Lots of progress on the Hourglass Table over the last few days...
As you many have seen in the background of another pic, I milled the lumber for the legs and top of this table about a week ago. It is pictured above - the legstock is 1 7/8" square and of varying lengths to fit the template
The first step after milling was to cut the mortises in the pieces of the legstock that will ultimately become the top of each leg. The position of this piece within the leg lamination is fixed. That is, the top of this segment will always be at the top of the leg so you have a 'reference surfance' from which to cut. The other pieces are glued together imprecisely, so cutting on them prior to the glue up is not possible.
I worked out the location of the mortises and cut them on my router table using stop blocks and a spiral up-cutting bit.
Once these mortises were cut I could glue up the legs to rough shape, as I did with the prototype.
While waiting for the glue to dry, I turned my attention to the tabletop. It will be 3/4" thick and approximately 20x36 in overall dimension. It comes from the same 8/4 stock the legs were made from. I set aside the best looking 36" of the 8/4 stock and planned to resaw it into 2 10x36 pieces 1" thick.
Everything went according to plan, until with about 1" left to go on my resaw cut, the board broke under its own internal stress. one half of the board was so strained, it simply popped the final inch of the resaw cut apart. one of the resawn boards was so badly warped I was uncertain if i would be able to plane a 3/4" board from it.
Well, turns out I was able to get enough thickness for a usable top. It is only about 5/8" thick but it is flat and stable. I edge glued the two boards together after gluing up the legs. Here is a pic of the final product.
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