NickM
Old Oak
The coopered joints on the column look absolutely perfect as you can see from the bit you cut off.
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Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
Garden Table
- Thread starter Dr.Al
- Start date
Dr.Al
Old Oak
We had a couple of days away in London to see the Japanese woodwork exhibition at Japan House (which was excellent), but this morning I was able to get on with the rest of the arms. The process was much the same as the first one, except that I used the Dozuki for all the cuts, rather than changing around saws.
With them all done, I could do a trial fit (apologies for the rather cluttered background of this photo: I'm overdue a tidy-up):
They're fitted such that they sit about 2 mm proud of the end-grain of the central column. While they were in situ, I marked a knife line slightly outside the shoulder line:
The tail then got pared down to the line and to the 2 mm depth corresponding with how far proud they sit.
Meanwhile, the 3D-printer had been making this:
That gets fitted onto the end of the central column, with its top surface level with the top surface of the arms:
It's probably unnecessary really, but the idea was that it would stop water getting into the end grain of the column pieces (or the end of the dovetail joints).
With all the arms fitted, I could decide on an appropriate length and chop...
... and shoot for a better finish:
I could easily have stopped there, but ambition got the better of me. I clamped a couple of bits of wood to one of the arms and bent a steel rule into what looked like a reasonable curve:
Having marked that, I used a spokeshave to shape an off-cut into a template that matched that curve:
I could then use that template to mark all the pieces with the same line:
The bulk of the waste got removed with the bandsaw, staying a millimetre or two from the line:
I then had an opportunity to (sharpen and) use a tool that I've never tried before. This compass plane was given to me as a birthday present by my parents a few years ago. I don't think they expected me to use it; they just wanted to give me a plane that they were fairly sure I wouldn't already have!
It was definitely a challenging thing to use (far more so than a normal bench plane), but I got better at it as I worked through the pieces. Each one needed a little bit of smoothing out with a card scraper after I'd stopped with the compass plane, but each one required a little bit less of that than the previous one!
The arms are all done now, apart from a bit of final tidying up and breaking of sharp corners and such-like, which I'll do just before gluing the column together.
The next job is to start work on the legs. I'm still not completely sure what shape / size to make these, but for thickness at least I'm thinking I'll go for 40 mm or thereabouts. Pretty much everything I've made so far has been 30 to 32 mm thick (and I've still got more sweet chestnut of the same size that would suit that), but I've got a plank of forty-something millimetre sweet chestnut that I think will probably end up as 40 mm once planed and that feels like a fairly sensible option for the legs.
With them all done, I could do a trial fit (apologies for the rather cluttered background of this photo: I'm overdue a tidy-up):
They're fitted such that they sit about 2 mm proud of the end-grain of the central column. While they were in situ, I marked a knife line slightly outside the shoulder line:
The tail then got pared down to the line and to the 2 mm depth corresponding with how far proud they sit.
Meanwhile, the 3D-printer had been making this:
That gets fitted onto the end of the central column, with its top surface level with the top surface of the arms:
It's probably unnecessary really, but the idea was that it would stop water getting into the end grain of the column pieces (or the end of the dovetail joints).
With all the arms fitted, I could decide on an appropriate length and chop...
... and shoot for a better finish:
I could easily have stopped there, but ambition got the better of me. I clamped a couple of bits of wood to one of the arms and bent a steel rule into what looked like a reasonable curve:
Having marked that, I used a spokeshave to shape an off-cut into a template that matched that curve:
I could then use that template to mark all the pieces with the same line:
The bulk of the waste got removed with the bandsaw, staying a millimetre or two from the line:
I then had an opportunity to (sharpen and) use a tool that I've never tried before. This compass plane was given to me as a birthday present by my parents a few years ago. I don't think they expected me to use it; they just wanted to give me a plane that they were fairly sure I wouldn't already have!
It was definitely a challenging thing to use (far more so than a normal bench plane), but I got better at it as I worked through the pieces. Each one needed a little bit of smoothing out with a card scraper after I'd stopped with the compass plane, but each one required a little bit less of that than the previous one!
The arms are all done now, apart from a bit of final tidying up and breaking of sharp corners and such-like, which I'll do just before gluing the column together.
The next job is to start work on the legs. I'm still not completely sure what shape / size to make these, but for thickness at least I'm thinking I'll go for 40 mm or thereabouts. Pretty much everything I've made so far has been 30 to 32 mm thick (and I've still got more sweet chestnut of the same size that would suit that), but I've got a plank of forty-something millimetre sweet chestnut that I think will probably end up as 40 mm once planed and that feels like a fairly sensible option for the legs.
