Monthly Archives: April 2015

I worked yesterday on the Blacker table, and got the joinery on the base sorted out.  Today I’ll start making the templates for adding in the cloud lifts and leg indents.  As I work through each part of the table I’m updating my plans to correct any errors and add in missing dimensions or additional views that would be useful.

Since I haven’t finished the table I’d bet these aren’t the final plans, but I thought I’d share them anyway in case anyone wants to build this table.  The only missing information I’m aware of at this point is that I need to re-design the inlay pattern for the table top.  I don’t have a great picture of the design on the original, so I may have to wing it.  These are certainly complete enough for any woodworker to build from.  If you do build it, please send me pictures, I’d love to see how yours comes out!

Blacker House Serving Table Plans

I’m working my way through the mechanics of fitting the joinery for the table.  It’s nice to be able to get into the rhythm of a familiar process.  So far, no major screw ups.

Mortises all cut, this shows the staggered layout pretty well.

I started the skirts and stretchers with a nice wide piece of 4/4 rough sawn Sapele.  My thought was to cut each skirt and stretcher from the same length of stock, so the grain match was consistent.  I’ve done that, but in the end this quartersawn Sapele is so uniform that it doesn’t make any difference.  I find it interesting to start with a big stick like this…

12.5″ wide 4/4 QS Sapele board I’m using for the skirts and stretchers.

…and break it down into accurately machined parts like this.  There was one section of the board that had a chunk out of the surface, which I was careful to avoid, so I had just the right amount of stock,  Since I have a small shop space, it also feels good to be using up material I have on hand, to free up that space.

Skirt and stretcher blanks milled up and ready to have tenons cut.

Next up, the tenon get roughed in.  Again, fairly mechanical work.  My goal was to make tenons slightly over-thick so I can plane each one to fit exactly into a mortise.  I really had to pay attention to make sure I cut the staggers correctly and kept the stretchers matched with their adjacent skirts.

One skirt and stretcher pair

I have half of the joints fit, and am on my way out to the shop once I have some coffee and run my Saturday errands.  The next step will be to cut the cloud lifts into the skirts and stretchers as I move from doing joinery to working on details.

First skirt and stretcher assembly done. It looks a little weird without the shaping done on the cloud lifts.  I have a nice tight fit at the shoulders, which is what matters most for me.

Half way there fitting the skirts and stretchers.

For the moment I’m resisting the temptation to start another project, like the Frank Lloyd Wright lamps, so I can focus on this one.  But I noticed some Claro Walnut shorts calling my name in the corner of the shop yesterday.

I came across an image of this table on the web a while back, and I knew it had to go on my list of projects.  I blogged in the past about going through the process to model it in CAD, and I think I got pretty close.  I made one change intentionally, adding the leg indent that was found on other pieces in the Blacker house.

Blacker House Serving Table

There will be several challenges in building this table, and I’ve already tripped over the first one.

I started by milling six legs out of 8/4 full-sawn Sapele.  Rough cut, this is about 2.125″ thick, I machined it down to slightly over the 1.875″ I called out in my model so I had stock for smoothing.  I had really bad tear out with this stock, so I’ll probably have to scrape and then sand through several grits to get this smooth.  On the other hand, all of the grain reversals should make it pretty.

Rough Stock

I rough cut the stock into six 2.125″ square blanks, slightly overlong, and mocked them up with a bit of scrap to simulate the proportions of the table.  It’s too early to have a clear picture from the mock up, but al least it looks reasonable so far.

Everything has to start somewhere…

Then I milled everything to size and started laying out the ebony plug locations, and mortises.  I mentioned that there are several likely problem spots, the first is the mortises.  The layout is fairly complex, there is a wide stub tenon, and two full tenons on each skirt end.  The tenons on the sides bypass the tenons on the front and back, and there is a 1/2″ of solid material in the leg between the two adjacent mortises for strength.  That is, none of the mortices holes intersect.

I went over my CAD model, and laid out the mortises carefully, both the shallow mortise for the stub, the deeper sections for the full tenons and the mortises for the stretchers.  Then I immediately proceeded to cut one of the mortises in the wrong place.  Crud.  That sort of thing really takes the wind out of my sails.  I guess this is why I cut six legs.  I also put a ding in one of the other legs, but I think I can repair it, it should be all but invisible.  Greg Merritt has been using a Japanese ink pot to mark in where the waste is, that seems like an awfully good ides right now…

Dimensioned legs, starting to mortise for joinery and ebony pegs.  The blue tape is something new, to help me keep my orientation.

I’ll add a couple pictures of the first completed mortise, I think you’ll see what I mean about the layout in the pictures.  If the layout anywhere on the four legs is wrong the table won’t go together.

Mortise for the  left and right side skirts

Mortise for the front and back skirts

Once I make it past the mortises I’ll rough in the skirts.  The most scary part of the project is the silver and abalone inlay in the legs and top.  I won’t do that until late in the project, and if it goes badly it will be kind of a problem.  I’ll do a practice run on my scrap leg as a confidence builder.  One step at a time I guess.