- The Wood Whisperer is sponsored
by Powermatic and Titebond
with a special finishing
feature sponsored by Osmo.
All right, so today we've got
a bit of a different project.
My brother-in-law just moved to Colorado
and had this table from
his previous house.
Now it was perfect for that house,
'cause it was a little bit smaller,
but in the new house there's more room.
So a table of this small diameter,
I think it's like 36 inches
or something like that,
it just isn't really working for them.
Two adults, two children,
they need something a little bit better.
And I checked it out
and it's really just pocket
screwed into the top.
The base is in pretty good shape
and it's a painted base.
So I figured, you know
what, let's put a top on
that matches their new floors
and see if that doesn't work
a little bit better for them.
So it's a fairly simple construction,
just a bunch of red oak
boards cut into a circle.
But before we do that let me show you
the underside of this table,
so you can see why I decided
this would be easy to do.
So each apron just has a
couple of pocket screws
up through the apron and into the top,
so it's a super easy swap out
and no need to make an
entire base for this one.
So let's get to it.
Because I want the table
to have a more substantial
look and feel I'm
starting with 5/4 red oak.
The boards are cut strategically
to remove any major knots
or temperamental grain.
(machines whirring)
Once we have a decent layout
we can number the boards
to keep them in order
and then start the milling process.
Because some of the boards
are wider than my jointer
I'm gonna use a special trick
that involves removing the jointer guard.
If you do this please exercise
the highest level of caution
and don't be a dingus.
And be sure to replace the guard
as soon as the operation the complete.
The Wood Whisperer Incorporated
is not responsible,
blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
The board is jointed like any other,
only there's a small portion of the board
that overhangs the bed
and doesn't get cut.
After a few passes we've got a nice,
flat eight inch wide section
and then a small rough strip.
At the workbench we'll use a hand plane
to remove that small strip
and make it level with
the rest of the board.
There's a variation of this technique
that uses a piece of plywood and a planer,
which can be faster if you
have a lot of these to do,
but for a small piece or
two this method is nice.
Plus it gets your heart
rate up for a few minutes,
which isn't a bad thing.
Now that we have a nice,
flat surface for reference
we can send the boards through the planer.
It's a great feeling not
having to sacrifice board width
just because of the size of your jointer.
By the way, that good
looking guy right there
is Nicole's brother, Jason,
not him, that's George Costanza.
Believe it or not, he's
my new shop helper,
so you might see him,
or at least his arms,
in a lot of my future videos.
Not him, him.
The boards are all ripped
to width at the table saw
removing any gnarly bits from the edges.
With the boards together
I'll mark the center
and then use a straight
edge to get a ballpark idea
of the circle size that we need to cut,
which has a 24 inch radius.
To assist with the glue up
I'll drop in the occasional domino.
This is by no means a necessary step,
but on a wide panel like this
the dominoes make for a
stress-free glue up experience
without the need for giant cauls.
For a little more working time
I'll be using Titebond Extend.
The glue is added to each edge, rolled,
and the dominoes are popped in.
I'm lucky to have some
long parallel clamps,
but pipe clamps also work great
for big glue ups like this.
Once the glue is set
up, but not fully cured,
I scrap it away with a card scraper.
After the glue is dry
the surface is sanded
to remove any glue residue.
Now it's time to cut a circle.
We'll flip the table upside down
and prepare to make a simple trammel arm.
I'll cut a piece of 1/2 MDF
to about eight inches wide
and 36 inches long.
These aren't critical dimensions.
It has to be long enough to
make the 24 inch radius swing
and wide enough to hold the router.
Regarding the thickness,
just make sure that your bit
can plunge all the way through
when sitting on top of the trammel arm.
One side of the board
will get a small dowel pin
a few inches from the edges.
I'll then measure from
the center of that point
to another point exactly 24 inches away.
My bit is 3/8 in diameter,
so I'll measure 3/7
further to help to find
where the router bit will plunge.
For the dowel pin I'll
drill a 1/4 inch hole
through the trammel arm.
On the underside of the table
I'll drill the same hole
in the absolute center,
making sure that I don't
go all the way through.
Using a 1/4 inch dowel pin
I can drop the trammel arm in place
and you can see how this is gonna work.
To make the dowel connection
a little bit more rigid
I'll add some CA glue on the jig side.
To help the arm slide with less friction
I'll wax the bottom.
On the other end of the
jig I'll line up my bit
and trace the shape of my router.
This helps me line up
some double stick tape
for securing the base to the trammel arm.
If I were doing more
than one table like this
I'd probably make something
a little bit more secure
to mount the router,
but this is gonna work
for just one circle.