I'm noting some themes here that feel very familiar... the untidy background... changing the design a bit so you can use a specialist tool and find out what it's good at...
Now I just need to find my own reasons why I too need a 3D printer!
Now I just need to find my own reasons why I too need a 3D printer!
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Yeah, tidiness has never been my forté
The design change was @Mike G 's fault. It hadn't occurred to me before he posted the sketch with sliding dovetails & a curved lower surface. It was nice to try out the compass plane though: it's been sitting there idle for far too long.
I'm planning to stick with fairly plain (i.e. straight sided) legs though, so this might be the compass plane's last outing for a few more years!
It's amazing how many things it comes in handy for.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I mentioned in the last post that I had a thicker bit of sweet chestnut that I could use for the legs. This is that piece:
As you can see, it's quite a bit longer than my bench! It also has a rather long split down the length and lots and lots of knots, so it's probably not the best bit of wood all things considered. It is, however, quite a bit thicker than the other plank; this photo shows one of the thinnest bits (and the price I paid for the plank: £39.50):
Having examined it carefully, I realised that, despite this being a fairly big bit of wood, by the time I'd discarded the split and the bits with the worst knots, there isn't actually that much good (for which read "easy for a beginner to deal with") wood in there. It looked like the best I could do would be to cut it in half lengthways, then split the one with the crack up (using an axe in lieu of a froe):
I could then saw out four pieces (two from each end), all 500 mm long and 90 mm wide:
That left a fair amount of spare wood, but none of it looks especially useful given all the knots etc.
Three of them are good; the other has a knot hole in the end (which will get chopped off when I cut it to length) and a rather more problematic knot hole in the middle:
The same hole after roughly planing the face:
I think the only way I'm going to be able to deal with that is to cut it out and put in a graving piece (aka "Dutchman") of some sort. The decision I need to make is what shape to make the graving piece. The easy option would be (I think) to drill the knot out with a big Forstner bit and then turn a tight-fitting dowel to fit in the drilled hole. That would be quite straightforward I think and would minimise the amount of wood I'm removing from the leg. However, the grain will be completely different if I do that. The alternative would be to make a triangular graving piece from one of the many, many off-cuts this project has produced and then try to fit that into a matching cut-out. Thoughts, as always, are welcome...
As you can see, it's quite a bit longer than my bench! It also has a rather long split down the length and lots and lots of knots, so it's probably not the best bit of wood all things considered. It is, however, quite a bit thicker than the other plank; this photo shows one of the thinnest bits (and the price I paid for the plank: £39.50):
Having examined it carefully, I realised that, despite this being a fairly big bit of wood, by the time I'd discarded the split and the bits with the worst knots, there isn't actually that much good (for which read "easy for a beginner to deal with") wood in there. It looked like the best I could do would be to cut it in half lengthways, then split the one with the crack up (using an axe in lieu of a froe):
I could then saw out four pieces (two from each end), all 500 mm long and 90 mm wide:
That left a fair amount of spare wood, but none of it looks especially useful given all the knots etc.
Three of them are good; the other has a knot hole in the end (which will get chopped off when I cut it to length) and a rather more problematic knot hole in the middle:
The same hole after roughly planing the face:
I think the only way I'm going to be able to deal with that is to cut it out and put in a graving piece (aka "Dutchman") of some sort. The decision I need to make is what shape to make the graving piece. The easy option would be (I think) to drill the knot out with a big Forstner bit and then turn a tight-fitting dowel to fit in the drilled hole. That would be quite straightforward I think and would minimise the amount of wood I'm removing from the leg. However, the grain will be completely different if I do that. The alternative would be to make a triangular graving piece from one of the many, many off-cuts this project has produced and then try to fit that into a matching cut-out. Thoughts, as always, are welcome...
Well, it could be an excuse to acquire a matched pair of a drill bit and plug cutter, then you could try with cross-grain round plugs.
Otherwise you'll be treating the hole as a mortise and cutting the plug to match. I think you already know it's a good idea to cut the plug first (tapered a bit) mark round it and then cut the hole.
Or you could ignore it - unless Mike G is likely to visit - I've heard he likes to lie on the floor with a torch and inspect legs for minor blemishes!
Otherwise you'll be treating the hole as a mortise and cutting the plug to match. I think you already know it's a good idea to cut the plug first (tapered a bit) mark round it and then cut the hole.
Or you could ignore it - unless Mike G is likely to visit - I've heard he likes to lie on the floor with a torch and inspect legs for minor blemishes!
