A LIGHT LIBRARY TABLE
The Design.—This is to be a table designed on simple lines and of good proportions. It is to have no drawer but as much shelf room as conveniently possible. The under shelf is designed to be cut out to allow a chair to be drawn up on either side. The end shelves may be regarded as designed to combine a bookcase with the table, thus adding much to its usefulness.
Materials and Tools.—For a table of this kind oak is very appropriate. The following list gives the stock required for one table. The widths and the thickness are as called for in the drawing, but the lengths are given a little long to allow for cutting. A board not less than 9 inches wide and 10 feet long will be needed as stock for the top, the dimensions of which are 7⁄8 × 26 × 39 inches. A 10-inch board, 41⁄2 feet in length, will also be required for the shelves. There will also be needed four legs 13⁄4 × 13⁄4 × 30 inches; eight slats 1⁄2 × 11⁄2 × 18 inches; two back pieces 1⁄2 × 2 × 201⁄2 inches; two rails 7⁄8 × 3 × 32 inches; and two rails 7⁄8 × 3 × 20 inches.
A light library table
The same tools will be required as in the foregoing problems excepting that a 1⁄2-inch bit and a 1⁄2-inch chisel will be required for mortising, and two 3-foot clamps.
Construction.—The first step in the construction is to dress the stock, smoothing, scraping, and sand-papering it, and working the various parts to size. The lengths, however, of all parts excepting the legs are not cut accurately until, in the process of construction, these parts are needed. The legs are at once cut to length and the mortises laid out, bored, and cut. A gain should also be cut in each leg, into which the bottom shelf is to be fitted, glued, and bradded from the under side. The end and side rails may then be laid off for shoulders and tenons, and cut. In this case the tenons should be made 1⁄2 of an inch wide.
Construction details and dimensions (a) front; (b) end
In gluing up, the top should receive attention first, in order to allow the longest possible time for testing the work under the inevitable changes due to continued seasoning. Great care must always be exercised in making the glued joints. It is often necessary to make them over on account of the development of cracks. Proper care, however, will prevent this. The general directions for gluing, given at the beginning of this chapter, will be of service.
As soon as the top has been glued the four short side pieces may be glued to the shelf, taking pains to make good joints before applying the glue. It should be noted that the inside ends of these short pieces are to be 15 inches apart, and it is important that the ends on opposite sides should be exactly squared across, as indicated in the drawings. This may be accomplished by first locating the centre of the shelf, at the intersection of lines, marked c in the drawing, and measuring 71⁄2 inches each way to the line of the back pieces, which are to run across the whole bottom shelf. As soon as the glue is hardened the ends should be squared and made true to set into the gains when the table is assembled. Finally, the legs, the rails, and the shelf may be assembled, glued, squared up, clamped, and set aside to harden before the clamps are removed.
It is a good plan to brad the shelf in from the under side before the glue hardens. After standing a few hours the table will be ready for the 1⁄2-inch strip which forms the back of the shelf. This is to be fitted and bradded in. Then the slats may be cut to length. They project slightly below the shelf, and are fastened in position by screws. The top may be cut to length and its ends smoothed, after which it may be fastened on the frame by means of screws and buttons, as already described in the early part of this chapter.