Top Fitting and Surface Prep

Last week on the Child of the Hunter coffee table, I completed the mortising of the tabletop mounting brackets. Above, you can see them at work holding the top in position. Below, I've righted the table and begun to lay out the curved end cuts. First, I transfer the position of the legs below onto the top.

Then, I line up a template with the leg locations.

And strike a line.

With the bandsaw set up for a bevel cut, I make the cuts one at a time.

After honing the block plane iron, I begin the process of smoothing the curve.

The bandsaw cut has provided the correct angle, now I just need to remove the bandsaw marks with the block plane, periodically checking the smoothness of the curve.

One at a time.

I clamp a small block of wood to the far face to prevent chipout.

With the end curves dialed in, I then began to adjust the gaps between the slats. Here I've used a simple wedge with a pencil mark indicating the target gap width.

When the pencil line on the wedge drops to the surface of the top, I know I've got the proper gap.

This takes a while, but the results are worth the effort.

At this stage, after completing all the hand planing of the final surfaces, I have a lot of very sharp edges to contend with.

The block plane and spokeshave are used to first create a chamfer.

Then a gentle rounding of all the edges.

Next week, we get to see the oil finish applied and with luck, perhaps a few color photos of the completed piece.

Hej då!

Craig