Small Side Table

Instructions

The legs are 3/4" walnut. Each leg is two pieces, one that is 3" X 29", and the other that is 2.25" X 29". I routed the holes for the mortises and dowels using the SO to join the two pieces together. I also used the SO to cut mortises for the rails. The legs are joined to each other at right angles with through tenons and dowels cut using the SO. The result is an angled leg that is 3" on each side. After I glued the legs together, I tapered the legs from about 10" from the top to the bottom, taking off about 1" width off the bottom of each side of each leg. There are two rails each on the top, bottom, and sides. They each have a 3/4" tenon at each end (cut with SO), and glued into the matching mortise in the legs. One trick I used for the first time on this project is to finish sand everything to 240 grit, and apply the first coat of polyurethane (and letting it dry) before gluing the legs together, or the rails to the legs. That way I was able to simply wipe off any glue squeeze-out with a damp cloth, and none of it soaked into the wood. It worked perfectly. Once the legs were glued to each other, and the rails were glued to the legs, I applied clamps and adjusted them as necessary to make sure the legs sat flat on the floor without a wobble, and the four sides were square. Next I attached the top to each of the legs using dowels. I applied three more coats of polyurethane, sanding with fine sandpaper when necessary, until I ended with a top coat applied with just a smooth cloth.