Woodworking - Plans - Library Table

7/30/2019 Woodworking - Plans - Library Table

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M AY / J U N E 2 0 0 1Photo, this page: Michael Pekovich

ve never seen the virtues of building atable with drawers in the traditional waywith a double-tenoned stretcher

below the drawer and a dovetailed top rail.It just seems like unnecessary work. Ivedeveloped methods for building a table with drawers that are faster and, to my mind, stronger. Its the same approach Iuse when building a chest of drawers. Ibuild frames to go over and under the

drawers, then simply attach them to pre-assembled ends. This approach makes theentire project more manageable and all butguarantees a smooth and square glue-up.

This library table is adapted from variousStickley catalogs from the turn of the 20thcentury. It would work well as a writingdesk or as a reading table. My approach tothe construction of this traditional Arts andCrafts piece is straightforward. I used quar-

tersawn stock, hand-hammered hardwand a slightly lighter finish than is cusary for this style.

The best boards go on topFor this project, I ordered 100 bd. ft. ofthen riffled through to choose boards specific parts. Once all of the boards been surfaced, I designated the best oflot for the tabletop, which I typically

An Arts and Crafts

Library Table

A nontraditional approach to building a desk with drawers

B Y E R I C K E I L

I


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72 F I N E W O O D W O R K I N G Drawings: Bob L

up first so that I know what Im workin ward. I also sorted all of the other lumdenoted which pieces will be used whand milled them to their finished thickn

The less-attractive lumber was desiged for interior parts, such as the frames. These frames are identical to frames on an ordinary plywood cabibut they have a very different use. Juon a chest of drawers, the frames spantwo ends, and drawers are housed tween them. I built the frames using bijoinery, but mortise-and-tenon join would work, too. Once installed, frames will be joined in so many waysthe chance of their failing is negligibnot impossible. I left the frames sligoversized to be squared up later.

Assemble the endsBuilding the ends was the first big tasthis job. I started with the legs. To en

figured surfaces on all four sides, I ripfour matching quartersawn boards 2 wide, then mitered the edges at 45. easiest way to make the legs was to mthe four faces first, see that they fit togsquare, then cut a solid core. The solid helps keep the assembly square durglue-up and supports and strengthens mortise-and-tenon joinery of the aprocut the core piece slightly undersizedsmall 1 32 in. or so) to ensure that all ojoints would close up and to avoid faiof the leg joints during seasonal expans

I placed the mitered faces side by and taped up the corners, making sure tthere were no gaps between the piecThen I flipped over the assembly, spr

Table-end glue-up

LEGS WITH QUARTERSAWN FIGURE ON FOUR SIDES

Four mitered pieces are required for eachleg. Choose quartersawn stock with matching fleck patterns, then miter both edges.

Strips of masking tape act as clamps. Set the mitered edges of the legs tightly against each other, then tape them together.

Wrap up the leg. Spread glue on all of the in-terior surfaces, including the core. Then wrapthe four mitered sections around the core and

secure the assembly with additional tape.

Fill-in strip,5 8 in. thick by3 4 in. wide

Distancebetweenslats, 7 8 in.

Tenon atback of tableis mitered.

Side apron,5 1 8 in. wide by

213

4

in. long,shoulder toshoulder

Tenon, 1 2 in. thi ck by 3 in .wide by 1 1 2 in.deep

Tenon, 3 8 in. thi ck by 3 in.wide by1 in. deep

Tenon, 1 2 in. thickby 2 1 2 in. wide by2 1 2 in. deep

Leg, 2 1 4 in. squareby 29 in. long

Leg is assembledfrom 5 8 -in.-thickmitered stockwrapped arounda solid core.

Slat, 5 8 in. thickby 3 3 4 in. wideby 16 1 4 in. long,shoulder toshoulder

Through-mortise,1 2 in. wide by 7 in.long

Lower rail, 3 in. wideby 21 3 4 in. long,shoulder to shoulder


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M AY / J U N E 2 0 0 1Photos, except where noted: Matthew Teague; this page (top right): Michael Pekovich

glue in the V-grooves and on the insidefaces. I simply set the core in place, rolled

up the entire thing and bound the last cor-ner with tape. If the joinery is cut with care,the pieces should close up without any trouble. Slight gaps can be coerced shut with the use of a clamp or two.