Dr.Al
Old Oak
This evening I thought I'd have a go at filling the knot hole in. I pondered the idea of taking a big triangular chunk out of the corner of the wood and filling it in with a single piece, but that felt a bit too risky and somewhat beyond my skills (as I'd have to make the infill piece have just the right angle between the two faces). Instead, I decided to insert two infill pieces, one on each face. I also decided to do them one at a time. I started with the side that will be on the underside of the leg and hence invisible unless anyone is inclined to lie on the floor and look up.
I started by laying a bit of tracing paper over the plank, drawing a rhombus on it and then tracing the grain pattern around it:
I spent a while rummaging in the various chestnut off-cuts, but couldn't find anything that was a particularly good match (it wasn't helped by the way the grain bends around the knot). This was the best I could find, so I used a scriber to transfer the four points across in the right places:
The dots got joined with a pencil:
After sawing out the shape, I planed the faces smooth and square and then moved the plane over to the side and planed a couple more times to add a slight taper to the part (so it's narrower at the bottom than at the top):
I could then lie it on top of the main plank and knife around it:
To hollow it out, I used an 8 mm mortice chisel to get rid of most of the waste, then a 12 mm bevel-edge chisel, a skew chisel (to get into the corners) and my small #722 mini router plane (to even up the bottom a bit, because, well, why not?):
The clamp is there as the wood split very slightly near the tip, so I wicked in some superglue and added a clamp to hold it together while I finished chopping.
Everything then got daubed in glue (after adding a light chamfer to the bottom of the infill piece with a chisel):
The persuading stick was then applied to get it into the hole:
I was then a little impatient and, without waiting for the glue to dry, planed it flush:
Not bad, but not perfect.
Tomorrow I'll have a go at filling in the hole from the other end with a second infill piece.
I started by laying a bit of tracing paper over the plank, drawing a rhombus on it and then tracing the grain pattern around it:
I spent a while rummaging in the various chestnut off-cuts, but couldn't find anything that was a particularly good match (it wasn't helped by the way the grain bends around the knot). This was the best I could find, so I used a scriber to transfer the four points across in the right places:
The dots got joined with a pencil:
After sawing out the shape, I planed the faces smooth and square and then moved the plane over to the side and planed a couple more times to add a slight taper to the part (so it's narrower at the bottom than at the top):
I could then lie it on top of the main plank and knife around it:
To hollow it out, I used an 8 mm mortice chisel to get rid of most of the waste, then a 12 mm bevel-edge chisel, a skew chisel (to get into the corners) and my small #722 mini router plane (to even up the bottom a bit, because, well, why not?):
The clamp is there as the wood split very slightly near the tip, so I wicked in some superglue and added a clamp to hold it together while I finished chopping.
Everything then got daubed in glue (after adding a light chamfer to the bottom of the infill piece with a chisel):
The persuading stick was then applied to get it into the hole:
I was then a little impatient and, without waiting for the glue to dry, planed it flush:
Not bad, but not perfect.
Tomorrow I'll have a go at filling in the hole from the other end with a second infill piece.
Cabinetman
Sequoia
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2020
- Messages
- 5,179
- Reaction score
- 960
- Location
- Lincolnshire Wolds + Massachusetts
- Name
- Ian
You’ve got the grain pretty good there Al, there’s only you will ever spot it.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
This afternoon, the other end of the knot got chopped out (you can see the bottom of the other infill piece in the hole):
The second piece got glued in and then planed flush (again, I struggled to find anything with a particularly closely matching grain):
After planing both faces and both edges of all four legs, I was sweltering in the June-day heat, so I decided to call it a day and open a bottle of Le Lamballais Cidre Brut. All being well, tomorrow I'll cut the column to length and get started on cutting the sliding dovetails that will connect column to legs.
The second piece got glued in and then planed flush (again, I struggled to find anything with a particularly closely matching grain):
After planing both faces and both edges of all four legs, I was sweltering in the June-day heat, so I decided to call it a day and open a bottle of Le Lamballais Cidre Brut. All being well, tomorrow I'll cut the column to length and get started on cutting the sliding dovetails that will connect column to legs.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Although I'd put the arms to one side earlier, there were still some minor jobs to be done. I C-clamped a fence and stop to the pillar drill's table and used a 22 mm Forstner bit to drill a hole near the end of each arm:
I then drilled through 6 mm in the same place. That hole will house a 4 mm screw and a 20 mm washer, but allow a millimetre of movement in any direction. Hopefully that'll be enough, but I can always enlarge the hole if necessary.
