so the excuses are over, well almost
latest update. and maybe a discussion about why and how and even where.
most of us on this board are amateurs so we look at things in a different light from you pros. in addition, generally the jobs are not too time sensitive. but this table has i think extended the credibility even there
lets look at it from the start. i needed to think about a use for this odd shaped but nice and thick lump of oak my late father had acquired between 30 and 40 years ago. i was offered a sofa, ( which i now have not got, ah the problems with relatives)
so thought it might make a decent top for that. i decided to leave it as it was in terms of shape and thickness. you will i think have seen the oddness earlier.
during the last couple of years i have tended to buy a fair amount of "offies" from a couple of wood yards, plus at the wood thingie at bentley priory a couple of years ago, i bought some lime and some walnut.
so i had the basis, and decided to kind of enhance the shape of the top, by using somewhat imperfect wood for the frame.
by this i mean that i built some knots and flaws into the design, which i did not draw, nor use a story stick
so when you look carefully you can see that the end panels which float seem to enhance the strange patterns in the lime, whilst a couple of the long rails have prominent knots visible.
so with recent experience being making a bunch of veneered mdf bookcases, and a built in computer unit with bookshelves, and a couple of computer stands for the cpu and printer, i decided to take a big step.
mainly hand tools, and "proper" joints.
the ends were going to be frame and panel, with mortice and tenon joints. connected together by cross rails also with m/t's
there were going to be two shelves, and these were 12mm veneered mdf (some of the stuff i had salvaged from jason ages ago.) they would go into grooves. the first ones of which i put in with my stanley plough, but then discovered i needed a different type to put the floating panel stopped grooves in, so i used my cheap and cheerful ryobi and its table. the problem is that someone designed the table top as a decent ally casting, then did not think through the rest of the design
so the legs are pressed steel, and the switches are a real bodge, and as for the extraction, well a couple of weeks later the dust still comes off the machine when you have not used it. as for the fence, although well designed, the hold downs and the path to keep it square and level are useless.
however i got the various shelf grooves sorted, and the stopped ones for the floating panels.
as a result of using the table, i was incentivised to install the woodrat permanently on the wall, and build a cabinet underneath it to allow for proper extraction at some time in the future, plus provide places for various tools and maybe my clamps.
in this way i was able to also put the mouldings on for the shelf supports.
having hand sized the legs, and the rails, plus the lime end panels, which colin had kindly band sawed thinner for me, i then cut the mortices and cut the end panel tenons by using my rather neat LV shoulder plane. I really like that plane
i did not want the floating panels to have round intersections at the end of the tenons, but to be as square as possible. remembered to cut the end grain first to ensure that the break out was minimal.
i then cut the stopped mortices in each leg by hand. i did not use the proper stance to do this, because of the lighting in my workshop, so they were not as perfect as i had hoped. the tenons i cut on the table saw, mainly cause i am still not as good at cutting square by hand as i would like to be.
we had a discussion before about joint marking, but it is difficult to keep them all in the right places, however i finally made it.
the tenons were finally adjusted with chisels. but to ensure that the final result looked ok, i decided to chamfer each rail to provide a shadow line which diverts the attention from any perceived flaws.
i glued up the end frames, using some foam as an insert to ensure that the panels floated but were kept central.
i finally succumbed, and asked for help from colin c again, and he came and helped me glue the end panels and the long rails and the shelves together. i have shown that earlier in this thread.
once glued and dry, i then began to sort the moudlings which i put on the top of the shelves, but glued to the cross and long rails rather than the shelf, which although mdf, might well be affected by movement in the surrounding wood. i coped the corner joints, but cheated somewhat by using a sanding bobbin in my dremel to make the coping easier. i could have used saws etc, but at this time, my hands are a little wierd and sometimes i cannot hold things for long enough to do the detail work, so
i had cut the tenons on the top of the legs after i had tapered them on the table saw. made a couple of mistakes in placement, but not sure you can now see them unless you know where to look.
so the next stage was to cut the through mortices in the top.
but first that needed flattening. since i did not want to re arrange the shape of the top, i decided again with colin c's help to relieve cut the underneath, and insert wedges. i cut strips from a new piece of oak, and planed them to fit the slots.
colin had used his circular saw and ez guide rail system to cut the slots, and it worked well. a useful tip was one colin had been given by dino, which was to put a piece of clear packaging plastic
over the saw blade arbour, and extending to the front of the saw. this certainly helps channel a lot more dust back up to the extraction point using the revolving of the blade. given how much dust generally comes off the front of a circular saw, very useful and interesting.
the inserts were tapered, glued and hammered in to the underside, i clamped them and then left overnight. sadly it was not as flat as i would have liked, but a lick over with my ln 64 bu got rid of the bowing and any more twist.