I allowed the legs to cure overnight, thencut all of the leg mortises with a 1 2-in.straight bit mounted in a plunge router out-fitted with an edge guide. Even thethrough-mortises can be cut this way. Tohandle the through-mortises on the thicklegs, though, I plunged from each side of the leg rather than all the way through theleg from one side.

The rest of the end assembly was fairly simple. All of the mortises were cut with arouter and squared up with a chisel.

I cut the tenons on the tablesaw. First I es-tablished the shoulder cuts with the boardheld horizontally and then the trimmed thecheeks with the workpiece held upright.For efficiency, I cut all of the mortises andtenons for the entire table at the same time.I then angled the blade to 45 and cham-fered the ends of the through-tenons.

Attach the frames and shelf I scratched my head for some time tryingto figure out how to handle the rear apronof this table. I wanted the corbels to be afull 1 in. thick, but that meant they wouldbe flush with the rear apron, which neithermimicked the drawer fronts nor provided anecessary shadow line between the apronand corbel. In the end, I decided to buildout the top and bottom of the rear apron to

Assemble the ends.First fit the slats to thapron and lower rail,then set the assemblyinto the mortises onthe legs.

Biscuits make for foolproof alignment.

After the insides of thends are blocked out flush with the legs, bcuit slots are cut to acept the frames.

Rout the mortises. Using an edge guide on a plunge router, drop the bit a little at a time un- til you reach the desired depth.


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74 F I N E W O O D W O R K I N G

echo the top and bottom frames on thefront of the desk.

After cutting the tenons on the rearapron, I ran a rabbet 3 4 in. wide and 1 4 in.deep along the outside edges. After assem-bly, 1 2-in.-thick strips will be added to cre-ate raised areas that mimic the front andprovide a necessary change in thickness where the corbel abuts the leg and apron.

Because the frames were to be biscuited

to the ends, I added fill-in strips to the in-side of the apron at top and bottom, mak-ing sure that the strips were flush with thefront and rear legs. The strips can be at-tached with glue or with glue and screws.

Once the fill-in strips were in place, Isquared up the frames using a large sledat the tablesaw, using the length of therear apron as a reference. I then drilledholes for the tabletop. While I could have

let the drawer dividers into sliding dotails, I simply cut them to size, set theplace at the front and back of the fraand doweled them from above and beloOnce the drawer glides are installed,dividers will be locked in place by abfive different joints.

I used #20 biscuits to join the framthe two ends and to the rear apron. Tocommodate the corbels, I cut #10 bis

Frames arebiscuited to rearapron before theyare joined to ends.

Tabletop,1 in. thick by28 in. deep by54 in. wide

Strip, 1 2 in. th1 in. wide, set 1 4 -in.-deep rabon rear apron.

#20 biscuits join fr ames toassembledends.Dividers,

3 4 in. thi ck by 3 5 8 in.wide by 3 in. tall,are doweled toupper and lowerframes.

Frames, 24 1 4 in.deep by 45 7 16 in.long, are biscuitedand assembled using 3 4 -in.-thick by 3-in.-wide stock. Shelf, 1 in. thick

by 8 in. wide by46 3 4 in. long,shoulder to shoulder

Corbel is attached to l eg and fram ewith #10 biscuits.

Shelf tenon,1

2 in. thi ck by 7 in . w ideby 1 3 8 in. deep,protrudes frommortise 3 8 in.

Shelf and drawer assembly join the two ends

54 in.

30 in.

50 in. 26 1 4 in.

4 1 2 in.

28 in.


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M AY / J U N E 2 0 0 1

slots underneath the frame and along theinside of the legs.

I dry-fit the assembly to be sure that theshelf and the frames fit onto the ends andclosed up squarely. Once I was confidentthere wouldnt be any surprises, I glued therear apron to the frames, making sure thatthe ends of the apron aligned exactly withthe ends of the frames. Then I was finally ready for the entire assembly to go

Frames are the starting point. The author constructwo frames that will goabove and below the drawers. The frames are simply biscuited together.

