Contemporary Entrance Hall Table Using 3-way Miter Joints

Project

Joinery Details

Poplar was chosen as the wood, since the ebonized finish would disguise the characteristics of a more costly wood. Eight-quarter stock was milled to 1 ¾” X 1 ¾” for the legs, end stretchers and aprons. Details of the three-way miter joint were worked out beforehand with a mocked up corner; i.e. leg, side apron and front apron. (see photo)

Layout details for the joinery required three different configurations: the leg joint configuration, and a left-hand and right-hand configuration for the apron joinery. The stretchers utilized traditional mortise and tenon joints. Mortising and sawing the details of the mitered joinery was simplified by the use of my JOINTMASTER, horizontal, x-y-z router machine and a sliding compound miter saw. One tenon cut was made by hand with a dovetail saw. Mortise slots were squared up with a mortise chisel.

Three spacers were used to hold the marble slab above the table aprons. These were secured to the front and back aprons with a “blind” sliding dovetail joint.

Finish

Glue up was accomplished in two phases: first, two end assemblies: (legs, apron and stretcher) and second, table assembly (end assemblies, front and back aprons and lower stretcher.) Right angle, (K-body type) clamps were used to avoid any rotation of the legs under clamp pressure. The three spacers were inserted last.

The “ebonized” finish was achieved using a water-soluble black aniline dye. Water-soluble dyes will “raise the grain” when applied to a raw wood surface. To minimize this problem the assembled and final-sanded table was dampened with a water application, allowed to dry and sanded smooth with 320-grit paper before the dye was applied.

A foam brush applicator was used to apply the dye solution. A full coating was applied being careful to avoid edge runs and overlaps. When dry the coating appeared to be fairly uniform. However, once a couple of coats of shellac were applied, significant areas of uneven dye coverage were revealed. The problem now was how to eliminate these and obtain a uniform black coverage.

The solution turned out to be quite simple. Alcohol soluble black aniline dye was added to the final shellac coatings that were brushed on the table. The dye was dissolved in alcohol and that was used to dilute the shellac stock-solution. The result was a uniform black ebonized finish over the table. The cured shellac finish was rubbed out with paste wax and 0000 steel wool. (see photo of table in position with marble slab in place)

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