the cross pieces were at an angle I just placed the legs against the cross pieces and marked where they hit the legs.
I used the first width setting on the cross piece and the second width setting for the leg.

Glue up showing detail of the angled blocks to support the clamps.

Detail showing position of domino holes

Jig I made up to rout the final circle for the top. Here's where things went wrong.
I used a longer 2.5" straight bit that stuck out beyond the routers plunge capacity.
I thought no problem, I'll just rout from the outside of the circle instead of plunging like I normally do.
I set it up so it would take 1/16" off, found a spot on the top where the bit was not touching the wood and began the cut.
As soon as the bit hit the wood the router jumped out of my hands and took off around the table by itself. I was not prepared for this at all,
fortunately it was not going fast, also fortunate was that the jig was held in place by a long screw and prevented the router from going
anywhere else. The unfortunate part was the bit chewed up the sides real good, and one side of the bit broke  [embarassed]

New bit lasted 2 seconds.

ouch!

ouch again.

After getting a shorter 1.5" bit I routed the top again by plunging the bit 1/8"-1/4" at a time.

Rounded over the legs as a start and sanded the top once.

Top after sanding with 80 grit Rubin. Next is more sanding, I might round over the legs some more and the top.
I'm going to try finishing the table with 'Old Masters' gel polyurethane. I've not used it yet, I'm going to try some samples tomorrow.

thanks for looking.

- J

 

[ericbuggeln]

You must have tweaked when that router jumped? Good Domino usage, Eric

 

[fritter63]

Maybe we start a thread about straight router bit horror stories, and I'll explain why I now where a thick leather apron and an athletic cup....

 

[Vindingo]

The top is beautiful, can't wait to see it with finish.  I also like how the legs have a bit of complexity added with the angle.

 

[tbellemare]

You must have tweaked when that router jumped? Good Domino usage, Eric

How far around the table did it make it on its own? Any personal hygiene required?

That is a really nice table. I love mahogany.

Tom

 

[ictusbrucks]

that looks awesome

 

[nydesign]

The router made around the top about half way, I'm not sure but I think I grabbed the top of the router to stop it.
I'm sure my face must have matched what I was thinking  [eek] and thankfully I did not need to change underwear.

Thanks for the compliments, the domino makes this simple to make. No more mortising machine

 

[fritter63]

Were you making a climb cut with it?

 

[nydesign]

I had the bit extended the full depth of the table thickness, 1.5"
I thought I would be able to shave the top going around the perimeter.

 

[nydesign]

I fixed the chewed up wood on the top today. I thought about trying to repair it but there was too much damage, so the 48" top became a 47 1/4" top.

I rounded over the top and bottom with a 1/2" radius bit and so I could see what marks were left in the wood I cleaned up the side with an ETS125 with 220 grit.
There were a few spots that needed some touching up.

I used the RS 2 with 80,100 and 120 Rubin paper. I have to say I wish I had bought this sander a long time ago.
It's amazing, for a half sheet sander there is zero dust when running it. I think festool really does not market this sander
as much as they should. I had horrible memories of old half sheet sanders sending clouds of dust covering the entire shop.
The RS 2 was never on my list of wanted tools, probably for this reason. 
I should have realized Festool solved the problem of dust storms via half sheet sanders. I use the RS 2 for almost every project now.

Which would you rather sand a table top with?
RS2 vs 125mm paper

By bhcoffee45 at 2012-05-03

The RO125 handled grits, 150,180 and 220.

These were the marks left after routing, I used the ETS to clean up the sides, then hand sanded the round over as I went through the grits.

The top sanded to 220 with some mineral spirits wiped on to check the grain and look for any stray sanding marks.

The side came out nicely after a lot of sanding...

Detail of the top, there are a few spots to fill. I'm debating on using a wood filler to fill the grain.
The client wants a natural wood look for the table, I'm thinking of leaving it as is.

top down shot of top

I'm using this product for the first time, old masters wipe on gel poly.

It's pretty bizarre to use a gel poly, I thought given the fact I have less than ideal conditions to do the finish work
a product that takes the worry out of drips seemed like a good idea. It's hard to mess up a wipe on finish, I hope.

The sample turned out looking decent. Applying it is simple, use a cloth to put on a 'liberal' amount, use another cloth to wipe off the excess, then use
a third cloth to buff out the poly. When your done it's almost dry to the touch and as a bonus there's almost no smell.
The directions say to let it dry 6 hours, then give it another 6 hours to re-coat. I'm going to give it 4 or 5 coats.

