(upbeat music) - Have you ever seen a 300 year old table?

You have now, you're looking at it.

It's a cricket table from Great Britain, and it's a classic.

So, that's what we're going to make today on The American Woodshop, so stick around.

- [Announcer] The American Woodshop with Scott Phillips is brought to you by: - [Narrator] Woodcraft since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

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Projects, plans and web links designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish Silicon Steel Bandsaw Blades, and super sharp Scroll Saw Blades.

A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- You're looking at a rarity.

This is a 300-year-old table plus, that I found at Patriot Antique Shop, Tipp City, Ohio.

Had to have it, thank you ladies.

They talked me into it.

I fell in love with them and this.

And if you look at it, the construction's based upon a triangle, equilateral triangle.

And then the legs are out of this world easy to do, if you know the trick, which I'm gonna show you.

And look at the grain on the top.

It runs at 90 degrees to the grain on the triangle shelf.

Now, the circle top, it'd be criminal to use something new.

So I always recycled furniture and I saw this in a burn pile and man, imagine my surprise, I roughed out a circle and this is what I ended up with.

It's wormy chestnut.

Now, granted, this table is English Yew, all the way from Jolly Old England, Bob's your uncle.

But with this one, what we're going to do is use a circle-cutting jig to see how the top shapes up.

So, I'm so excited because it's rare to find chestnut like this.

Now, we're going to use a circle-cutting jig, work safely, read, understand and follow all the instructions that come with the tools and products you use in your wood shop.

Now, (machine starts) we're going to cut this to the finished 26 and a quarter inch diameter, to match the table.

And this is the piece of plywood, three quarter inch with a pivot right on center.

And look at that.

Just had enough to get the job done.

I rough cut that earlier.

So now, voila, we're done.

Back to the beginning, perfect circle every time.

Let me hit the brake on that, and let's lift this off so you can see how the jig works.

You have to have a pivot point right on center.

And that's what this drill bit is.

I just drilled it all the way through the radius that I wanted for the circle.

And you have to keep this edge square to the square of the table.

And the point right here, that it pivots on has to be right in the center of the gullet to cut perfect circles.

Now, I'm going to do a bit of sanding on this, and then I'll show you how to do a resin pour.

So we'll get a smooth surface into those cavities.

So, silicone pad down when I sand, won't damage anything, ambient air cleaner's on, this is on dust collection.

I'm working with 100, 150, and 220 on this, working with the grain, even though it's random orbital, I did split this in half and planed it down.

That's why I'm going to sand this, get it perfect.

Dust mask on.

On dust collector.

So, I'll sand this down, thoroughly, and then tack it off, and show you how to do a resin cast top.

When it comes to finishing, a lot of people like to use epoxies now, and I'm just bringing this up to the 2 to 1 mix ratio, two parts of "A" and one part of "B", which is the hardener, and I know right on this mix bucket where that will be.

And it's very important to read the directions on this.

I'm right there, right now and the mix is correct.

Set this aside.

No solvents in this, which is great, but I'm always working when I'm finishing in a very well ventilated area.

Let me set this up safely.

And now what I have to do, gently mix this.

And I don't want to really bring up a lot of material on the sidewalls, because that can change the mixing dimensions.

And you don't want to do this vigorously because you'll get a lot of air bubbles in there.

There's a chemical reaction going on right now, which is what makes this harden.

Part A and B go together.

And if you stir it too much, you get air bubbles.

So, now the other things is, what I'm looking for is a color change, when it starts to go cloudy and it's not there yet.

So while that's working, Chemistry, isn't it crazy?

What I'm going to do is show you my favorite way to seal off the top.

I'm using packing tape, good stuff.

And I go around this a bunch, and I made sure I tacked this off thoroughly, so that this is clean, very clean.

The reason I'm doing this so much is when I've done pours in the past, it escaped the barrier.

I don't want it to escape the barrier.

Okay, so that looks really good.

That's half a dozen times around and even underneath.

And I'm not worried about the edge and the crinkles here because that's all going to get sanded.

So now, when we do the pour of this resin, its been tacked thoroughly.

That looks good.

And... We're going to brush this out.

I'm going to get all this out.

And I want to do this quickly because this will take some time to cure.

That's enough to do this entire job right now, get the extra out.

I had a good measure on this.

I know just how much to use, because I've done this before, and you want to really brush out quickly, so you don't get stains in the wood that discolor it.

That will even out very nicely, it already is.

So, I'm working from the center out to the edges.

That way I'm going to get a uniform coat.

And while this is curing out, once I get this brushed out, we're going to go work on the legs, cause that's the next part of this project.

So just get this brushed out and off we go.

Now, the key to this project is the legs and that's at 8 degrees right there and there.

A good angle gauge helps a lot to get those dimensions from the original.

Now, look at the end.