The screw in the photo is far too short, but I've ordered some longer ones. I'd originally been planning to hold the table top to the arms with buttons, but this seemed a perfectly valid way and a bit quicker to do.
I also wanted to round off the corners on the ends of the arms, so I found a big washer and drew round it (in two goes as it's a bit smaller diameter than the width of the arm):
I then used my 16 mm chisel to cut a flat...
... and then kept chiselling until the flat became roughly round:
All four done:
They still need the edges chamfering a bit, but I'll leave that until everything else is done. I'm really pleased with those round-overs. They may not look like much, but it really wasn't very long ago that I would have resorted to either an electric router with a template or some sort of sanding thing to make a curved edge. Doing it with a chisel was much more enjoyable and much more satisfying.
The next job on the legs was to prepare the tapered sliding dovetails. After a final play around in CAD, I decided on an angle of 50° to the vertical (and hence 40° to horizontal). It probably would have been easier to go with 45°, but when have I ever gone with the easy option?! I started by using a digital angle gauge to mark 50° and 40° angles on a piece of plywood):
I could then use those lines to set up a pair of sliding bevels and use the 50° one of those to mark the end of the legs and the sliding dovetail's shoulder line:
The end then got chopped off with the Ryoba...
... and then the leg got a quick pass on the shooting board to give a clean end because, well, why not?
Marking the 1:6 angle I was aiming for couldn't be done with my normal dovetail marking gauge thing due to the angle on the end, so I used the gauge to mark the angle on a bit of plywood with a 90° corner and then set a sliding bevel off the side of the plywood and that allowed me to draw the angle like this:
With that done and the taper angle (2°) marked, everything was, I thought, ready for sawing...
... so I sawed the sides of the tails on the first leg using my Dozuki:
At this point I realised (just in time) that it would be better not to have an acute corner at the top of the leg, so I marked up a bit for chopping off:
Doing that before the rest of the cuts means that I could have a knifed shoulder line at the top, which should look better. Lots of sawing and paring later and I had four legs with tails all prepared:
I picked what felt like an appropriate length for the legs and marked the other end of all of them (again avoiding a sharp corner):
I could then clamp a straight edge to what would be the bottom of the leg and use a steel rule to measure the height up to the bottom of the dovetail:
I could have just done that with some very simple maths (l×sin(θ)), but measuring directly seemed a bit more idiot-proof. The total height of the table will be the distance just measured plus the height of the column plus the thickness of the plastic rain cap thing plus the thickness of the table top. All of those dimensions are known except for the total height of the table and the height of the column.
After some consultation with the other half, we decided on a table top height of 750 mm. It'll be easy enough to tweak a bit later if required (either by shortening the legs or adding some plastic feet on the bottom of the legs, which I may do anyway). Having chosen that dimension, I could work out the required central column height and (after taking a deep breath), get the Ryoba out and have at it:
It occurred to me that the method I used to allow mortice chiselling into the column would also allow me to grip the column more firmly in the vice, especially when used in combination with the off-cut as an anti-racking thing. That made it a lot easier to plane the sawn-off surface of the column:
That brings us up to date; the next job is to cut the sockets for the leg dovetails.
After that's done, there's not much more to do, although chamfering edges and giving everything a final going over with a plane will take quite a while. The underside of the table top needs loads of work to deal with the fact that the planks that made it up weren't all the same thickness. Nevertheless, it's starting to feel like I'm on the home straight.
I then drilled through 6 mm in the same place. That hole will house a 4 mm screw and a 20 mm washer, but allow a millimetre of movement in any direction. Hopefully that'll be enough, but I can always enlarge the hole if necessary.
The screw in the photo is far too short, but I've ordered some longer ones. I'd originally been planning to hold the table top to the arms with buttons, but this seemed a perfectly valid way and a bit quicker to do.
I also wanted to round off the corners on the ends of the arms, so I found a big washer and drew round it (in two goes as it's a bit smaller diameter than the width of the arm):
I then used my 16 mm chisel to cut a flat...
... and then kept chiselling until the flat became roughly round:
All four done:
They still need the edges chamfering a bit, but I'll leave that until everything else is done. I'm really pleased with those round-overs. They may not look like much, but it really wasn't very long ago that I would have resorted to either an electric router with a template or some sort of sanding thing to make a curved edge. Doing it with a chisel was much more enjoyable and much more satisfying.
