Side Table, Craftsman style

Craftsman side table in red oak

Instead of a stool or bench, this time I built a Craftsman style side table, using plans from Rex Krueger. This is the first Craftsman piece I've made, and also the first using red oak. I was able to find a clear-grained piece in 4/4 size at Woodcraft for a reasonable price. I broke down the stock using a handsaw and planed it to size with my No. 4 and No. 5 hand planes. The table top was glued up from three pieces, cut to rough size with a jigsaw, and shaped to final size with a spokeshave.

The leg and spreader joinery was cut with a Japanese style saw and a hand chisel. The most difficult joints were the leg/tabletop joints, none of which ended up as tight as I would have liked despite careful measuring and cutting. This table is good practice for joinery, and I need more practice. Some clamping was needed to get the legs positioned in the tabletop before securing them with brass woodscrews. I considered using dowels instead, as I did on the Mission bench. I'm glad I didn't because getting things in position would have been a challenge.

I needed to sharpen several tools before and during the project. The planes and chisel, of course, and also the spokeshave. Surprisingly I also needed to sharpen the practically new countersink, which left ragged holes for the screws. Luckily I tried it on scrap first.

The table has an unusual feature not shown in the photo. There is a cleat across the bottom of the tabletop, joining the three pieces that make up the top. Rex drew the plans from a piece belonging to a friend, and he suspects the cleat was added to the original at some point to control wood movement.

Finally I applied polyurethane. I thinned it a little and wiped it on instead of brushing. It needed five coats, but I found I had fewer problems with runs or brush strokes.