Ripping, Pocket Screws and CAD - Nested Tables 5

This weekend was occupied by a number of arcane tasks related to the nested tables project.

First, having previously planed the mahogany shorts that I wanted to use for table legs, it was a simple matter to run them through my tablesaw. The width of the shorts was just wide enough to make 4 legs each, so at the end of the process, I had all 12 legs.

Unfortunately, I realized that the material I had available for the longest legs was just about 1 1/2 inches too short. Not to worry, I will just have to modify the design slightly.

Fortunately, I was experimenting with the prototype tables. As I mentioned previously, the larger prototype table has no rail in the front and is therefore too flexible. I think I may have solved this problem with pocket screws. I've never used my new Kreg pocket screw kit until this afternoon, but it seems to have worked very well. The front legs of the table are much more stable.

The advantage to the no front rail system is that the stack up from one nested table to the next is much less, and thus I should be able to lower the height of my highest table enough to use the legs cut from the shorts, rather than cut up any of my longer pieces, which I want to save for other projects. For this to make any sense to you, the reader, you should take a look at the picture of the prototype tables.

Now, it's back to the CAD software to lay out the new design concept with the shorter legs. I'm using a CAD package called ViaCAD. I'm used to AutoCAD from work, but the ViaCAD got good reviews and it's not expensive. It's interface is very different from AutoCAD, so I'm still in my learning curve. I'll report back someday whether or not it's a good CAD package.

The other task was to apply a conditioner of dilute BLO on the prototypes. I decided they turned out so well I should stain and finish them. Since they are a mixture of scrap Ponderosa pine, white pine and SYP, they will probably take stain very inconsistently, so a coat of conditioner to prep them for staining seemed in order. We 'll see how it works out.