Saturday I got to spend some time in the shop so I took advantage of it by installing the legs on the federal card table I’m building.

I made bridal joints for the front two legs in addition to mortise & tenon joints for the back to. (Back legs are attached to swing arms.) Then I assembled the pieces together.

Here are a few random photos from the install.

Marking Out Mortise Location

Installing Spacer & Brace For Swing Arms

Gluing Mortise & Tenons

Cutting Pins for Swing Arms

Test Fit Prior To Assembly

Next I’m going to have to mill the lumber for tops…

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Well after 24 hours I unclamped them, gave them a light sanding & wiped them down with mineral spirits.

Sorry the photo stink but it shows off the idea. (BTW The pateraes aren’t that dark!)

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Today I got another chance to get into the garage for a bit so I could work on the inlay table. (That seems I’ll never finish!)

Lucky for me today’s task was short & sweet so there was no excuses for not completing the install of the pateraes into the 2 front legs.

Now the pateraes I’m cheating on. They’re store bought so all I had to do was pop them out.

From there I centered them on my leg & using a small spacer block (to protect the paterae I clamped them to my leg.

From here I used my xacto knife to cut a groove around the paterae. Then after I removed the clamp & cut the line deeper into the leg.

Next I set the depth of my small router plan (I love this tool BTW!) to a bit stronger than the paterae thickness & started plowing out the material.

Using some sandpaper & a small chisel I test fit the piece into the hole. Making sure to keep a nice tight fit.

Then using liquid hide glue, I glue the pateraes in & set a pressure block (with tape on it to make sure the glue doesn’t stick) on top of them & clamp for 24 hours.

Tomorrow when I get home from work I’ll sand everything down & start marking the parts for installation.

Hopefully I also get to spend a bit more time both in the shop & on this project…

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When I made my first federal card table I used power everything on it. If it was in the shop and had a power cord attached, it got used!

I think I can honestly say the ONLY hand tool I used building it was sand paper. (For a few touch ups.)

With this project I’ve tried to gear myself to using more hand tools. Part because the inlay design requires it & part because I thought I’d see how peaceful it could be to work in a shop where, outside of lights and a radio, the power it off.

With that, today I got to spend a little bit of time in the shop cutting in the inlay cuffs & the upper edge banding by hand.

Listed below is a step x step account of how I tackled what last only required a jig & tablesaw. (But I’m not complaining!)

Step 1: Make where you want the bottom of the banding to start. I chose 4″ simply because it was a round number and looked good to my eye.

Step 2: Using a bevel gauge set the the correct angle & an xacto knife, gently score across the grain at your mark.

Step 3: Using a scrap piece of inlay banding for a spacer, place your bevel gauge to the exact location.

Step 4: Use the xacto again to score the upper line.

Step 5: Using a chisel, pear up to the line but draw the curled up piece back towards you to avoid tear out.

Step 6: Once you’ve pared back both sides to the line, use a small router plane set to the depth of the inlay banding to blow out the rest of the material.

Step 7: Test fit the piece.

Going through the exact same steps I also cut in the grooves for the upper edge banding.

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I’m not going to say that I’m converting to into a hand tool guy but damn it was nice and relaxing with just the radio running tonight!

Here I’m grooving out the top and bottom arch of one side. The middle is lightly grooved out for reference at this point. (I need to do this for each leg.)

And here is all that that i glue up in this first step. Once it dries it gets trimmed flush and the middle piece cut in.

Then I get to switch sides and after I cut in the straight lines in. (But for 3 sides of the front two legs and 2 sides of the back two.)

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Sunday I decided to start working on the back rails for my table so when I headed out to the shop I I milled up the following parts to size.

• 1 – Spacer 3/4″” x 3.5″ x 5″
• 1 – Middle Stretcher 3/4″ x 3.5″ x 9″
• 2 – Swing Stretchers 3/4″ x 3.5″ x 14″

The length of the swing stretchers didn’t really matter I just knew 14″ was long enough for this stage of the game. Later I’ll need to cut them down and mill a tenon on each to attach to the legs.

With my parts milled it was time to start doing some layout work. The swings stretchers work by the way of hinged fingers so I marked a line 1 1/4″ from the edge of boards & laid out 5 equal spaces at 11/16″. (Click the photo for a better view)

From here I raised my table saw blade to 1 1/4″. Using an extended fence on my miter gauge, I nibbled away the slots in between the fingers making note to cut on the waste side of the line.

(Note: Depending on the type of blade you have in your table saw, you may need to go back with a chisel and do some clean up to the top of the spaces.)

After doing a dry fit I dug a penny out & used it to layout a round over on the ends of the fingers & using the spindle sander I rounded the corners.

I then did another dry fit but this time I clamped the 3 pieces to an auxiliary board (to keep the pieces from moving) & made my way over to the drill press it to bore 2 holes for the 1/4″ dia. steel rod that holds the parts together but also lets them swing open when needed.

Then using 2 drill bits as pins I did another test fit and found that when I tried to swing out my stretcher they were rubbing against the middle stretcher.

So using a carving chisel I cut out some relief for the fingers so they could swing open.

At this point I realized that I didn’t have the steal rod. So now I have to head out to Home Depot to pick one up but here’s a pic of the pre-assembly.

The next step for me is going to be working on the inlay in the legs but that’s for another post…

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So let me start off with this: “Have you ever had one of those days where you shouldn’t be in the shop?”

You know, one of those days where everything turns out to be a PITA?!?

Well today was MY day!