That's called a rhombus, the end of the leg.

And it all starts by first making two edges of a white oak, three leg work pieces, square to each other, that's what a jointer does.

So, I'm going to use the jointer now to square up two edges, two and three quarters by two and a half, that's key.

So to do that, I'm selecting the straightest edge first.

That looks good right there and I'll joint it using this mega jig right here that Larry Szymanski, a retired shop teacher made for me, this is fantastic.

Let's make those cuts.

(machine whirring) At the bandsaw, I've tilted the table and locked it, So it's at 30 degrees, that's the key.

That's the one setting.

And then the rip fence here on the bandsaw is adjusted from the blade to the edge of the fence, on the table, it's and inch and a half.

Now, I take the square now and I rotate it, so I have two square edges against the fence.

Two and three quarter dimension here is up, turn this on.

Get the dust collection on.

And I make the first cut, running the whole length of this, keeping it against the table and down to the fence.

This is a three quarter inch blade.

[Bandsaw whirring] You'll see how this works in just a second.

This makes the rhombus.

[Bandsaw whirring] Again, this is white oak.

[Bandsaw whirring] Now, we're finishing the first cut, turn it off, hit the brake, that's good, let it stop.

Now, look what we've got.

Take that away.

And I rotate this work piece, 90 degrees.

And now, if you can look on the end, you can see that gives us a perfect rhombus shape.

I'll make that cut.

And then, I'll take it to the jointer and joint the edges that were cut smooth.

And it's over to cut dominoes.

[Bandsaw whirring] I'm using the domino cutter, and I'm going to swing the fence all the way up.

So it's flush, and I have my leg work piece now, clamped down to the bench and I line it up on my witness marks and I make a cut, by holding the domino cutter straight down.

And that's how all dominoes are made.

I just swung it around, made the other cut, made those up at the top, for the top apron so that we could do this leg assembly.

Okay.

Now, what we have to do is go over to the miter saw, to make these compound cuts and also cut the apron work piece and the stretcher here.

So, let's head there.

[Miter saw whirring] All the aprons and stretchers are cut at eight degrees, left and right.

That's easy enough.

You can check it with a bevel gauge and that's perfect.

No daylight.

But now, what I'm going to do is adjust this bevel, to four degrees, lock it in, just like that.

So I'm doing, what's called a compound cut.

And the reason I'm doing that compound cut for the dimensions of this leg is when it stands flat, it rakes and splays.

That's easiest way to do it.

Now, before I finish this cut on the longer work piece, I bring up a finished leg.

Certainly don't turn it on.

I bring up a stop, and that's 30 inches long right there.

And this is exactly how I cut the compound cuts.

The long point, the 60 degree point has to go out.

Now, watch this.

[Miter saw whirring] That's the first cut.

And I bring it down to the stop.

This is the second cut.

[Miter saw whirring] Let it stop.

And that right there is how the legs are cut.

And the aprons are cut.

Now, back to make some more domino cuts [Domino cutter whirring] All right, now with these dominoes, the loose tenon joints.

These are 50 millimeters long, 10 millimeters thick.

And I did the same thing on the lower aprons, that is planed with a hand plane to an eight degree angle.

You'll see why in a bit, it goes into the mating domino hole here.

And the key is right there to there that's 120 degrees complex geometry that comes to a 60 degree point here.

Thus, the rhombus.

The key, why this doesn't have to be a compound cut of this stretcher, is because this surface right here that goes into the leg, right like that is square to the outside 60 degree point.

That's how this whole assembly comes together.

So, that's the lower apron.

This is the upper apron, slide that in, and now it's time to go put all the pieces together and glue it up.

Before we do the glue up, you need to look at something.

The top is joined to this bottom support here, and that's notched into the apron here and on the other side, and I have that laid out and I have marks on my apron work pieces.

I used the razor saw to cut that down to my layout line, which is three quarters of an inch down.

And then, I can bring up this work piece and to the layout line, like so.

Lock this in and then bring up my chisel and chisel this away.

Just put that edge right on my layout line.

And I walk it down.

I wanna stop it on each end first.

And, just a series of cuts like this and in no time that will pop out a little bit of hand work.

And then we can do the glue up.

It's all about the angles and putting the parts together the right way.

Now, this is the notched out area that the cleat for the top is going to go into, and it's all lined up the right way.

So this is A down.

And what does that mean?

That means I'm going to swing this around ever so carefully and do the dry fit and make sure that everything lines up the right way.

This is an equilateral triangle, and there are a total of 18 dominoes, six per side.

And so I'll dry fit that first, getting all the parts lined up the right way.

And then from there, I'll brush out a really good water-based aliphatic resin glue into the cavity, the mortise, the loose mortise, as it's called.

It's for the tenon, which is called the domino, that slides in.

And as soon as that domino hits that water-based glue.

It expands ever so slightly.

