Thank God for Tivo

I have been gripping over exactly how I was going to cut this mortise in the 45 degree angled surface at the end of the aprons for the hourglass table. My foray into poker chip racks was really just my postponing the cut I had no idea how to make. Then, Tivo saved my sanity.

I have my Tivo set to record Woodworks every weekend and lo and behold, this weekend David Marks was working on a project where he made this exact cut. Here is my adaptation of his method--i built a jig that would hold the apron stock at 45 degrees to the routerbase.

First step is to create a box that can house the apron stock at an angle and accomodate a top that sits parallel to the floor. here is its skeleton, with the top removed.



Here is the entire jig with one of the aprons clamped into place.



The box is not a snug fit for the apron stock, so I wedge it onto place to keep everything square and stable.



And here is a view looking down through the opening in the top of the table at the mortise that is about to be cut. if you look closely, you can see where the mortise has been marked out.



Now cutting the mortise is as simple as using an edge guided router to make the plunge cut. I took special care to make certain that the reference edge of the top is square to the sides of the box, and therefore ultimately square to the piece being cut. Here is the setup:



And here is the result:



For those that are interested, here is David Marks method

Leg Construction - Blanks to finished product

The picture above shows the 3 steps I will be progressing through today. Start with the glued up blanks, then shape the curve on the bandsaw and router table, then taper the legs using the tapering jig. There are lots of ways to do this, and my ways are not likely the best but they work well for me. your mileage may vary.

The first step is to afix the template to the blank. I use double sided turners tape for this--it holds the pieces together well, but is not impossible to remove after use.



Next it is off to the bandsaw to rough cut the shape of the legs. I use this jig i built to make the process as idiot-resistant as possible (nothing, in my experience is truly idiot-Proof).



The jig acts like a poor mans bearing guided router bit. it allows the stock to pass underneath and keeps the bandsaw blade a constant distance from the template. here is a close up of it in action.




after the stock is roughed out on the bandsaw, i use a bearing guided bit (two, actually) to trim it flush with the template. Marc Spagnuolo, aka The Wood Whisperer, just posted a video on template routing curved table legs. One of the issues he adresses is the tearout that comes with trying to flush trim the 'uphill' portion of the grain on a curved piece of stock. He suggests sanding as close to the line as possible for the uphill sections, but i have found this to be time consuming and that it still yields imperfect results. My method avoids 'uphill' cuts altogether. Here is how i do it:

We will employ TWO bearing guided bits in this process. The first step is to determine which sections of the leg will be 'uphill' cuts when the template is on the BOTTOM of the workpiece. i have marked those 'uphill' sections in the pic below so i can avoid them in the first pass. Note that the bit has the bearing on the bottom, and the workpiece is positioned with the template face down. With the bottom bearing bit and the template facing down, i flush trim the DOWNHILL SECTIONS ONLY and then stop.



After that routing is complete, i switch to a bit with the bearing on the top and make the cuts with the template facing UP. the set up is below--note that the X's are still there, as i left these sections rough in the previous pass. through the miracle of Euclidean Geometry, the formerly uphill sections are now downhill, and are flush trimmed without incident (or unsightly tearout.)



the result of the above operations is a perfectly shaped, tearout-free leg. The final step in construction is to taper the planar faces of the legs. I will use the tapered sled i made earlier. First, I afix the leg to the sled with the top against the cleat. the cleat is on the low side of the sled, so i will be removing stock from the foot of the leg as it passes through the planer.

I mark the face of the leg with chalk and in she goes! (low side first)





here is the result, you can see where the taper ends--there is still chalk remaining on the top of the leg. It took about 5 passes to remove ~5/8 of an inch of stock.




once all 4 legs have had their first face tapered, i install a shim so that the opposite face will rest on the sled as though the first side had never been tapered.



I made this shim from a scrap piece of stock using the tapering sled. I passed it through until one end was about 1/16 thick. once the shim is complete, just rotate it end for end and screw it down. Here is it with a leg taped to it, tapered side down.



Pass the legs through the planer as before and you have all 4 sides tapering neatly from 2x2 at the top of the leg to 3/4 x 3/4 at the bottom.

Pictureframe - Substantial Completion

The pictureframe construction is substantially complete.  I put the bevel on the back of the outside edge using this setup (the blade has not been tilted and the fence is not in final position):

Afterward, I hand shaped the front of the outside edge using a block plane.  The profile is now very pleasing to the eye and should look good on a wall.  After the outside edges were shaped, I cut slots for the splines using this setup:

I will probably finish (as in varnish, not complete) the Pictureframe and the Hourglass Table at the same time so look for the final pics of the frame when the table is done.

Hourglass Table Leg Prototype

I milled a douglas fir 4x4 down to 2x2 stock and glued it up so it would conform to my template for the legs of the hourglass table. With the remainder of the stock, i created a tapering sled, which will be used to taper the planar faces of the legs. the final dimensions at the top of the leg are 2x2, and the final dimensions at the foot of the leg are 3/4 x 3/4.

I know that the taper will begin 25" off the ground, and that the thickness of the leg must decrease by 1 1/4" (2 minus 3/4.) To achieve that result, I must taper 5/8" off each side of the leg over the 25" span. Therefore, the top of the tapering sled is pitched at a 5/8" drop over a 25" run. We'll see how things come out.

Update: The leg is out of the clamps and there is a pic below with the template.  Bandsaw, router and planer tomorrow...