Due to our schedules at home/work it’s been a while since I’ve been able to work on the federal inlay table and I needed to finish up the inlay on the apron.

I’ve had the semicircles on the ends done since my blog entry on Stringing Tight Curves. But since then I had not finished “connecting the dots” so to speak until today.

But I should have known better. I wasn’t in the mood to do it.

And I had other junk to do:

• computer & virus updates to install
• the Olympics was on
• laundry to be done
• yadda, yadda, yadda

But I needed to get this project moving.  Either that or submit my entry to the “Worlds Longest Time To Complete A Project” contest.

So anyway, against my better judgment, I went out and turned the heaters on so the shop could warm up and then started cutting/trimming pieces of inlay to size and made a quick 45 degree jig to help cut the scarf joints so I could glue the pieces into the my apron.

All in all, I only had 6 pieces to fit and it should have taken about an hour to do (taking my sweet time in all) but NO! Everything that could go wrong did.

It didn’t matter how many times I dry fitted the pieces into my apron, no matter how well the scarf joints went together, every time I put glue into the groove trouble would show its face.

I had 4 pieces just break, one that broke once I had it in but had to dig out with dental tools, (because the glue started setting and fit was that tight) way more glue squeeze out then I intended to clean up, and anything else you could come up with!

But in the end of day I got it all worked out but wow what a pain!  So next time you’re not “feeling it” take a hint, it might not be worth it!

BTW as a side note. Dental tools are great for working with inlay but get them from a dentist. The 4 piece set they sell at Rockler are garbage! (Now that’s not a dig at Rockler, just a “impromptu review” of that particular product.)

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This year on New Years Eve day I decided it was time to move the Federal Card Table I was working on along.  It had felt like forever since I last worked on it due to the holidays and having to get a second shot for tennis elbow.

After many long discussions about how to complete this with power tools (that would involve elaborate jigs, much set up time, etc..) I decided to break out my Steve Latta stringing tools I purchased a while back.  Armed with them (and 96 Rock playing on the radio) I set out for an afternoon of using nothing but hand tools.  (Those of you who know me, know this is a big step for me!)

Having already completed the layout work and gluing on my temporary backer blocks I started by setting up the radius cutter and plowing out the curved ends. (Below you can also see where I used a dental pick to help with the clean out.)

From here I set my straight cutter and simply connected the two half circles for each of the 3 sections.

I have to say even though I’m a power tool guy, I did have an enjoyable (and semi-quiet) day of woodworking in peace!  I might have to expand on this!!

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Building 18th Century American Furniture is the latest book from Glen Huey and F&W Media.  It brings together what I think are the best projects from his first three books together.

The 20 projects are:

1. 18th Century Cupboard
2. Chester County Tall Chest
3. Chippendale Entertainment Center
4. Diminutive Dish Cupboard
5. Massachusetts Block Front Chest
6. Massachusetts Highboy
7. Mt. Lebanon Shaker Counter
8. New York/Canadian Stepback
9. Pennsylvania Chest on Chest
10. Pennsylvania Tall Case Clock
11. Shaker Press Cupboard
12. Shaker Sewing Desk
13. Shaker Small Chest of Drawers
14. New England Secretary
15. Slant-Lid Desk on Frame
16. Townsend Newport Highboy
17. Sheraton Field Bed
18. Seymour Sideboard
19. Federal Inlaid Table
20. Queen Anne Drop Leaf Dining Table

Now when I heard this was coming out I was both a bit upset but yet excited.

I was upset because I felt the book should have added a new project or two or should have added a few of his best furniture projects from the magazine but I’m sure this was much simpler for the publisher to put together and won’t knock them for that.

But what I liked about this was the fact that I now have ONE book with Glen’s projects (that I would build) out in the shop instead of 3.  I say that because with Glen’s first book (Fine Furniture for a Lifetime) I am on my second copy.  (I use that book at an idea guide, a project reference, you name it.  That book has my favorite woodworking book ever!)

But like all good things his first two books have been remanded so unless you go to Glen’s (WoodworkersEdge.com) site you won’t be able to easily find them.  (and now  you don’t need to!)

So if you are new to Glen’s work or new to woodworking you’ll really enjoy this book.  Its really a step by step book with tons of photos instead of just text with a photo here and there.  This way you get to see what he’s talking about.

NOTE: This book is a collection of projects from Glen’s first 3 books:

• Fine Furniture for a Lifetime
• Building Fine Furniture
• Building Period Furniture

Here is a photo of my Chester County Tall Chest that I built from his book.

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When I set out to create woodworking questions it was so I could effectively log the blogs across the web that I review and to also create a way for people to post questions and have experts reply to those questions within 24 hours.

Well two things happened.
1. Experts didn’t really want another board to surf for helping people and
2. Logging blogs seems to be against the law do to IP rights.

With that, I decided to say “well it was a good idea for the year it was up, but it has to go!”

Since then I’ve decided to just create a blog and on it I will be sharing my woodworking projects and go behind the scenes as I work on my upcoming book on Thomas Jefferson furniture.

Along the way I’ll be posting tool/book reviews as I buy them and I’m sure you’ll see non-woodworking things here as well.

Please feel free to comment on any and all posts I have. Tell me when I’m right and more importantly, tell me when I’m wrong! (I’m a big boy, I can take it.)

So for now WWQ will be linked to CreatingSawdust.com but I am actively looking for a way to get WWQ up and running as a way to us fellow woodworkers to help and suggest ideas to each other.

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