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| by:
John Sillaots
photos: Dave Starrett
illustrations: Len Churchill |
STANDING OVATION |
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Kerf-bent
skirts and a shapely template make this table project an exercise
in efficiency |
At first glance, oval tables look pretty simple. But it’s only
when you start building that you realize there’s more involved
than meets the eye. Laying out and preparing the top and the
curved skirts smoothly, for instance, can make you scratch your
head. And fastening the skirts to the legs isn’t the same as
on a regular table. But since I’ve already figured out all the
hard stuff, your work will be easier and more fun.
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| Make the Tabletop |
Begin
by edge-gluing enough 3/4"-thick stock to form the 20" x 26"
tabletop blank. Got a thickness planer? You’ll find lamination
easier if you edge-glue pieces of wood up to 12" wide (or whatever
your machine will take), then run these through the planer to
clean up the dried glue joints before completing the final lamination.
This way you’ll only have one central joint to sand smooth.
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| Understated
elegance: the table’s classic oval shape and tapered
legs give it a low-key appearance that helps it
fit in with other styles of furniture |
|
You could draw the oval tabletop outline directly onto the wood
you’ve just prepared, but there’s a better way. Even if you’re
only planning to make one table, I recommend you draw and cut
out a template that you can use to quickly reproduce the oval
shape later. You’ll probably get requests to make at least one
more table, and a template will save time and fuss. You can
also use the template to finish off the edges of the tabletop
with a router. More on this later.
I used a piece of 1/2" x 20"
x 26" plywood for my template (MDF or particleboard works well,
too). Whatever you use, divide your wood in half both ways,
with pencil lines, to find the center of the template stock.
Next, measure and mark two points along the longer axis, each
one 7 1/2" out from the centre point, then drive 2"-long screws
in each. These will form the focal points around which your
oval will be drawn.
Next, mark the width and length
of the oval on your template, in this case 19" x 24". It’s now
time for some string. Choose a piece that isn’t stretchy, and
tie it together to form a loop that extends from one screw,
over the other, and up to the opposite 24" point on your template.
By putting a pencil into this loop, then tracing around the
two screws (while keeping the string taut) you’ll get an ellipse,
just as they taught you in grade 12 geometry class. Just be
sure to keep the pencil straight up and down for accurate results.
When you’re done, cut around the outside of the outline with
a bandsaw or hand-held jigsaw, then sand the template edges
back to the layout line.
It’s now time to cut out the
tabletop. Begin by sawing your tabletop blank about 1/16" beyond
the waste side of the oval layout line, then tack the plywood
tracing template to what will become the underside of the tabletop
using four finishing nails. Adjust the height of the flush trimming
bit in your table-mounted router so it rides only on the edge
of the upward-facing template, as shown in the plans, then run
the workpiece across the spinning tool. |
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| Hand-painted
details, added before the final finish, give the table
an extra dash of style |
The
table’s small size makes it well suited for pocket screws,
but biscuits could also be used as an alternative |
The
challenging curves of the skirt required the pine veneered
plywood to be kerf-bent into shape on an MDF form |
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| Curves and Skirts |
One of the challenges of any oval table is making curved skirts
that follow the shape of the top. The classic approach is to
cut the skirt parts from solid wood, steam them for about an
hour, then clamp them into a shop-built bending form. It takes
a week or two for the skirts to be dry enough to use. Another
approach, the one I used, relies on kerf-bent pieces of 3/16"
pine-veneered plywood, glued and clamped together within a bending
form created by gluing together enough layers of MDF to get
a 4" x 6" x 10" block. The inside and outside edges of the skirt
profiles are drawn onto this block using the edge of the tabletop
template as a guide. Just draw a line 1 1/2" from the edge of
the tabletop onto a piece of tracing paper, then transfer this
shape to your MDF. A bandsaw is ideal for cutting the MDF block
to form the inside and outside curves that you’ll need. The
trough-shaped half can be screwed to a 3/4" x 10" x 10" piece
of melamine (the factory finish resists glue), while the crowned
MDF is left free to be clamped to it during use. Lining the
working edges of the gluing forms with masking tape stops stray
glue from sticking.
When it comes time to cut kerfs
into the plywood strips, use a tablesaw set to cut halfway through
the thickness of the wood. Orient the outermost three of four
strips with their kerfs facing in, towards the centre of the
table. The innermost plywood layer should have its kerfs facing
outward, so they’re concealed within the completed skirts. Expect
to see some glue squeeze-out and misalignment of the skirt edges
when they come out of the form. That’s normal, and it’s why
the skirts are made over-width to begin with. Even though these
parts are curved (and made of plywood), their edges can still
be trued with a jointer or sharp hand plane, then trimmed to
final width on a tablesaw.
When the skirts are done, lay
them on the skirt outlines drawn on the tabletop template. These
show where the skirts need to be trimmed before fastening them
to the legs. Cut the skirts, then set them aside for now.
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| Tapering the Legs, Adding Skirts
and Finishing |
The
tapered shape of the legs makes the table look more graceful,
so it’s important that you don’t skip this detail. The taper
starts 4" down from the top of each leg, widening to remove
3/8" of wood at the foot end. You could build a tablesaw tapering
jig to do this for you. Or rough-cut the taper along layout
lines with a bandsaw, then plane each face smooth. A jointer
can also be used to do the entire job if you’re handy. Any way
you do it, the tapered leg faces need to be even and smooth,
with slightly eased corners.
Since this table is small, I joined each leg and skirt joint
with a #8 x 1/4" pocket screw. A pair of #20 biscuits would
work well too. Pine has a tendency to absorb stain unevenly,
making the surface blotchy. To smooth the final colour of my
table I applied Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner, followed
by Minwax penetrating stain in Golden Oak shade. My wife Sandy
added a touch of decorative paint, before protecting the entire
project under three coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly, sanding very
lightly with 240-grit paper between coats. |
| You
Will Need |
| Part |
Size |
Qty. |
| Top |
3/4"
x 20" x 26" |
1 |
| Plywood
skirt laminations |
3/16"
x 4" x 16" |
16 |
| Legs |
1
3/4" x 1 3/4" x 21 1/4" |
4 |
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