what i should have done now was make a pattern of the tenon layout and the top of the legs of the underframe, but i did not
so because the top is irregular, i placed the underframe on the underneath, and centralised it. on colin's advice, i drew a centre line between the ends. i did this by measuring the width at each end, and halving that. i then used my straight edge guide to draw a number of lines out to the widths i wanted.
next placed the underframe on the bottom of the top, and marked round the tenons. i then drew diagonals through these marks, and drilled through the top, only to discover that i had been not quite as square and accurate as i had hoped.
chiselling the mortices to fit the tenons was a brown trouser moment
, and of course i messed up.
partially my fault, and partially due to the age of the oak, it was somewhat fragile. i should have put one of those cutting mats underneath, but
, so i got a fair amount of break out at the bottom. what that also meant though was that i ended up with some of the mortices larger than the corresponding tenons.
another discussion with colin
and we decided i should make collars using some walnut to give a contrast, and make it look like i had designed it in that way all along
again colin helped, by providing some bandsawn walnut strips, and then coming over and showing me how to mark them out, cut and fit them. this involved turning the top upside down, then placing the frame on it in the correct place, and then turning the right way up. at this point we were happy that i had made the leg tenons quite a lot overlength. we then centered the legs inside, and placed the strips along side the tenonsand marked with pencil. then colin made a quick and dirty cutting box for the corners, 45 degrees. how he does it by eye i do not know, experience i guess.
so eventually i cut and planed to precision but slightly undercut, 12 of the 16 collar pieces, colin had done the other 4.
then i glued them in, using the quick uhu bought from lidl recently. sadly the next day, i discovered that the old oak top had sucked up a bunch of the glue, and a couple of pieces had not stuck. should have blocked them in, which i then did.
finally i had to relieve the collar pieces to allow the tenons to slide in easily, but not too tightly. this i did with a metal working file. really easy to work on the walnut with. took a bloody long time though, and spent a lot of time knocking the two parts apart. had made the collars taller than the top, and cut them back using an lv dowel saw then planed with the ln low angle block plane finished that on friday night.
i had during cutting the leg tenons, goofed and cut an excess slot, i had thought to put some walnut crosses alongside the wedges. however i had knocked off one corner when i had shortened the legs above the table top, so i then thought about a restorers repair. think i have done very well to match the grain, but then it is only such a small size.
yesterday, i spent a fair amount of time filling the break out on the underneath, unfortunately only had white filler
so when it was dry and flat, i then painted over it with acrylic paints which i had mixed to an almost oak colour. ( fortunately being the underneath not too many people will see it)
i also then waxed the underframe totally. i then got very brave and cut the wedging slots across the top of the four legs, and then spent a fair amount of time planing a strip of walnut to give me the wedge shapes.
this morning between bouts of watching the moto gp in spain, i sanded the bottom of the top and top, and varnished the bottom , next will varnish the top itself, and once that is dry assemble to top to the underframe.
i also used the mop with my ros to buff up the wax on the underframe. very nice and easy.
will have some pictures of the assembly tomorrow, when i will still need a little fettling to be complete, but
so what is the main lesson???
because of a number of considerations, we amateurs tend to take a long time doing things, and thus are perhaps over critical of our own work. due to lack of experience we do not use perfectly legitimate and useful shortcuts. often because we do not know about them. we can also convince ourselves that using hand tools for everything makes us a better woodworker, whereas in fact we need to learn the art of compromise between expediency and practicality.
jacob is right you could make anything by hand, but only if you have the time and a basic level of experience that enables you to be confident of your ablilty to over come the problems. however few of us older amateurs have the time to learn these things.
this forum allows us to ask the pros and learn from others experience.
would i have taken this job on, knowing what i know now, well probably not, since this is the first time in ages i have basically made a completely solid wood construction with roper joints, i should have made it with a rectangular top, and without through tenons in the top. still you have to gamble don't you?
??
i have learnt to make quite decent m/t joints, groove properly, instal mouldings in a restricted space, and relieve flatten a large plank. i have also learnt not to be quite so critical of my own work, and how to cover up a number of my mistakes. i also have learnt how to understand how sharp my cutting tools are and when they are not quite right. i have also learnt that my chisels should be sharpened at 30 degrees not 25. i was right to buy the best tools that i could afford at the time, even though they did not necessarily have all the bells and whistles. as a re-learner, it is important to understand what good tools are so you can then refine your skills from a known basis point. no good putting yourself off because the tools are not quite right.
so my oft repeated comment still applies, extend yourself to learn new skills, and FINISH THE B****Y THING you will probably be surprised by how well it turns out, and more importantly, you will have a benchmark against which to judge future work.
thanks for helping me through the process to all of you
paul
oh the problems of leaving the metalwork tradition 
i did not want the floating panels to have round intersections at the end of the tenons, but to be as square as possible. remembered to cut the end grain first to ensure that the break out was minimal.
, so i got a fair amount of break out at the bottom. what that also meant though was that i ended up with some of the mortices larger than the corresponding tenons.
?? 
but not too much.