Hello again, here we are at post 14 in the build thread. A coffee table with a bubinga frame, wenge shelf panel, and glass top.
This time I’m working on the drawbar joints which lock the table top frame parts together to each other and to the top of the legs. This joint is a floating spline, yatoi-sao, with quadruple shachi-sen wedge pins, and the spline is cogged onto the twin tenoned head of the leg.
First up was to make room in the drawbar mortises on the frame members for the twin tenons to fit. I made up a jig to tackle that job:
With the frame member fixed in position, here is the working zone:
I used the smaller 1hp Festool for this task:
The routing took but a few seconds (though the jig set up took considerably longer):
Without moving anything, I was then able to take advantage of the working position and do some chisel work:
Then the other side received some attention:
Then time for a wider chisel:
Then the soko-zarai nomi, or bottom scraping chisel:
Here’s the result:
Another view:
Time to check how things look with two frame ends fitted together:
I also took the opportunity to mark out two abutment lines on the edge of the draw bar.
A while later, I had all the frame ends taken care of through that stage:
Next task: it was time to rebate the draw bar on two sides – here I used an already existing jig with some minor mods:
Here’s the draw bar fitted to the top of the leg’s twin tenons:
Hopefully it will fit alright – stay tuned for more in tomorrow’s post. Thanks for dropping by the Carpentry Way. –> on to post 15
I haven't posted much so I wanted to let you know I'm really enjoying the build.
Take Care
Hi Chris,
This joint is making more sense now. I was having a hard time visualizing how the oddly shaped double tenons were going to fit. I still have one more question but I think the next post will provide an answer.
I fear I am becoming pulled into your orbit since I have been thinking more about reversibility. I gave up non-reversible glues long ago but your blog is making me rethink how specific joinery can augment the goal of maintaining function into the future.
Peace,
Harlan Barnhart
Dale,
nice of you to drop by and say hello – hope things are going well for you!
Harlan,
Yes, I do believe tomorrow's post will answer all your questions concerning that joint.
It's not always clear to me whether designing around demountability is always worth the complexity, time and trouble in incurs, however it has been a most interesting investigation. Glad you're finding it of relevance too.
~Chris
Thank goodness for your excellent photographs; otherwise, I'd be totally lost with so many foreign (to me) words in the text. It's all looking great!
Lisette,
great to hear from you again and very pleased that you are enjoying the progress of this build!
~C