The next job on the legs was to prepare the tapered sliding dovetails. After a final play around in CAD, I decided on an angle of 50° to the vertical (and hence 40° to horizontal). It probably would have been easier to go with 45°, but when have I ever gone with the easy option?! I started by using a digital angle gauge to mark 50° and 40° angles on a piece of plywood):
I could then use those lines to set up a pair of sliding bevels and use the 50° one of those to mark the end of the legs and the sliding dovetail's shoulder line:
The end then got chopped off with the Ryoba...
... and then the leg got a quick pass on the shooting board to give a clean end because, well, why not?
Marking the 1:6 angle I was aiming for couldn't be done with my normal dovetail marking gauge thing due to the angle on the end, so I used the gauge to mark the angle on a bit of plywood with a 90° corner and then set a sliding bevel off the side of the plywood and that allowed me to draw the angle like this:
With that done and the taper angle (2°) marked, everything was, I thought, ready for sawing...
... so I sawed the sides of the tails on the first leg using my Dozuki:
At this point I realised (just in time) that it would be better not to have an acute corner at the top of the leg, so I marked up a bit for chopping off:
Doing that before the rest of the cuts means that I could have a knifed shoulder line at the top, which should look better. Lots of sawing and paring later and I had four legs with tails all prepared:
I picked what felt like an appropriate length for the legs and marked the other end of all of them (again avoiding a sharp corner):
I could then clamp a straight edge to what would be the bottom of the leg and use a steel rule to measure the height up to the bottom of the dovetail:
I could have just done that with some very simple maths (l×sin(θ)), but measuring directly seemed a bit more idiot-proof. The total height of the table will be the distance just measured plus the height of the column plus the thickness of the plastic rain cap thing plus the thickness of the table top. All of those dimensions are known except for the total height of the table and the height of the column.
After some consultation with the other half, we decided on a table top height of 750 mm. It'll be easy enough to tweak a bit later if required (either by shortening the legs or adding some plastic feet on the bottom of the legs, which I may do anyway). Having chosen that dimension, I could work out the required central column height and (after taking a deep breath), get the Ryoba out and have at it:
It occurred to me that the method I used to allow mortice chiselling into the column would also allow me to grip the column more firmly in the vice, especially when used in combination with the off-cut as an anti-racking thing. That made it a lot easier to plane the sawn-off surface of the column:
That brings us up to date; the next job is to cut the sockets for the leg dovetails.
After that's done, there's not much more to do, although chamfering edges and giving everything a final going over with a plane will take quite a while. The underside of the table top needs loads of work to deal with the fact that the planks that made it up weren't all the same thickness. Nevertheless, it's starting to feel like I'm on the home straight.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I had thought that I'd finished the tails on the legs, but I realised this morning that I still needed to cut the end of the tail off (to hide the end of the socket):
I later also cut the other down slightly so that it had a square end rather than one tapered at the leg angle.
Overnight, I'd 3D-printed a really simple marking guide that lines up with the edges of the column and allows me to draw the shape directly. It's probably unnecessary really, but it sped that job up quite a bit.
From there the process was much the same as the other end of the column, starting with a mortice:
Then some Dozuki saw cuts:
Chiselling was a bit more awkward as (after the first cut to clear a bit of waste quickly), I switched to cutting backwards with the bevel down so that there was less risk of ripping too much out (due to the grain direction):
Likewise, with the router plane, I did the last 20 mm going forward, then flipped the plane round and did the rest towards me:
I said before that I'd cut the tapered end off the tail. That resulted in this flat surface, which could be hit (with a bit of scrap wood between mallet and the end of the tail):
Without the square cut, I'd effectively be hitting the leg up as well as in, which isn't ideal.
With the leg sockets all done, that's all the joinery done. There's still a heck of a lot of tidying up / chamfering / rounding over etc to do, but I couldn't resist a quick trial assembly:
The legs definitely look a bit chunky, which is good in that they'll hopefully be strong, but I think it would be nice to soften the look a bit, so I'm going to round over the top corners. Before doing that though, I thought I'd get on with a job I'd been putting off for quite a while: smoothing the top. I started by using a couple of little planes to chamfer the edges as much as possible:
I then used a chisel to chamfer all the bits the planes couldn't get to. Those chamfers were there to stop the edges breaking out when I attacked the underside of the table with a high-angle blade in a bevel-up smoothing plane:
That was hard work in the heat and the finish still left a bit to be desired, although it was far better than before planing. I also planed the edges using the #4½ with the table clamped in the vice and with a hold-down clamp:
After pondering for quite a while, I grudgingly concluded that the only sensible way to get a good finish on the table top (given that there are so many different grain directions going on and a high risk of breaking edges out even with a card scraper) was to get one of my least favourite tools out: the random orbital sander:
I sanded top and bottom of the table top with 150 grit sandpaper. One fringe benefit of doing this (and the reason I didn't attach the vacuum cleaner to the sander) is that it has given me a bag full of sweet chestnut sanding dust that I can mix with some glue to make filler for some of the little gaps (of which there are quite a few around the perimeter where the bridle joints aren't quite perfect).
