Next, I chopped a few more mortises for the decorative plugs in the breadboard ends of the top. Once again, I did these by hand because they're relatively small and they need to have square ends. Besides, all this practice might come in handy someday if I ever need to cut a bunch of mortises by hand.
I did finally drag out my horizontal router table to cut the slots for the splines that align the breadboard ends with the top panel.
After attaching the breadboard ends to the top panel, I also used the horizontal router table to cut the long slots for the decorative spline details on the front and rear edges of the top. The horizontal router table wasn't really big enough to support the top panel, so I set up a temporary outrigger arrangement that made everything nice and stable.
You gotta love them C-clamps.
I am having trouble figuring out the shelf support detail from Darrell's blueprint drawings. Yours doesn't appear to have a lower shelf. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about and am wondering if you have any helpful input as to figuring out the mystic self support detail. Thanks so very much.
ReplyDeleteAndrew
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteMy table does have a lower shelf, just like Darrell's.
There is a piece of aluminum angle attached to the inside surface of each of the four lower stretchers. The shelf itself then sits on the ledge that's formed by the angle pieces. There is a pretty big gap (1/8" or so) all the way around between the stretchers and the shelf so that the shelf can expand and contract with changes in humidity. On my table, I put two screws up through the aluminum into the bottom of the shelf just to keep the shelf from rattling around. Except for those two screws, though, the shelf is just sitting on the aluminum angle.
The fourth picture here shows how Darrell himself did it.
Does that answer your question? If not, please email me at rrrmac@gmail.com and I will respond with some more detailed photos of my table.
-- Russ