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From the pages of Fine Woodworking Magazine Making an End Table The beauty of this Arts-and-Crafts design is in the details About 10 years ago, I began to tire of my job as a corporate pilot. The work was challenging and enjoyable, but the time away from home put a strain on my family. The job was becoming more technical, too. Temperamentally, I've always been more of a craftsman than a technician.
About two years ago, I designed and built this end table. Although it's an original design, many details come from other pieces of furniture in the British Arts-and-Crafts tradition. The joinery is mortise-and-tenon and dovetail throughout. The construction of the table can be divided into five main steps: stock preparation and panel glue-up; making the front and rear leg assemblies; connecting these two assemblies (including making the shelf and its frame); making and fitting the drawer; and making and attaching the top. Stock selection, preparation and layout I milled all the stock for this table to within 1/16 in. of final thickness and width. I also glued up the tabletop, the shelf and the drawer bottom right away to give them time to move a bit before planing them to final thickness. This helps ensure they'll stay flat in the finished piece. With these three panels in clamps, I dimensioned the rest of the parts to a hair over final thickness. I finish-planed them by hand just before marking out any joinery.
Layout began with the legs. I numbered them clockwise around the perimeter, beginning with the left front as I faced the piece, writing the numbers on the tops of the legs. This system tells me where each leg goes, which end of a leg is up and which face is which. Dovetailing the top rail into the front legs -- The dovetails that connect the top rail to the front legs taper slightly top to bottom. I used the narrower bottom of the dovetail to lay out the sockets in the legs. The slight taper ensures a snug fit. Don't make the dovetails too large, or you'll weaken the legs.
Tapering and mortising the legs -- I tapered the two inside faces of each leg, beginning 4-1/2 in. down from the top. I removed most of the waste on the jointer and finished the job with a handplane. The tapers must be flat. To avoid planing over a penciled reference line at the top of the taper, I drew hash marks across it. With each stroke of the plane, the lines got shorter. That let me know how close I was getting. I cut the mortises for this table on a hollow-chisel mortiser. It's quick, and it keeps all the mortises consistent. I made sure all mortises that could be cut with one setting were done at the same time, even if I didn't need the components right away.
One wide apron tenon would have meant a very long mortise, weakening the leg. Instead, I divided the wide tenon into two small tenons separated by a stub tenon. That left plenty of glue-surface area without a big hole in the leg. Mortising for runners, kickers and buttons -- The drawer rides on runners that are mortised into the lower front rail and the back apron. Similarly, the kickers at the tops of the side aprons, which prevent the drawer from drooping when open, are mortised into the top front rail and the back apron. I cut the 1/4-in.-wide mortises for the runner and kicker tenons on the back edge of both drawer rails and on the back apron. There are eight mortises for the drawer runners and kickers. Another seven mortises of the same size are for the buttons that attach the top to the table's base--three on the back apron and two on each kicker. I also cut grooves for the dust panel at this time. The 1/4-in.-thick panel is set into the frame of the table just below the drawer. It's a nice touch, even if it's not needed structurally. I cut the grooves for the panel into the bottom of the back apron and into the back of the drawer rail. (I cut the dust-panel grooves in the drawer runners later.) Then I made a test-fit with a scrap of the same 1/4-in. cherry plywood used for the panel.
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