Handmade oak side table: Made with mortise & tenon joinery with a dovetail drawer.
Table height: 650 mm. Width: 305 mm. Depth: 490 mm
This oak side table is not that hard to build, whether you’re using hand or power tools. I’ve called it a side table, but it will perform perfectly well as a hall or bedside table. The table above was made using predominantly hand tools. Chisels, saw, smoothing and jointer plane. A bandsaw to rip the oak down and a handheld electric planer. That’s it really. Pencil, square and a marking gauge. Nothing special.
The Oak boards were purchased planed on one side only. I try to buy all my wood this way. It comes from the yard relatively flat; you can see the grain structure and choose your boards according to each project.
After selecting the oak boards to buy, the first job was to start grading the timber. Looking for the best faces, different grain patterns. I really like the medullary rays on the drawer face. A relatively straight grain was chosen for the legs and the table’s back and sides.
Don’t let not having a planer thicknesser stop you. Dust off your plane, give it a sharpen and get making!!
The drawer is constructed using dovetail joinery. I need really good grain here as these will be cut by hand, hard intertwining grain and hand-cut dovetails is “ shall we say a little challenging”, a challenge I don’t really want right now.
The build process
- Part 1: Selecting the parts ( I guess we just covered part1)
- Part 2: Making the table frame
- Part 3: Making the drawer
Part 2: Making the table frame.
Starting with the legs: once all four legs were planed to 34 X 334 mm square, the taper was marked & planed down to 24 X 24 mm using my Stanley No. 7, with final passes made with a smoothing plane. The top of the leg is kept straight. The taper begins from the underside of the bottom rail.
Keeping the top of the leg straight makes the mortise-and-tenon joinery on the front, back, and sides easier, as there are no angles to deal with.
For speed, I like to shoot with both barrels. Plane the back & two sides to 12 mm. Leave the drawer front till later. Double shooting speeds up the process. First, shoot end grain square, then move to the long grain shooting board and shoot to a 108 mm width. Shooting board plan
All the components are now made for the side table frame. All four legs are mortised, the front, back, and sides are tenoned; drawer spacers and runners are made, the front two rails have now been mortised into the front legs. All that’s left to do is saw the top of the legs square.
Gluing up the frame
The front was glued up first, checking for square as I tightened the clamps. The same goes for the back. Once the glue had set on the front and back. I then glue up the sides. Again continually checking for alignment. Everything should be in line from the dry fit. But when making furniture, things tend to go out of square once you’ve applied the glue and got the clamps ready.
Making the table top
One of the worst things about not having a planner thicknesser is getting stock down to size. A good thing about buying stock planed on one side is that one side is generally flat. Planing for an edge-to-edge glue joint first. Once I’ve got a good clean line and the joint is tight, 6 mm dowels are used to hold the top together and help prevent movement.
Once the glue and dowels are dry, I then set about dimensioning the top with an electric planer. Starting from the underside. Then flipped over and flattened the top with the number 7 jointer.
Making the drawer.
So, I only have one piece of timber for the drawer front, and to make a dovetailed drawer, you need to fit the drawer front to the opening first, before you cut any dovetails. A lot of work has gone into planning and preparing the drawer front, so I don’t want to mess it up now.
The front dovetails are traditional half-lapped dovetails. Hidden from the front view but visible from the side. And the back of the drawer has two through dovetails. These start 12 mm up. Allowing for the 6 mm plywood drawer bottom to be rebated in. Cutting dovetail joints by hand
Finishing
Before installing the drawer knob. The table was sanded down to a 320-grit finish. I wasn’t in a rush, so I applied a light coat of Danish oil each evening for three days. Using a tack rag between each coat. On the fourth evening, I gave the table a light sanding with 1000-grit paper to de-nib and remove any dust. Two more coats were applied, one each evening. Finally, the brass drawer knob was fitted into the centre of the drawer.
All done, a good solid oak side table project. Made with a basic tool kit and proper handmade dovetails.
Thanks for reading
Best Matt North
Cutting List in Millimetres
Table: Oak
- Legs: X 4. 34 x 34, tapering down to 24 X 24 X 680
- Sides: X 2. 12 x 108 x 264
- Back: X 1. 12 x 108 x 441
- Front rail top: X 1. 12 x 45 x 435
- Front Rail Lower: X 1. 12 x 52 x 435
- Table top: X 1. 12 x 325 x 495
- Drawer spacers: X 2. 11 x 30 x 239
- Drawer slips: X 2. 12 x 12 x 239
Drawer Construction: Oak
- Drawer Front: X 1. 14 x 82 x 396
- Drawer sides: X 2. 12 x 78 x 238
- Drawer back: X 1. 12 x 78 x 396
