hey Cal did you have a design source for the carving on the legs?

The carving was inspired by a table now at Winterthur, I first saw it in the Downs book. But it is not a direct reproduction, there are some differences. You can check back on the first pages of the thread where I talk about how I came up with the specs for this table.

Thanks for commenting, Cal.

Believe it or not this table is getting close.

The table was glued up a few days ago, so the next step is to flush up the sides, work on the knee/rail transition, and to make the moldings. Both moldings are carved, so Saturday I went about working on the machining.

The table is pretty large, with a heavy top and overhang, so the carved egg-and-dart molding will be pretty large, around 1" x 1 -1/8" or so. The gadrooned molding at the bottom of the apron will be in the neighborhood of 7/8".

After milling the stock, I started with a 3/4" roundover bit. Because I have always disliked setups, jigs, etc. because I am lazy, I decided to hand hold the router and run the profile. Worked fine.

Then I mocked up the moldings to see if I liked how heavy they were. In this case I thought they looked good.

Next I will start to carve the gadrooning.

Gadrooning is one of those carved elements which doesn't seem too artistic, mostly a mechanical process.

Since I have never made any of this before, for reference I reviewed the section on gadrooning in Ron Clarkson's book "Making Classic Chairs". So it I got started on the layout.

I meant to take more photos, so sorry about that, but I only have a few.

Here is one of the rouged out moldings:

After this stage, a v-gouge re-establishes the lines, and the convex element is re-rounded down tot he bottom of the v groove. Here are the moldings carved:

And just to see what it looks like I temporarily stuck one of these in place:

Next I need to flush up the sides, scrape and sand, and permanently glue/screw the moldings. Although this type of molding is certainly a lot more trouble than a plain molding, it gives a nice connection to the carved knees on the otherwise plain apron. Thanks for looking, Cal.

Cal,

Can we expect to see a video on the Home and Gradooning Channel in the near future? This looks great and agree that it does link the curves of the legs with a refinement of the apron. Nice job

Rat.

Gadzooks! A Gradooning Galloot!

Molding looks great Cal!

SETBACK!

After mostly family time yesterday, I tried to sneak in a little time in the shop after replacing some weatherstripping and before taking the kids out for pizza to see some friends...Only had a spare 20 mins or so....

Well, I was cleaning up some dovetailed dados for the intermediate braces and had the table insufficiently clamped. Knew I should've added a clamp or changed my setup, but instead, I lazily put my hand behind the rail and kept working. Yep, you know it, chisel slipped, and 2 hrs later I was returning from the ER with 6 stitches in my left hand, between the thumb and index finger. Could have been a lot worse, I didn't hit anything important and this will heal in a few days.

SO....As I tell my kids NEVER put the hand in the way of a chisel. And take the time for a good setup. I am so guilty of this and have gotten away with this.

Look for an update in a few, I will probably take a couple of days off. Cal

Hope you heal quick, and thanks for the reminder. Even experts like you screw up so the rest of us scrubs are destined for some doozies!

Cal,

Sorry to hear about your mishap. It's a great reminder that we all need to exercise care when working in our shops. Hope you have a speedy recovery and a Happy Holiday.

Bruce.

So sorry to hear about your misfortune with the chisel.

I feel your pain. I was practicing carving a newport shell. Got in a battle with a #5 35mm gouge. took a chunk off my thumb. Literaly a chunk off my thumb, nothing to stitch back on. Made a trip to the ER to get some gel stuff on the cut to stop the bleeding.

Hope you get better. Be glad it was a chisel and not a table saw or a shaper.

Barry, did you just do this? Sorry about that. Hope you heal quickly my friend. As for me, it has been a really long time since I had a cut requiring stitches, and I got off easy. Yep, the tablesaw is nothing to joke about.

Hey, reminder that I will be in the area the first week of February, do you think you could come a couple counties West and check us out at my Dad's?

And thanks everyone for your good wishes. This ultimately will help me spend more time with Buffy and the kids over the next 2 weeks, which is a good thing. CH

Cal,
So sorry about your injury. I got my left thumb in the jointer and the right one in the shaper(had to have a skin graft on this one) about 18-20 years ago. I had done well(except for the usual nicks with bench chisels and carving tools) until last summer when I got the right thumb again, but in the table saw this time. I was so outdone with myself I didn't know what to do. It only takes a fraction of a second to mess up. Heal fast.

Kirk

Hope you heal quick Cal!

Been away a while but I see Cal is still churning out beautiful furniture.

Hope you heal up quick Cal and i'm still looking forward to seeing the slab table completed. It's been a great thread.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Kirk, I'm glad you have been able to keep working. The table saw always scares me - I take a few deep breaths with every operation and pray that I never get caught sleeping or in a freak accident. Thanks for the well wishes. About 6 weeks from starting the desks so I will be good to go by then. Have a great Christmas. Cal

Cody,

Good to hear from you, and thanks for the well wishes and Merry Christmas to you and your family. Catch us all up on what you have been working on when you get a chance. Cal

Just a thought for Kirk on his run ins with the jointer, shaper, and table saw. Please try to figure out what is going wrong. That is way too many serious accidents. You might want to consider doing a lot more with hand tools. I think one thing I see a lot of lately is guys only learn to use power tools and often use them on cuts that are way too small or way too awkward. Hand tools can save a lot of fingers. A chisel or gouge can cause stitches but the power tools you list will cause complete destruction.

