Finally Finished Pedestal Table

Well it is done. One coat of wipe on Polyurethane. I will apply another later after a little finish sanding. But we have a Minwax finisher presenting to-night so I will wait and see what he has to say.
The top is quite nicely figured tiger maple. Slightly marred by dark streaks at the glue joins as I was too miserly to cut off enough of the wood to get rid of the weather darkening.
It seldom pays to be cheap with material use.

This picture shows the unfinished table outside.
And there you have it. I still have another table to make but will wait a bit before starting that as I have an order for many bowls which needs attending to.

Pedestal Bottom Finish

This picture above shows the tenon left at the bottom of the pedestal.

This is the "saucer" with a hole drilled the same size as the tenon.
I inserted a small walnut piece with some inset turquoise.

This is the piece finished on the lathe.
Here I am fitting the saucer onto the tenon. This will cover all the leg attachment complex and give a little visual unobtrusive "extra" to the table.

Pedestal Table Leg Attachment

Well I glued the legs using 2 inch dowels and epoxy glue. The picture shows the elementary clamping technique using a hold down strap to exert pressure on the legs.
Of course with four legs the table does not stand perfectly flat so I will have to trim off a bit off two legs. The clamps on the legs just stop the strap from sliding off.
Here are some of the things I will do to improve the next one:

1. Change the leg design slightly to allow for holding the bottom of each leg with an attached saucer under the column.
2. Lighten up the column. This one looks a bit heavy (3 1/4 inch diameter) for the size of the top. I think 2 1/2 inch will suffice for a 17 inch top.
3. Use three legs. Thus avoiding the "rocking table" syndrome.
4. Improve the dowel drilling jig with metal inserts, a clamp down hold on the lathe bed and a larger clamp to wood for holding the legs at 90 degrees.
5. All that said I still have to make another table of the same design as a "matching pair".

Well now to complete the finish saucer under the column and then finish sanding the table and apply a final finish.

Pedestal Table Leg Attachment Technique

This picture shows how the legs were drilled using a wood jig. The legs are clamped onto the jig and the jig is clamped to the lathe bed - for want of any free space in my tiny workshop.

This is a view of the drilling jig. The "L" shaped wood piece is what the legs are clamped against when the legs are drilled. Here the jig is set against the pedestal for drilling the holes in the post.
To ensure that the holes are drilled at center I used a mallet to mark the holes against the live center in the tailstock of the lathe. The legs are attached to the pedestal with 3/8 dowels. Since the jig was a little sloppy I used epoxy glue to attach the legs to ensure filling any small imperfections. I intend improving the jig by adding a piece at the bottom to allow clamping the jig to the lathe bed and enlarging the cheek block for clamping the legs. I also ordered some steel inserts to add to the jig to make the holes more accurate.

Pedestal Table continued

So I turned the top. Now I need the post and the legs. Here I have several (10) strips of hard maple glued together to make the pedestal out of. Actually this will make two pedestals since I am planning on making a matching pair. I made these pieces 27 inches long since the legs will lift the pedestal 4 inches off the ground and the table will add 3/4 inch that leaves a little extra to make a table that will be 29 inches tall when completed.



Here is the lamination turned into a cylinder.



Once I have the cylinder turned true I marked out the space to mount the legs and the space to provide the attachment tenon for the top - both essential. The top of the leg attachment will have a ridge to butt the legs against. This ridge is important for layout to mount the legs evenly and of course to establish the correct finished height. In between these two components -leg attachment and top tenon - I can insert the decorative part which will consist of four beads sandwiching an ogee curve.
The picture above shows how the layout is marked with coloured pencils. Red is left high and green is cut into first with a parting tool just to establish the depth then with a skew to create the beads. I also used a large spindle gouge for a lot of the curvey parts.

Pedestal Table

A customer asked me to make a "candlelabra" from some highly figured maple that he had. I figured it would take about 24 hours to make including jigs and fixtures as needed so the price was a bit high for him.
However I decided that since I already had a few pieces of curly maple all glued up and ready to make a small (17") table I would just need to make the pedestal and legs and stick them all together.
At first I thought I would try to make a dovetail joint but the jig to cut one on a round leg was a bit too complex to make and I changed to joining the legs to the pedestal with dowel joints.
I wanted to also write an article for a magazine to help defray costs so I have documented this as I went.
I started by turning the top from curly maple and attaching a plate under the 3/4 inch thick material to make a better join.


Here is the bottom of the table top with the glued on plate to act as an attachment point for the pedestal.