The rear apron is biscuited to the frame assembly.Note that the drawer dividers are already in place.

Bring it all together. The through-tenoned shelf, the biscuited frames and the ends are allassembled in one operation. The glue-up proceeds easily when it is done with the table up-

side down on a flat surface.

13 1 4 in.

2 9 16 in.

CORBEL


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together. It was easiest to glue up the tupside down on a flat surface. One thing about using preassembled framethat, at glue-up, it took only a few clato pull everything closed.

Install the drawer glidesI know that secondary woods and wood drawer bottoms might be accepta when building furniture, but I cant myselfI love the sound and feel heavy oak drawer seating itself smoointo place. And, as I mentioned befoordered the lumber in bulk, so using oakthe secondary wood allowed me to usesome of the less-desirable pieces.

The method I use for building andstalling drawers is one Ive relied on mtimes. While I could have let the dra

Install drawer blocking and glides last

Side filler board,15 16 in. thick by23 1 8 in. long

Center glide,3

4 in. thi ck by 1 1 8 in. wideby 23 1 8 in. long, ishalf-lapped ontoframe.

Groove, 3 8 in. by3 8 in., accepts

glide.

Drawer front,3 1 2 in. wide by

141

2 in. long,conceals fillerboards and glides.

Drawer isconstructed from3 4 -in.-thick stockand finger-jointedat corners.

Side glide, 3 8 in. thi ck by 3 4 in. wide,is let into grooveon filler board.

Drawer bottom is 3 4 in. thi ck to a llow for cen terglide.

Drawer issupported byside glides.

Filler boardextends 3 8 in. intodrawer opening.

Drawer issuspended1 16 in. aboveframe.

Drawer bottomis grooved forcenter glide.

Center filler board,3 4 in. thick by 23 1 8 in. long,straddles drawer divider.


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ride on the frames alone, I prefer drawersthat have a bottom glide and are side-hung. Using three wooden glides, it is sim-ple to make small adjustments to the fit andto the drawer reveal, even before anythingis installed.

My first step was to make the drawersthemselves. I used a box-joint sled on atablesaw (see FWW #148, pp. 60-63) toconstruct simple finger-jointed boxes that will receive false fronts once installed. I leftthe drawers about 1 in. shy of full length(from front apron to rear apron) to accom-modate the drawer fronts and to allow some room for adjustments.

Once the drawers were glued upand itis essential that there be no twist in thedrawerI used a dado setup on the table-saw to plow grooves in the two sides and

along the center of the 3 4-in.-thick drawerbottom. After that, it was time to install theglides. Essentially, I was simply blockingout the ends and the voids between the dividers, then setting glides into grooves.The glides can be sized and adjusted to fitthe drawers before any glue has been ap-plied, but its important to get a perfectfit before securing them permanently. A few small screws or brads are all it takes toattach the glides. Once everything is inplace, the grooved drawers should ridesmoothly along the glides. Then it was asimple matter of gluing the drawer frontsto the drawer boxes.

Because I use a spray setup for finishing,I sprayed the top and base separately, be-cause its easier to spray the base when you dont have to work into corners or

worry about overspray. I coated the pi with a mix of Minwax stains and letfor a week. I then sprayed on two coaflat lacquer.

The tabletop itself was screwed direto the frames. It was fixed at the centerscrews, and then the front and back wscrewed into elongated holeswhichlow for seasonal movementthrough upper frame. The drawer fronts, likew were simply attached with screws.

A final touch was the hand-hammcopper pulls (see the back cover) frGerald Rucks. With the solid drawsmooth-running glides and the authenpulls, the desk is a pleasure to use.

Eric Keil builds custom furniture and cabinetWilkes-Barre, Pa.

Block out the ends. The ends of the table are blocked out with a board grooved to accept thedrawer glides.

Glides span the dividers. Center dividersare sandwiched between two filler boards that house the drawer glides.

Insert the drawer glides and install thecenter glide. Glue the drawer glides in placeand mount the center glide on the lower drawer frame. The center glide ensures that thedrawer tracks correctly.

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Woodworking - Plans - Library Table