Queen Anne Table – Project of the Week
This week’s project comes from our buddy Bob in NJ. He did a heck of a job with this piece.
“After searching for a design, I found great plans on the “New Yankee’s Workshop” site. Thanks Norm! The video and plans are wonderful. In Norm’s version, he bought the legs since they take a lot of time and are much more elaborate than shown here. After seeing the prices for the legs, ($$!!), I decided to experiment and make them myself. I found plans for a simple design in Fine Woodworking and enlarged them on a copier and made a template. After gluing up ¾” x 3” wide stock, cutting them on a bandsaw is very fast and easy. The blanks come off the bandsaw needing a lot of scraping, filing & sanding. Making “one” is easy, making “four” to be exact replicas is a challenge. These legs are close. The initial 4 blanks and smoothing took about 2 hours each but then I spent an entire Saturday trying to get them as close in size as possible.”
“This was also my first attempt at carving which is needed for the shell design on the drawer front. The one on the table is my 4th effort after trying out the various carving tools and techniques. For this work, I borrowed a friend’s “Flexcut” chisels. Nice tools! I found it’s like other types of woorkworking. Get a plan, be willing to experiment, be patient, practice and you’ll finally get something you can use. I’ve since bought my own set of Flexcuts and am now practicing on ball and claw feet. These will take LOTS of practice if my first attempt is any indication. The mini drops were made on my lathe. Again, it took 2-3 attempts to get the design right and making two the same takes some practice but relatively simple to do.”
“This project took about 80 hours over the last 4 months to make. I have no idea how Norm knocks out so many fine projects so quickly! Construction is solid cherry with cut off pieces I bought as surplus “shorts” from a cabinet shop selling on ebay. Drawers and made of poplar. The legs are laminated together although the Fine Woorking plans by Lonnie Bird suggest making legs thick legs like this from solid stock to avoid differences in grain, color and different rates of wood shrinkage I found 3” thick cherry is about $14 bd ft which would have added $180 to the price of the project. All in all, with the plans, wood, hardware and finishing supplies, the project cost about $300.Norm’s video suggested using a Gel stain which helps smooth out the colors of the cherry. I used Minwax mahogany. Then I added 5 coats of “rub on poly” and finally a coat of Johnsons paste wax. So, in summary, the challenging parts of the projects are the legs, drops and carving, the rest is just a big box with 4 smaller boxes (the drawers) but I’m glad I tackled it.”
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Bob,
Great Job! Your table is very nice and gives incouragement to woodworkers like me to tackle projects like this.
Wow, beautiful work! I think the legs look great! I’ve never tried making a cabriole leg before, but this might be the encouragement I need to give it a go.
Dave
Very nice! I’m surprised at the clarity of the wood grain through the gel stain. And the legs all look the same to me. You did a good job on the carving also.
Bob,
This is fantastic. I was just reading the blog on The Craftsman’s Path in TWW Network about a similar piece. I am really impressed with the fan carving. Any resources or tips on how to do this?
What a beautiful job you did on this!! You inspire me to try projects such as this on my own. I did a search on the New Yankee site and couldn’t find any reference to the plans. Help?? I’d love to try my hand at it. And for the record the legs and wood carving are first rate in my book!! Wonderful piece.
Well done Bob! Patience, persistence and focus are the elements for success. Thanks for sharing
Excellent Job! Though this is actually “The Lowboy – Item #0409″ on norm’s website (FYI Dennis!). The Queen Anne Table (episode aired this morning where I live!) is a round table that Norm makes with a very cool jig he made for his band saw!
Pat, your a gym, thank you!! Now I go in search of ….. :-) I don’t think I’ll do as good a job as Bob did, or maybe just different, but I think I’m ready to tackle this with all the snow and bad weather we’re having. Thank you again Pat, and Bob thank you for the inspiration!! That’s what this whole thing is about; helping to bring out the best in all of us. Big kudo’s for having such a resource for us to refer to, show our work and get pointers from. I love this site!
This is really a wonderful piece of craftsmanship! Congratulations on producing a wonderful heirloom piece. The carving is beautiful and the cabriole legs are elegant. Nicely done in every aspect.
Very nice piece! Seriously, what more is there to say? ;)
It truely is beautifull, The china pieces lend to the pieces true eligance.
Thank you for sharing
Kip
Very nice work Bob. I really love the way the legs came out and the overall look and color of this piece.
That is great. Well done.
Really beautiful. I only hope to make something that nice some day.
Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. There are several good sources to check out the process. Ff course there’s the plans and video from The New Yankee Workshop. Mark Mazzo over at Lumberjocks is in process of making one of these with great step be step pictures and plans. Also, thanks Marc for the tip on Charles Neil. His web site has video on how to make the cabriole legs. Best wishes to everyone on your next project!