Assembling Leg Sets

I arrived at the shop at 5:00 this morning to get an early start since I have another meeting to attend this evening. Sanding the spreaders we completed yesterday was the first order of business. I used a power sander hooked up to a dust extractor to sand the flat faces, but the edges and latch holes had to be done by hand.

When that was done I began taking the parts we’ve made over the past few days into the assembly room and putting them together with glue and screws. Each of these sets forms the legs for 1 tray table, I have 16 tables to make. When they’re all done I set them aside and go back to the tool room for the next step.

That would be to make the mounting blocks that will hold the leg sets to the underside of the tables. I start by ripping a couple of strips of wood the proper width and thickness, then set up the band saw to cut these strips into the small blocks I’ll need. I’ll make extras because I like to keep these on hand. It speeds things up if I have the bocks cut and ready to shape. But when I need to make more, I make plenty; it takes only a minute or two more to make 20 instead of 8.

Next I take my blocks to the router table to shape the rough blocks. I don’t mind telling you that this step scares the willies out of me; having my hands so close to the cutter is very uncomfortable. I have tried devising a few devises to hold the blocks, but none have worked well. So I’m just extra careful. That little jug behind the fence will be used to locate the pilot holes in the mounting blocks so I don’t have to lay those out with a ruler & pencil. This is much faster and more precise; just lay the block in the jig, tap it with a mallet and viola!

After drilling the pilot holes and sanding the mounting blocks I pre-finish the inside faces and install them on the leg sets.

And THAT, my friends, completes the legs. Time to go get showered and ready to head into town. Tomorrow we will begin on the trays.

See you then,
Doug