I'll follow with some 240 grit sandpaper as one of the last things I do (possibly after assembling the table completely).
Before gluing the column together, I wanted to round the tops of the legs over. I did that (judging the radius by eye) with a block plane with a high-angle blade in it (so I didn't have to think too hard about grain direction):
I also used my home-made block plane (which has a low cutting angle) to plane some chamfers on the edges of the foot:
I also decided to round-over the arms (to make them a bit more comfortable if hit by a knee). After trying all my spokeshaves, I settled on the wooden one as the most enjoyable to use, so the round-over was done (again judging the radius by eye) with that:
Although most of the round-over was done in the vice, I found that a few bits were awkward due to the spokeshave's handle hitting the vice, so I finished it off with the arm clamped to the edge of the bench:
That's it for now. I have mixed up the sandpaper and glue and applied it to the table top in a few places, but I didn't bother to take any photos of that. It'll need another load of sanding when the filler is dry.
I'll glue in the arms pretty soon I think. I may delay gluing the legs in until we've tried the table out (to help assess whether the height is right): those sliding dovetails are strong even without glue, so it should be perfectly usable as a table. If we decide to shorten the legs, then that'll be a lot easier if I can tap them out of the column rather than having to cut them in situ.
I later also cut the other down slightly so that it had a square end rather than one tapered at the leg angle.
Overnight, I'd 3D-printed a really simple marking guide that lines up with the edges of the column and allows me to draw the shape directly. It's probably unnecessary really, but it sped that job up quite a bit.
From there the process was much the same as the other end of the column, starting with a mortice:
Then some Dozuki saw cuts:
Chiselling was a bit more awkward as (after the first cut to clear a bit of waste quickly), I switched to cutting backwards with the bevel down so that there was less risk of ripping too much out (due to the grain direction):
Likewise, with the router plane, I did the last 20 mm going forward, then flipped the plane round and did the rest towards me:
I said before that I'd cut the tapered end off the tail. That resulted in this flat surface, which could be hit (with a bit of scrap wood between mallet and the end of the tail):
Without the square cut, I'd effectively be hitting the leg up as well as in, which isn't ideal.
With the leg sockets all done, that's all the joinery done. There's still a heck of a lot of tidying up / chamfering / rounding over etc to do, but I couldn't resist a quick trial assembly:
The legs definitely look a bit chunky, which is good in that they'll hopefully be strong, but I think it would be nice to soften the look a bit, so I'm going to round over the top corners. Before doing that though, I thought I'd get on with a job I'd been putting off for quite a while: smoothing the top. I started by using a couple of little planes to chamfer the edges as much as possible:
I then used a chisel to chamfer all the bits the planes couldn't get to. Those chamfers were there to stop the edges breaking out when I attacked the underside of the table with a high-angle blade in a bevel-up smoothing plane:
That was hard work in the heat and the finish still left a bit to be desired, although it was far better than before planing. I also planed the edges using the #4½ with the table clamped in the vice and with a hold-down clamp:
After pondering for quite a while, I grudgingly concluded that the only sensible way to get a good finish on the table top (given that there are so many different grain directions going on and a high risk of breaking edges out even with a card scraper) was to get one of my least favourite tools out: the random orbital sander:
I sanded top and bottom of the table top with 150 grit sandpaper. One fringe benefit of doing this (and the reason I didn't attach the vacuum cleaner to the sander) is that it has given me a bag full of sweet chestnut sanding dust that I can mix with some glue to make filler for some of the little gaps (of which there are quite a few around the perimeter where the bridle joints aren't quite perfect).
I'll follow with some 240 grit sandpaper as one of the last things I do (possibly after assembling the table completely).
Before gluing the column together, I wanted to round the tops of the legs over. I did that (judging the radius by eye) with a block plane with a high-angle blade in it (so I didn't have to think too hard about grain direction):
I also used my home-made block plane (which has a low cutting angle) to plane some chamfers on the edges of the foot:
I also decided to round-over the arms (to make them a bit more comfortable if hit by a knee). After trying all my spokeshaves, I settled on the wooden one as the most enjoyable to use, so the round-over was done (again judging the radius by eye) with that:
Although most of the round-over was done in the vice, I found that a few bits were awkward due to the spokeshave's handle hitting the vice, so I finished it off with the arm clamped to the edge of the bench:
That's it for now. I have mixed up the sandpaper and glue and applied it to the table top in a few places, but I didn't bother to take any photos of that. It'll need another load of sanding when the filler is dry.
