Shaker End Tables
Today I went down to Paxton Lumber to pick up some cherry to make a few end tables. I plan on selling these tables as pairs on Etsy in the coming weeks to see if I can drum up some extra sales. I bought 10 bt ft of 1 3/4" thick cherry to mill out the legs, 10 bd ft of curly cherry to use as the tops, 15 bt ft of regular cherry to mill out the sides and 8 bd ft of 1/2" soft maple to use for the drawers.
I started out milling the legs by ripping the 1 3/4" stock down to 1 1/2" square on the table saw. Then I finalized the cut with my Stanley No 8 jointer plane to achieve a smooth surface. Tomorrow I make a tapering jig so that I can taper two sides of each leg.
I took care to select the best grain for the top and front of the drawers. I want both to have striking grain to enhance the character of each table so I opted for curly cherry. I will apply four coats of a ploy tung oil finish that will pop out the grain when finished.
Cherry often has lighter colored sap wood on the sides of the board. I examined all the boards and cut off any sap wood and replaced it by gluing in heart wood in it's place. I spent about four hours milling up the wood for four tables and had a huge pile of wood shavings when I was down.
Tomorrow I'll taper the legs, plane the tops flat and start mortising the sides and legs for mortise and tenon joinery.