Keyboard Woodworking — Part 4— The table…top
After first attempt to chisel a keyboard case and frustrated with work piece moving around, instead of using the beam as workspace, maybe I could use it to build some sort of work table.
Again the question pops up. Western or Japanese?
Since I’ve acquired mostly Japanese tools, maybe I go with working with Atedai(low work table with stops)?
Although Atedai doesn’t use much lumber, I don’t have a indoor working space and sitting on the floors for hours didn’t seem fun. So I think it should be a table for standing position which is common with Western workbench.
From what I understand, there are a few main types of workbench.
I can start simple with sitting Roman or Chinese workbench which is good with chiseling and cutting, but doing fine work on a sitting bench seemed tiresome. I tried to imitate it with just two beams, but without stable legs, and proper work holding, it didn’t work too well.
Scandinavian has a unique shoulder vise where the screw is behind the work holding. The Roubo has leg vise with a cool split top that allows tool placement in the center. I eventually settled with a 18th century design called Moravian style because it seems to use the least material. The other two always shows the big thick table top and/or big legs. Just the wood alone would be in the range of $700 — $1000.
Also Moravian workbench is mobile as the table is held together by pins and tusk tenons. One can be assembled under a minute.
So it began with cutting each beam into two pieces, longer one for table top and shorter one for the legs. I only had a 240mm Japanese Ryoba saw and never saw anything close to this size. It was a challenging exercise.
Toward the end, I tried to use a chain saw because the cut lines didn’t match when I cut from the other end. Wanted to brute force it which didn’t really work, still had to use hand saw. Using the circular saw also reminded me why I didn’t want to use powered tools, it’s just too loud and brutal.
For the second beam, I went with a bigger 300mm Ryoba saw picked up from Woodcraft Sales, which works much better. Instead of cutting from both end, I cut all the way through one side.
Felt pretty good to be able to hand saw the beams of such size. It’s hard to describe the feeling, as a computer professional, sweating to get things done was foreign but fantastic!
I like sports, but it was playing for fun. This is sweaty fun and creating something at the same time.
Side track: With accumulating number of saws, figured I should make a saw holding so they don’t rest on top of each other. The first one I made failed miserably, mainly due not knowing how to read grain.
See below picture, in the first one, grain is running from horizontally? I cut the notches where blade goes in, perpendicular to the grain. However, with this cut, the stress is rested on a small area that can easily snap off.
The correct direction to cut along the long grain, so the strength is retained.
Three of the four long split beams will be the table top, and fourth one will then be split again to make two stretchers for the table. I lined three pieces together for the best look and try to shave the side to make them fit as much as possible.
Then it’s to drill holes for line up pins and glue them together.
To glue the third piece, since I didn’t have enough clamp for all of them, I just use my own weight. I understand the glue here is Titebond I which isn’t meant for outdoor, and the glue surfaces weren’t perfectly flatten.
Figure it’s good for an experiment, to see how long the table would last and if softwood really isn’t good for tabletop after couple years of usage.
After a day, I now have a wooden tabletop to work with.
Planning for a flat surface. It just takes a plane, a straight edge and lots of sweats.
With tabletop prepared, next step is making thelegs which was the most challenging ones yet involving multiple joineries.
To be continued.
