Bedside Tables

Despite their Stickley origins, they appeal to my modern aesthetic. Without question, they are my favorite Garage Woodworks pieces to date. I love the wood - black walnut and tiger maple were meant to go together. Personally, I think you should finish with Danish oil and wax but I suspect you have other thoughts...

Cheers, Jeff

I made some progress on my bedside tables (I need to make two of these suckers). This is my first time working with tiger maple (aka chip-out lumber). The basic design came from a Stickley bedside table, but was modified.

I still need to make the drawer pulls and tops (both from walnut). The pulls will be half of an ellipse (1/2" thick).

Let me know what you think of my progress.

Thanks.

I make my own - one third linseed, one third tung and one third poly varnish. Others use 25% for each oil and 50% varnish. Just make sure that's 100% tung oil. Woodcraft sells it. That will give you the look and softness of an oil finish with the strength of poly. The great thing about it is the ease of application.

For the first coat, I brush it on, wait fifteen minutes then wipe it off. The wood will absorb a great deal of finish. Wipe it off with a clean cotton rag. Dispose your rags properly. They will catch fire if you don't.

For each ensuing coat, I apply the oil finish with a clean rag then wet sand with 600 grit. You can increase the grits with each coat but

After several coats apply a finishing wax. (I use MinMax).

People constantly tell me my wood feels soft. In any other context, that would be an insult but I generally accept the compliment. Something to think about if you want people to tell you that your wood's soft, too.

Jeff

BTW: Did you freehand the curve on the bottom rail or did you jig it? (I'm a freehander myself. 150 grit on a drum sander generally corrects an error...)

Thank you. I still need to crank out two lids and the pulls.

The intention on this project was always to have contrasting drawer fronts with the walnut tables, but at the beginning I wasn't sure about which species. I was also considering spalted maple, but my lumber yard didn't have it, so tiger it was.

I have been really happy with the Minwax Tung Oil finish, but maybe I need to start broadening my finishing techniques. Hmmm.

Thank you.

I offer this only as a suggestion/idea for next time (or anyone else who cares), but when I built my bedside tables I extended the tops about 3" over one side. The left side table I extended the top over the right edge, and the right side table over the left side edge. About 4" below that extension I added a shelf running front to back. Gives SWMBO and I a place to keep our remote controls without having to clutter the table top. Works for us.

Wayne

P.S. Yours are lookeeng good man.

I template routed them. I took a few shots of the process here:

Nice!

As for the chip out... You are using zero clearance inserts and sacrificial backing boards?

On the planer and jointer? That's where the problem is.

Thank you! Almost done...

A-ha!

Very sharp blades and back bevels can help there. Before I bought my drum sander, I used to keep a back bevelled set of blades around.