Because the bit will
eventually go through the top
we need a sacrificial surface underneath.
I'll use some more double stick tape
to secure the tabletop
as well as the off cut material.
We really don't want anything
to move during this process.
I'll go about 1/4 inch per pass
working my way around the circle
and sucking up any dust
that remains in the groove.
If you're a fan of cartoons
you're probably expecting me
to fall through the floor.
Meep meep.
And just like that we
have a perfect circle.
Now as a completely unnecessary step
I'm going to cut a face
grain plug for that 1/4 hole
that we drilled in the
bottom of the table.
Ah, that's better.
For the profile of the top
we're departing from a
traditional ogee profile
and going with something
a little bit more modern.
This is a big honking bit,
so I'm gonna use my big honking router.
I'll take it in a few passes.
On the bottom edge we'll add
a small 1/8 inch round-over.
The bottom gets a quick sanding
to smooth everything out.
Since it's the bottom we
won't really go crazy here
with surface prep.
Around the perimeter we'll
give some extra attention
to the edge where there
might be some lines
from the multiple router cuts.
For the show face of the top
we'll start by scraping the surface
to remove any mill marks.
Scraping is nice, because it
reduces the amount of sanding
that we'll need to do.
I do like sanding with at least
my final grit after the scraping.
Scraping leavings a decent surface,
but I really prefer the uniformity
of a 180 or a 220 grit sanding.
By the way, when sanding a
large round-over like this
it's best to sand with the grain
to avoid any cross-grain scratch marks.
Red oak has really deep
grain and open pores,
so for a kitchen table I think
a pore fill is called for
and we only need to fill the top side.
This particular filler is water soluble
and this can is pretty old,
so I'll scrape the solid material out
and then dilute it with water
to the consistence of pancake batter.
Mm, pancakes.
The filler is spread across the surface,
driving it into the pores.
Once dry we'll scrape the excess
and sand the entire surface smooth.
The idea here is to keep
the filler in the pores,
but get the rest of the
surface back to bare wood.
For the finish I'm using
Osmo Polyx-Oil Pure.
This is their low VOC product.
It applies pretty easily
by putting a little bit on the surface
and then spreading it
out to a very thin layer.
Now for full disclosure,
I have been testing Osmo
on several projects over
the course of the last year
and I did purchase all of
those materials myself.
I've been very happy with the results
and after filming this project
I approached them about
sponsoring the video.
So what are they paying me for?
Basically to spend a little
more time showing you
what products I'm using
and how to apply them.
Nothing more.
As always, my opinions are my own
and I was gonna use this finish
with or without the sponsorship.
Anywho, once the finish is spread out
I go back and use a paper
towel to quickly wipe away
any spots where I have some excess.
Now I let it sit for an hour
and then come back
and repeat the spreading
process one more time.
A finish like this has
some distinct advantages.
First, it's low VOC.
You still want some ventilation,
but this stuff isn't gonna
knock you on your butt.
Second, it's fairly durable.
It's not really a true film finish,
but the layer of wax left
behind is definitely hard
and does a great job
of locking out liquids.
Third, it's really easy to apply.
It's pretty much dummy-proof.
Fourth, it's incredibly easy to repair.
When this table gets scratched up
we'll be able to do spot repairs
without having to
completely refinish the top.
Once I let that second
coat sit for another hour
I come back with a white
Scotch-Brite type pad
on my random orbit sander.
This not only drives the
finish deep into the pores,
it also lightly abrades the
surface, making it super smooth.
I then finish off the surface
with a terrycloth buffer.
The process is then repeated on the top.
The only difference
with the top side finish
is that I'm gonna add in an
additional level of protection
using their TopOil product.
It's a high solids finish
that's completely food safe once it dries.
I'll wipe on a thin layer
using an applicator pad.
You can also roll it on
with a microfiber roller
or buff it in with Scotch-Brite.
Now since this is red oak
I'm a little hesitant to
apply a thicker layer,
because it's likely to result
in air bubbles in the finish.
So I'll just wipe on
two thin layers instead.
No runs, no streaks, just a
perfect smooth, satin finish.
It's cool.
Nice overhang too.
- [Man] Yeah.
- So there it is, a pretty
quick and easy upgrade.
Now it's a table that's
fit for a family of four.
Nice finish on there that they can beat up
and if they're anything like my kids
they're gonna take forks and
drag them across the surface,
so we've got a finish
that's easy to repair,
which is a good thing.
So all in all, a pretty
quick weekend project
and it looks pretty good.
(gentle music)