And that helps to lock that in.

So, I brush out every single domino hole and I don't really put any glue on the dominoes themselves because it would just come right off as soon as you'd press it into these tight domino holes, the mortises.

So, I line that all up, and then, I set it on the ground and I use two web clamps.

One's metal banded, that has more holding power.

And I draw the bigger, low end of this together at the triangle form.

And then I can put a web clamp on top and draw all those joints tight and we'll let that cure.

This is a big glue up.

And by the time I got to that 18th domino, it had seized.

So I had to use that persuader right there, a clamp, but that is nice and tight, which means the geometry all worked out.

And then, here's this cleat, which off of the bottom of this piece right here, screws only go in the center, six inches to support it.

Because look at that, that's a cross grain, chestnut top.

So, I want it to be able to expand and contract.

And of course this should fit right in there, like a glove.

How about that?

So, this gets screwed here, because it's long grain, it won't expand and contract then re-screwed here.

And that's how you join the top.

Now, last week while this is curing out, I wouldn't dare touch it.

We cut down a corkscrew willow, time to see how this mills out.

And then we'll come back and sand and finish this.

[Saw milling] In 1978, I went to forestry school.

I'm working with my good friend, Dave Moser.

He's got a bandmill and we have this corkscrew willow that we harvested at our house last week.

Dave's going to be on in just a second, but we're trimming this off, because this Wood-Mizer D24 needs a little bit of extra clearance, more on that with Dave in a second, I'll get this trimmed up and we'll be solid.

[Chainsaw whirring] [Bandmill whirring] In this neck of the woods, you're looking at a legend, Dave Moser, and the reason Dave, you're my hero.

The reason for that, he's saving more trees than anybody else in Miami County.

And this is with Urban Timber Mill, - Urban Timber Mill.

- And look at this, we planted this tree 15 years ago.

- I know, Suzy was getting a little teary-eyed when you were cutting it down.

- Yeah, but it couldn't go on the house with that lightning strike-- - I know.

- But you have a thing about ugly logs.

- Well, I've always said that the best looking lumber comes out of the ugliest looking logs.

And I think we've proven that today.

- Well, and look at this.

When you price live ed slabs, look at that.

We're going to finish this down and it's gonna become a display table, all sorts of character in here.

Now, give us some pointers.

I'm paying Dave to mill this, but you will take this to a site within travel distance.

- I will travel.

I usually, I've gone as far as 80 miles.

- And we're in Troy, Ohio.

- So I usually cover most of Dayton, North Cincinnati, and I've gone close to Columbus before.

- So on the stump, this was 38 inches.

So you had to use some chainsaws.

- The limit of the mill is 36 inches.

- Okay.

- Now this was 38, but it was kind of an odd 38.

So with a little trimming, it wasn't too bad.

- Are you calling my trees odd?

- No, not at all.

- Well, we'll let you get back to it.

This is exciting.

Okay, so this will be a live edge display table, and we'll just have to get you to kiln it for us.

- No problem, I can do that.

- Okay, thank you, Dave.

This is awesome.

Here back at the Woodshop it's payday, which means everything's been sanded to perfection and I'm popping the shelves in that were cut out on the band saw.

And viola, look at this, this is spectacular.

I'm loving it.

Grain running this way on the top.

That way on the base.

I liked the accent of mahogany there.

This is a 100% recycled.

Now, you have choices in life.

Is it interior or exterior?

If it's exterior, we would use Exterior 450, but for interior, I like Arm-R-Seal and it's been tacked thoroughly, sanded thoroughly, and right there, Bam!

That accent stripe of that chestnut mahogany with a quarter sawn white oak with that beautiful American chestnut top.

You just can't beat that.

So I'll get this brushed out.

We'll take a look at the finished project.

Well, there it is.

Look at that beautiful chestnut top.

And when you rotate this table around every side has a different story to tell.

And it all started with this cricket table, that goes back centuries.

Mine's a little bit taller.

Of course, all American woods.

This is English yew, it has some powderpost beetle damage on it, but that just goes with the territory.

Treat it with Shell Guard.

Well, that's it for this week.

I think Suzy is really gonna like this.

We'll get three more coats on this and it will be ready to head home.

Well go have some fun in your wood shop and make beautiful things and don't buy anything for anyone.

Make it!

See ya.

- [Narrator] Woodcraft, since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

[Classical music] [Upbeat music] - [Narrator] Pro tools for tool pros.

[Upbeat music] RIKON tools.

- Woodcraft magazine projects, plans, and web links designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood, home of Timberwolf Swedish Silicon Steel Band Saw Blades.

And super sharp scroll saw blades.

A bed to sleep on.

A table to share meals.

A house that feels like a home, the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information on tips behind the American Woodshop and watch free episodes 24/7, check us out online and like us on Facebook.

(upbeat music)