Table Saw, Jig Saw and Miter Saw -- Nested Tables 7

Today was all about finishing off the bulk ripping and cross cutting. You can see first I had to cut some shorts off of a very large piece of Mahogany. This piece is huge. It's about 12" by 7/8ths by about 9 ft. long. This is very awkward to crosscut with a table saw. I always get out my jig saw in cases like this. You can see the table saw is very useful as a workbench, if nothing else.

The small stiles that are the indicative feature that makes the project look like craftsman style all come from my horde of 1/2 by 3/4" rippings. You can see why I have to include this design element into the piece. I have tons of this stuff to get rid of.


Now a bunch of careful crosscutting with my antique Langdon Miter saw and it's all coming together. This thing rates high on the gizmosity scale and it actually works very well.



And here's the final results: All of the bulk ripping of the linear pieces. Note: It is essential to keep all the pieces organized. With all the bulk pieces for three tables at once, it's easy to get them intermingled. Now it's time for jointing the tops. That's tomorrow's chore.

Woodworking Plans and CAD -- Nesting Tables 6

Today was spent getting my Woodworking Plans finalized with ViaCAD. I have to say, the learning curve has been steep, but I'm gradually getting the hang of ViaCAD. Switching from AutoCAD has not been easy. All of the commands are in different locations and there is just a huge difference in the software design approach. I can't say yet whether ViaCAD is less good than AutoCAD or what. I'm still struggling to remember where all the commands are located.

ViaCAD has some good points. 1) I have it. 2) It was cheap. 3) It does the job, and 4) It has full 3-D rendering capability, which I can't do yet.

Here is the front view of my nesting table design. It fits several criteria: 1) It efficiently uses the Mahogany shorts that I want to use up, 2) I can build it with my current tooling and skills and 3) My customer seems to like it.



Also on today's task list is finishing the prototype nesting tables that I built from scraps. I'm going to stain them, distress them and finish them with semi-gloss urethane. My distressing technique will be to roll a chunk of concrete over the surfaces, sand down the corners slightly and spritz some droplets of black spray paint over the top. This system of furniture distressing has worked well on other projects, so I have every reason to believe it will work out well here. I'll show Pics when they are done.