I'll glue in the arms pretty soon I think. I may delay gluing the legs in until we've tried the table out (to help assess whether the height is right): those sliding dovetails are strong even without glue, so it should be perfectly usable as a table. If we decide to shorten the legs, then that'll be a lot easier if I can tap them out of the column rather than having to cut them in situ.
NickM
Old Oak
It's a really smart table with some complicated joinery.
Cabinetman
Sequoia
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The only thing I can see could do with some work is the ends of the feet but as you say you want to confirm the height.
A very nice piece of work Al, you are entitled to feel proud of it.
A very nice piece of work Al, you are entitled to feel proud of it.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Thanks Ian. Apart from the rounding over of the top of the legs (which I've obviously already done), I'd be interested in your thoughts on what you'd do to the ends of the feet. I think they look a lot better than they did before the round-over (this photo taken before I also slightly chamfered all the edges):
but that's not to say I think they're perfect by any means and I'm very open to suggestions for further improvements.
I'm contemplating adding a thin (probably 3 mm thick) plastic piece to the underside of the feet (to help stop water soaking up from the ground), but that won't really change the look of them much I think.
Mike Jordan
Sapling
Just given my original iroko tables a splash of colour.
MattS
Nordic Pine
Great looking table and a very enjoyable read thanks for taking the time to do it. I wouldn't add anything beyond the roundover, the top and middle cylinder have sharp edges and they could start looking a bit disconnected.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Hmmm... let me think...I reckon you'd enjoy carving a ball and claw on each end, or maybe the sort of lion's foot pad you see on a posh cast iron bath...
No.
3D printing them then?Hmmm... let me think...
No.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
D'ya reckon that'd look good?3D printing them then?
Dr.Al
Old Oak
There's a well-known quote, often mis-attributed to Albert Einstein (but actually probably from the author Rita Mae Brown) that runs something along the lines of "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". In many situations in the past, I've tried mixing (or applying sequentially in one order or the other) glue and sanding dust with the expectation that it would nicely fill in small gaps. Every time I've tried it in the past the results have been really disappointing.
Nevertheless, for some reason (perhaps insanity?) I thought that this time would be different and I confidently (stupidly?) filled in any gaps I could see on the top and sides of the table top with a mixture of glue (mostly Titebond 3 but in a few places thin superglue) and the sanding dust I'd collected. The grain colour match is... well... not quite what I was hoping for:
Another instance:
As penance for my stupidity I decided the only option was to clean the excess off and dig out the most prominent bits of the filler. For the sides, that was simply a case of re-planing the edge and then using an 8 mm chisel to pick out the filled in bits. For the face, I started using the random orbital sander, but it was going nowhere fast, so I switched to a card scraper, which still took a while but was much better than the sander. The gaps were very small on the top, so picking the filler out was done with a knife.
As an alternative, I decided to try a pot of white oak filler that I bought about five years ago:
That was perhaps a bit better, but still not great:
On the top surface, I think it'll be fine as the gaps are all very small. I think I'm going to rely on the fact that people won't generally be looking that closely at the edges and at least it isn't as obvious as it was with the dust/glue mix filler.
I've still got some more gaps to fill; I'm doing small areas at a time so I can see how they look before doing too many more (after the pain of getting carried away with that awful dust/glue mix). In the meantime though, I thought I'd do something a little more productive and less frustrating: gluing the arms into the column. Before doing that, I wanted to add my logo:
I probably need to practice a bit more with the brand (in particular getting the orientation right), but I think it looks okay. With the logo burnt in, I could glue the arms in:
I haven't used any clamps as I think the sliding dovetails should do the job of clamping without any assistance. As I've said before, I'm going to leave gluing the legs in until we've had a chance to try the table out and see how the height feels, so this will be the last bit of gluing for a while.
Apart from all the filling / sanding down filler, there aren't many things left to do now I think. I'll probably fit some thin plastic spacers under the feet (to keep the wood off the ground), I need to drill the pilot holes for the screws that attach the table top to the column arms, and that's about it. The current plan (unless lots of people reading this think it's a really stupid idea) is to leave the table unfinished, so that at least will save a big and very tedious job!
