# Red oak breadboard end coffee table



## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Folks! I am nearing completion of my second ever furniture project, and am pretty excited about it! This table was commissioned by my younger brother and his girlfriend, design was mostly mine. They agreed to finish the table so I will do some finish sanding then hand it over to them for stain/polyurethane. 

I did this table with hand planes, band saw, and drill press. It was my first experience with breadboard ends, and I have to say, I didn't enjoy cutting the cross-grain rabbets with my stanley rabbet plane. Even with the nicker on it I knocked out a couple big chunks at the ends that I later had to cut off. The breadboard detail ended up having a few gaps too, but they requested country, and are into primitives, so I suspect that they won't mind too much. 

I also discovered that I don't care for my current plow plane. Oh! And cutting tenons on a bandsaw before you check your saw for square is a bad idea. 

But it all worked out eventually. Some of the tenons had a bit of play up and down, so I drawbored them. I have to say I quite enjoy assembling a table with drawbored mortise and tenons - no fussing with clamps was great!


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Oh I should add - the the top is a glued panel. I believe I asked for advice on how to make this top in another post. Basically what I ended up doing was edge jointing each plank, then making a rough chamfer with a block plane before gluing. Then I just made sure not to use too much glue, and immediately cleaned up the squeeze out with a damp paper towel.


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## mdntrdr (Dec 22, 2009)

Nice job, with minimal tools! :thumbsup:

Have you chosen a finish yet?


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I don't exactly know how to put it but your tenon is too short for a breadboard end. The next time you do one make it an inch or more long. The way the table is now the dowel pins are barely touching the ends of the tenon.


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## trentwilson43056 (Nov 10, 2015)

I freakin' love it dude.You know I've heard it said that a good carpenter is not one who makes no mistakes but one who can make adjustments and hide his mistakes well.I also apply the Bob Ross view.There are no mistakes but happy accidents and opportunities to come up with something even more cool.He was the painter with the frizzy hair on PBS.Oh and the bandsaw thing,you're at least the second one to do that.You might wanna try scribing your rabbets with an extremely sharp carving knives on the end to help with the problem of knocking out chunks.Woodcarvers call it a stop cut.


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## trentwilson43056 (Nov 10, 2015)

Hey Jeremy what brand and model plow plane are you using?Could you recommend another model.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Regarding tenon length, I actually have longer tenons in fairly loose mortises where the dowel pins go. I cut the groove as deep as I possibly could with my plow plane, but it obly goes to 3/8" deep. That's the exact diameter of the dowels I wanted to use! So I just bored mortises in parts of the groove then trimmed the tongue so that it fit the groove where there wasn't a mortise. Hope that makes sense.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

I'm currently working with a new mujingfang wooden plow plane. I read a lot of good reviews on it, so you might like yours if you got one. But I find it difficult to adjust the iron - the wedge is held by a thin brass rod, and the rod deformed the wedge such that I can essentially tap the wedge until it hits the part where the indentation is, and then it's nearly impossible to move the wedge forward or backward. 


Also, the thumbscrew mechanism that holds the fence in place doesn't hold that well. I ended up stripping the one screw trying to tighten it enough. Then I had to fiddle with it to get it to hold at all... I mean, it did work, but I didn't enjoy it. 

I also suspect th the skate in the front doesn't line up with the rear skate. Sometimes the plane just won't seem to cut even though the iron seems to be out far enough. Not sure. 

I've never used another plow plane, but I've been eying up a vintage stanley or record plane. I've heard they're reliable. Or if I come into some money maybe I'd buy the veritas small plow.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

I finish sanded it today. Ready for my brother and his girlfriend to finish! I believe that they will be staining it and then brushing on a few coats of polyurethane. Nothing out of the ordinary. I'm not great at finishing, and it's honestly my least favorite part of woodworking, so I was happy to let them do it for me. 

Trent, thanks for the compliments. Glad I'm not the only one making mistakes with a band saw. Lol.


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

I like the wood and the legs, but ...


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## trentwilson43056 (Nov 10, 2015)

Sounds like that plane needs to go in the trash.Man I was able through a art time job able to bu my first high quality plane.I bough a Lie Nielson block/tennon plane with nickers.And to tell you the truth I'm a little intimidated by the quality level and it doesn't seem right to use it for it's purpose.It's seems it should be on an alter and worshiped.lol,not really.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

@mikechell - you can see a gap on that far end, but it's definitely not coming loose - it's just that the rabbet I made didn't come out perfectly straight. I know It looks like the tongue is too short, but like I said in a previous post, there are longer tenons in deeper mortises where the dowels are. The tenons where the dowels are go to about 3/4 the depth of the end board. 5 of them total, each about 2 inches wide.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Like this:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/assets/uploads/posts/12058/Breadboard4_xl.jpg


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## trentwilson43056 (Nov 10, 2015)

Pay attention mike.lol


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

Okay, okay ... I believe you !!! LOL
But I will be watching ... QQ


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Nice work, just goes to show you don't need a shop full of tools to get a job done.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Mike, I can still agree that the breadboard end is the weakest point of this table. The frame is sturdy, and the center panel is t going anywhere. If someone really beats on the breadboard end I'm sure they could either break the tenons, or break the bit of wood between the dowel and the main part of table. But it's just a coffee table, and the end piece is only a couple inches wide. The worst thing to should ever happen to it is that someone may sit on it. But since the end is so narrow, they'd probably be sitting mostly on the main part of the top anyway. I'll let you know if they manage to break it though!


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Forgive us, we weren't there when the table was made. All we can do is go by is the picture. I understand what you did and the table should be alright.


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## trentwilson43056 (Nov 10, 2015)

Well,that's better.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

@steve - no excuses! Lol. But seriously I can understand your concern from just looking at the finished product.


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## mat 60 (Jul 9, 2012)

Glad everything worked out...Like the table.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

My brother and his girlfriend finished the table recently! I attached some images.

Looking at it in their living room, I think the proportions may be a bit off - if I did it again, I'd make the breadboard ends wider, the skirt a bit wider, and maybe make the top 5/4 rather than 4/4.. I also think that this will be the last project I make from red oak for a while - kind of get sick of looking at the grain of red oak after a while. 

But over all I'm really pretty happy with it! I think works in the space they put it in, and I love looking at the breadboard joinery detail - really adds some visual interest to a table top.


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