Thursday, April 23, 2009

Craftsman Dining Room Set - In The Beginning...

So, I've got my girlfriend's permission to start working on our new dining room set. I've done a ton of research, and for me, Schroeder hit the nail right on the head. He's been extremely helpful with suggestions, suggested reading, and tool purchases to make the process go smoother. I will build his table. I'm still researching the chairs, but the Rodel chair is high in the running. I'm hoping to knock out the table in the next month, and the chairs this winter. I will be blogging about the entire project here, and concurrently on my regular woodworking blog Skully's Workshop.

For those of you who may not know, I cut my middle finger off last September, so I'm just getting back into the shop. I will blog about that separately, but please put your splitters back on for any cuts that will allow it.

I've taken some time to draw up the table in AutoCAD (SketchUp still eludes me). I designed my table using the Golden Mean, so the top is 72 x 44.5 (ratio = 1.618) with Greene & Greene style breadboard ends. It'll be 30 high. I tucked the underbody in 12 on each end and 6 along the sides. The legs are 4 square, and I will be making all four sides quartersawn. The whole table will be quartersawn white oak, and I'm trying to figure out how to anhydrous ammonia (29%) fume the whole thing without getting busted for running a meth lab.

Here are the drawings. I can provide dimensions as needed, but they were omitted for clarity: