We have started a Walnut trestle coffee table, this blog entry describes the process of creating the trestles that are the legs and support for the top. First we dress the rough walnut to size and cut our blanks to width and length.
Next we cut the dado groves in the centre post to accept the tongue. We then mill the tongue to size, for a nice strong fit when glued up.
Below you can see how the joints come together, i've marked off what wood we have to remove to get to the sculpted flowing lines were looking for.
After our router table is setup with a 3/4'' cope bit, we run the posts through to remove the desired material.
The is how everything lines up, actually works out very well keeping sanding time down from days to hours. (-:
Next we use our miter jig on our table saw. It is basically a 90 degree corner mounted on a piece of mdf that runs in the miter rails. By using each side to create the miter, your guaranteed a perfect 90 degree joint.
This is the first look at the trestle as a whole, I placed the templates so you can see how things will look.
Here we now have all the parts cut out with the required joinery to begin assembly.
First we glue together the sides to the legs reinforcing the joints with 2'' dowels. We have also rounded the edges of the table top support and centre section.
This is how they will look once all glued up, but before that we have some sanding to do and some shaping at the router table.