I am not sure I could go back to power tools if I had all those run ins. I have always been pretty good at listening to that little voice we all have that tells us when we are close to getting in trouble.

Best wishes to all the wounded warriors,

Steven Naslund
Chicago IL

Welcome back to the never-ending table project.....

Started this thing and thread a long, long, time ago. Thanks to all who have stuck it out to this point.

Very little shop time (taking it slow anyway due to the stitches), but a couple of things have been accomplished.

I finished up the medial braces (this is the operation that I cut myself cutting out the dovetail slots). This is a simple operation that adds a ton of strength to the table. I angled them to strengthen the table from racking either direction, and carried them full width of the apron because the slab is really heavy. The dovetails carry down about 4". I wanted to leave a decent haunch toward the bottom of the front and side aprons to transfer the load across to the legs.

Next I pegged the tenons. Seems superfluous but I'm glad I took the 1/2 hour to do it. Looks so much better and more like a period piece, which I am after.

Then I set about flushing up the rails and leg posts, as well as attempt to clean up the transition from the knee to the post. This is trickly enough to get clean in a non-carved cabriole leg, here it was much more challenging. Using a few different straight chisels I got them to ok status. My Dad would never accept them this messy....oh well. Here I am happy that I planning to put a heavy glaze as advocated by Radioactive! Should help to disguise any inconsistencies.

Lessons learned:

- I would make sure that the leg was a little proud of the rail. I was a little opposite. This made the flushing much more difficult. Especially since the knee and the carving made it tough to get a handplane on the area. I used a shoulder plane to some effectiveness but hand to clean it up mostly with chisels and scrapers.

- And that the knee transition on the leg was made a touch higher than the bottom of the rail. I made mine roughly even and had no "meat" to work with, which made more work.

And finally, I was ready to attach the gadrooning to the aprons. I cleaned up the moldings lightly with sandpaper and glued them on. I took a lot of care to be consistent with how much of the molding protrudes from the rail. Looks pretty good and should look great with a glazed finish. I did have the heat in my garage while I was working but I brought it inside the house to dry (my wife "loves" when I do that)

A little bit of cleanup at the knee to molding transitions will be needed.

Now I can flush up the top and start working on the molding under the table overhang. That sound like not much until I realize it will be carved with "egg and dart" motif. My patience is wearing thin on this one......

Thanks for checking in on the project. Cal

Cal, way to go my man. That table is looking excellent! I was a little confused when I saw the angled supports, then I realized your putting granite on the top. You could probably put a Mack truck on that thing.


BTW, did you get the PM I sent you yesterday? I sent it to you and Chris Haycox (chaycox). It look like it never went out. Thanks.

Thanks Barry, I hope it is plenty strong. The stone is very heavy, not to mention any dishes that would be sat on top (thanksgiving turkey comes to mind).

Well, the stitches are out and despite the ridiculous cold weather in the midwest, I snuck a little time in the garage last night. I had a propane heater up pretty close and I toughed it out for a short time.

I am starting on the egg and dart ovolo or quarter-round molding under the top overhang. I made the molding with a router and it looks like this:

I then used mostly a shoulder plane to true up the shoulders and flatten any irregularities and remove power tool marks. I used a stanley no 80 scraper to clean up the small flats.

I then did some math and worked on the spacing. The front egg and dart needs to be symmetrical, and the same spacing will carry across the miters. The pictures I have of this treatment are pretty weak so I am winging the transition at the miters. I am basically just leaving a short uncarved area on the ends. The layout looks a lot like the next photo (actually this layout got scraped off because it was incorrect...).

Finally I can start a little carving. The right way would be to systematically work my way down each operation of the molding, but being impatient I went ahead and carved most of the elements of the first short section.

Well, it's a start. Seems like I am so close but so far, felt very unproductive due to the injury, the holidays, traveling, the cold - WHATEVAH!!! Need to get this baby out of the shop! Actually the molding seems like a lot of trouble to hide under a tabletop, but at this point I don't want to cut corners, so I will keep choppin'.

Later, CH

Cal,

The moulding is looking great... Glad you've recovered enough to get a little shop time in. (I like your painter's band-aid, by the way, but I prefer duct-tape!). Can't wait to see the table with the stone on top.

Keep up the great work,

Whit

that is looking sick!!!! i really love that molding that will go under the tabletop. I've never seen anything like that before. its gonna look really cool when its done though

and by the way ditch the masking and duct tape. electrical tape is the only way to make a bandaid

If you should ever move to the Atlanta area I could use a carver with your skills!! Wonderful work and the very essence of what this particular forum is all about.

By the way...while chiseling off some old cock beading on a drawer while I was tired I nearly ended my career early. I was leaning on the drawer with my left arm and the entire thing collapsed causing my other arm to shoot forward with the chisel and cutting across the back of my hand between the thumb and finger. 1mm or more deeper and I doubt that my thumb would still be working. The good thing is that the nasty scars are a constant reminder to use the proper bench holds and clams instead of my other hand!

Keep the great information coming!

Glad to see you are feeling better and back at the bench!

Cool looking molding.