Ready for finishing.

 

[fritter63]

I had the bit extended the full depth of the table thickness, 1.5"
I thought I would be able to shave the top going around the perimeter.

Right, so that much I understood. What I meant by "climb cut" is if you were trying to move the router around the table clockwise (bad) rather than counter clockwise (good).

 

[PaulMarcel]

Love the Mahogany top and the angled leg design.  Nice work.

I'm curious about your answer to fritter's question; sounds like a climb-cut got out of control.  At least it was just a minor bit of extra work and not a scarred top.

Instead of a straight bit, I would have used a compression spiral.  I have one and round tops like that come out so clean since both the top and bottom cut are backed by the middle.

That whole top will look stellar once you get enough finish on it.  Thanks for the pics!

 

[nydesign]

Right, so that much I understood. What I meant by "climb cut" is if you were trying to move the router around the table clockwise (bad) rather than counter clockwise (good).

Sorry I did not understand the climb cut term, I was going clockwise with the cut, though it was not much of a cut as the router jumped the second it hit the wood.
I guess that's the bad part of a climb cut.
What was your story with a straight bit that you wear all the protection now  [blink]?

Paul thanks, I'm not sure what you mean by "both the top and bottom cut are backed by the middle"?
I can see why the spiral bit would give a cleaner cut, it's the 'middle' part I'm confused by.

 

[mattfc]

I think you got away lightly if you were climb cutting!
If you are plunge the bit into the wood to cut (i.e. there is wood all around the bit) then the direction that you cut the circle in wouldn't make much difference. If however there is wood on just one side of the bit, and you move it the wrong way, or are not holding it very firm when you start, the bit catches the wood and propels the router, especially as with this when the wood is a big piece (if it was small, and the router plus your strength of grip is greater than the weight of a the wood, the small bit of wood would fly across the room at a great rate of knots!)

Climb cut can give a better finish, but must be done with extreme caution (e.g in your case, once you had been round the table once properly, and if you had a micro adjuster you could reduce the radius by 0.2mm or so and then do a final climb finish cut)

Otherwise a lovely table [big grin] glad it was just the router bit that got trashed... spiral bits a more forgiving as there is always a cutting surface is contact with the would (vs 2 flutes) so tend to grab the wood less

 

[PaulMarcel]

Paul thanks, I'm not sure what you mean by "both the top and bottom cut are backed by the middle"?
I can see why the spiral bit would give a cleaner cut, it's the 'middle' part I'm confused by.

As an example, an up-spiral bit twists like a drill bit shearing wood up (towards the router).  A down-spiral bit has the opposite twist so it cuts by shearing wood down (away from router).  A compression spiral is a mix of the two: the end of the bit has around 1/4" of up-spiral cutters while the rest of the bit is down-spiral.  If you picture this on the side of your table, you'd make sure the bottom edge of the tabletop is in that last 1/4" of the bit (up-spiral part) as it will shear wood towards the router (also towards the middle of the tabletop) so it is backed by a lot of wood and you won't get tearout on that part of the cut.  The rest of the cutter is the down-spiral part and will be shearing the bulk of the table edge down away from the router (and again towards the middle of the tabletop).  It is again backed by lots of wood so you won't get tearout.

For deep mortises, they aren't an advantage at all, but for cutting stock (through 'dado') or trimming an edge like your case, they are a huge advantage.

Here's a link to a Vortex solid-carbide compression spiral; they have dozens, but this one's picture is the clearest to see what I mean.  That's also where I buy spiral bits; they sell to CNC guys so these are built to last.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

When routing around a round shape of solid lumber, the trick is that you need to switch back and forth between climb-cutting and push-cutting. Climb-cutting will prevent the tearout on the downhill side of the near-parallel grain. However, climb-cutting on the end grain will compress and crush the grain. So push-cutting is best across the end grain. Even though it looks like you own a Makita router, you may want to read through the Festool OF1400 and/or OF2200 Supplemental manuals. They cover instances like this. OF1400_manual_usa OF2200_Manual Here is the image from the OF2200 manual.

 

[nydesign]

Matt, Paul, and Rick, thanks that's great info to have!
My next round table will be safer and smoother
And less time spent sanding the edges
Cheers,
Jonathan.

 

[fritter63]

Rick,

I think you should make us a template guide/jig for that diagram to make it easier. Maybe big round alum template with little
fingers that hinge down at the right points to stop the router and remind us where to switch....

[poke]