JKM Woodworking

My son asked for a desk or table, as all he has in his room is an end table that's too small to use a chair with. I had saved some ideas and thought this would be a good match. The inspiration is from Bill Hylton's Country Pine Furniture. My son helped with most of the steps.

photocopy from the book

The only wood that I had enough wide and thick pieces to use was maple. I think that's a good choice as it should be hard enough that it won't easily get impressions, as compared to poplar, pine, sycamore, etc. Most of the maple is curly. Curly maple looks nice but I am hesitant to handplane it because it tears out so easily. Not many handtools in this project.

marking out soft / curly maple

We marked out the pieces leaving room for snipe. The widest pieces can be used to make the lid and the aprons. The thickest pieces were 1 3/4" and will be legs. All of these pieces were sent through the thickness planer at least a couple times to smooth their faces.

nice and smooth

Some of the maple had bug holes. I do not find them delightful. I fill them with clear superglue and scrape them level later.

we can't have holes in our desktop!

The first step was to glue up the lid and cut it to size. The lid is large and heavy. I have concerns about it staying flat. Breadboard ends would be a good idea, and what are pictured in the plans, but it will be easier to go with battens. I'm also worried that if it slams shut it might break along the glue line. Maybe I can add some of that toybox hardware that keeps lids from slamming.

two wide pieces to make the lid

After the lid's size is set, the base can be made to fit. The base has four legs and four aprons. I am using dominos for all of these joints.

The side aprons are slanted. For these angles I followed the plans. I cut both sides at once on the bandsaw so they would match. After they were cut I set a bevel gauge to match the angle, in case I needed to transfer it to other pieces later.

the side aprons are angled

I needed to make angled cuts on the tops of the front legs. I crosscut these on the bandsaw after tilting the table to match the bevel gauge.

side apron mating with over-long leg that needs to be cut tilted table to match

Then the front apron needed a matching angle on its top edge. This was a rip cut with the same angle.

the front apron needs to be beveled to match

The long taper of the legs were also cut on the bandsaw. I have a plywood sled and leave the edges hanging over the side as I push it through. On one leg I cut the tapers on the wrong sides. We had planned on the ugly faces being on the back, but I had to rotate that leg 90° to make it work, so the ugly side will be more visible.

long tapering cuts on bandsaw

Before gluing the aprons and legs together I tried to smooth everything. In the next picture you can see my tools:

planing scraping and sanding

The card scraper is used for 90% of the work. A smooth plane or #80 scraper can help for the larger bumps or ridges. I also use a hand sander, mostly for the corners and edges.

Before gluing anything together we applied one coat of transtint Honey Amber and then handsanded back. This is supposed to add some depth to the curls.

applying transtint in water don't crank down too hard

I glued up the short, angled sides first. After this I decided to add pins, as I wasn't sure glue alone would hold everything together. Not all of these joints are square and flat and flush and tight. So I drilled 1/4 inch holes and made 1/4 ash pins, as I have done a couple times before. The pins in these tenons were not drawbored, which saves a couple steps.

split ash to make pegs hammer through a series of smaller washers

Later the front and back aprons were added to complete the base. In the picture the base is resting on the bench with the legs hanging in the air.

four legs and four aprons