Here are a couple of pictures of a small table I made while learning to use my new TS55 and MFT/3. The material is D select 4/4 pine from a local lumberyard and the finish is clear shellac. I guess technically it is "French polish" since I used an Orangina bottle as my dispenser and a first-timer's rubbing rag lump. The last bit is probably not a technically accepted term, but that's more or less what it was.
Oh, and I should give credit where it's due. There were some table photographs posted here a couple of months back that gave me the idea for the whimsical table legs.
This is the completed table sitting in my new knock-down living room work area. Mostly the MFT/3 stays by this big window overlooking my backyard. If my wife happens to want it removed because guests are coming, it's a 10-minute chore to fold it up, slide it into the next room and under a bed, and vacuum up "the evidence".
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I first made the table top with my pine stock. For edge jointing, I first followed the procedure for tuning the TS55, then cut over-length boards. I skimmed the edges off with the TS55, after which I glued and clamped with my motley collection of F-clamps. I did one joint at a time because time was not particularly of the essence and I wanted to experiment with using the MFT/3 table and quick clamps to keep the boards flat.
Later I realized that I could have gotten perfect matching without any tune-up by clamping adjacent boards on the MFT with the edges in the TS55's blade kerf, but the process of learning about the settings was a good way to get comfortable with the saw.
Next, I worked on the legs. I sketched out on a piece of paper more or less what I wanted, and started by cutting one top section. When I had this done, I cut a couple of variations of the next piece down and picked the one I liked the most, then cut the rest of the pieces except for the flat bottom of the piece that was to rest on the floor. With one leg in hand, I went back and copied the parts by tracing an outline on the pine stock and cutting away.
All of the leg cutting, I should note, was free-hand, which was really easy with the TS55 and its track.
After cutting all the leg parts, I pulled the Domino ace out of my sleeve. I marked and cut regular-width mortises for #6 tenons to connect all the parts together, and glued without clamping. I used Titebond III and ahead of time sliced away some of the mortise lips with a chisel, so there was no squeeze-out. I did a light pass with sandpaper to take off the corners, and used a cabinet scraper for the remaining surface preparation. I placed the leg tops flush with the MFT fence and used a carpenter's square to mark the final bit to cut off the bottom of each piece.
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The legs were attached to the top with a #6 domino, top mortise 12 mm and leg mortise 28 mm. I learned by measuring twice that it is important to measure twice and cut once, as I almost used the wrong reference line for one of the top mortise holes. And it would have been a shame to have a leg at an odd angle.
Oh, and I should give credit where it's due. There were some table photographs posted here a couple of months back that gave me the idea for the whimsical table legs.
This is the completed table sitting in my new knock-down living room work area. Mostly the MFT/3 stays by this big window overlooking my backyard. If my wife happens to want it removed because guests are coming, it's a 10-minute chore to fold it up, slide it into the next room and under a bed, and vacuum up "the evidence".
[attachthumb=1]
I first made the table top with my pine stock. For edge jointing, I first followed the procedure for tuning the TS55, then cut over-length boards. I skimmed the edges off with the TS55, after which I glued and clamped with my motley collection of F-clamps. I did one joint at a time because time was not particularly of the essence and I wanted to experiment with using the MFT/3 table and quick clamps to keep the boards flat.
Later I realized that I could have gotten perfect matching without any tune-up by clamping adjacent boards on the MFT with the edges in the TS55's blade kerf, but the process of learning about the settings was a good way to get comfortable with the saw.
Next, I worked on the legs. I sketched out on a piece of paper more or less what I wanted, and started by cutting one top section. When I had this done, I cut a couple of variations of the next piece down and picked the one I liked the most, then cut the rest of the pieces except for the flat bottom of the piece that was to rest on the floor. With one leg in hand, I went back and copied the parts by tracing an outline on the pine stock and cutting away.
All of the leg cutting, I should note, was free-hand, which was really easy with the TS55 and its track.
After cutting all the leg parts, I pulled the Domino ace out of my sleeve. I marked and cut regular-width mortises for #6 tenons to connect all the parts together, and glued without clamping. I used Titebond III and ahead of time sliced away some of the mortise lips with a chisel, so there was no squeeze-out. I did a light pass with sandpaper to take off the corners, and used a cabinet scraper for the remaining surface preparation. I placed the leg tops flush with the MFT fence and used a carpenter's square to mark the final bit to cut off the bottom of each piece.
[attachthumb=2]
The legs were attached to the top with a #6 domino, top mortise 12 mm and leg mortise 28 mm. I learned by measuring twice that it is important to measure twice and cut once, as I almost used the wrong reference line for one of the top mortise holes. And it would have been a shame to have a leg at an odd angle.