Nevertheless, for some reason (perhaps insanity?) I thought that this time would be different and I confidently (stupidly?) filled in any gaps I could see on the top and sides of the table top with a mixture of glue (mostly Titebond 3 but in a few places thin superglue) and the sanding dust I'd collected. The grain colour match is... well... not quite what I was hoping for:
Another instance:
As penance for my stupidity I decided the only option was to clean the excess off and dig out the most prominent bits of the filler. For the sides, that was simply a case of re-planing the edge and then using an 8 mm chisel to pick out the filled in bits. For the face, I started using the random orbital sander, but it was going nowhere fast, so I switched to a card scraper, which still took a while but was much better than the sander. The gaps were very small on the top, so picking the filler out was done with a knife.
As an alternative, I decided to try a pot of white oak filler that I bought about five years ago:
That was perhaps a bit better, but still not great:
On the top surface, I think it'll be fine as the gaps are all very small. I think I'm going to rely on the fact that people won't generally be looking that closely at the edges and at least it isn't as obvious as it was with the dust/glue mix filler.
I've still got some more gaps to fill; I'm doing small areas at a time so I can see how they look before doing too many more (after the pain of getting carried away with that awful dust/glue mix). In the meantime though, I thought I'd do something a little more productive and less frustrating: gluing the arms into the column. Before doing that, I wanted to add my logo:
I probably need to practice a bit more with the brand (in particular getting the orientation right), but I think it looks okay. With the logo burnt in, I could glue the arms in:
I haven't used any clamps as I think the sliding dovetails should do the job of clamping without any assistance. As I've said before, I'm going to leave gluing the legs in until we've had a chance to try the table out and see how the height feels, so this will be the last bit of gluing for a while.
Apart from all the filling / sanding down filler, there aren't many things left to do now I think. I'll probably fit some thin plastic spacers under the feet (to keep the wood off the ground), I need to drill the pilot holes for the screws that attach the table top to the column arms, and that's about it. The current plan (unless lots of people reading this think it's a really stupid idea) is to leave the table unfinished, so that at least will save a big and very tedious job!
Cabinetman
Sequoia
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I think if it were me just rounding over - a bit ball like.Thanks Ian. Apart from the rounding over of the top of the legs (which I've obviously already done), I'd be interested in your thoughts on what you'd do to the ends of the feet. I think they look a lot better than they did before the round-over (this photo taken before I also slightly chamfered all the edges):
but that's not to say I think they're perfect by any means and I'm very open to suggestions for further improvements.
I'm contemplating adding a thin (probably 3 mm thick) plastic piece to the underside of the feet (to help stop water soaking up from the ground), but that won't really change the look of them much I think.
Some Merican feet, just because lol.
Attachments
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Just a small update. A few minor jobs ticked off the list. I printed a little (temporary) alignment piece to line the plastic spacer thing up with the central hole in the table top:
I could then mount the column/arms on the plastic spacer and it would guarantee that it was central to the top. That made it nice and easy to mark the screw hole locations (ready for pilot drilling) using a transfer punch:
I've also printed a handful of extra bits and bobs:
At the back-right, there are some simple plastic spacers that will get screwed to the table feet (once the height is finalised) and will keep the wood a few millimetres off the ground to help longevity. In the front is a new version of the column cap and back-left is an insert for the parasol hole.
The new column cap is smaller and thinner and has ribs on the underside. The idea of the ribs that is that they will hopefully allow any condensation to escape. The idea of it being thinner is that it leaves a small gap above the spacer and below the table top, so water is less likely to pool there. I'll see how it goes and keep an eye on it (above and below). If it's causing more problems than it's solving it'll be very easy to remove later.
The parasol hole insert thing just protects the edges of the holes from being battered if the parasol sways in the wind. It's designed to be fairly flimsy (while still looking okay from above). The benefit of it being flimsy is that, if/when the central cross-bars expand with humidity, the plastic thing should just flex rather than restricting that movement.
The rest of what's been going on whenever it has been cool enough to be in the workshop has been noisy, dusty and tedious sanding:
The result of the filling is very visible to me, but I suspect no-one else will ever notice it, so I'm going to accept it as I'm really keen to get this project over and done with. We'll be considering the height a bit over the next day or two and then will hopefully get the legs finalised and glued in very soon and then I'll call it done.
I could then mount the column/arms on the plastic spacer and it would guarantee that it was central to the top. That made it nice and easy to mark the screw hole locations (ready for pilot drilling) using a transfer punch:
I've also printed a handful of extra bits and bobs:
At the back-right, there are some simple plastic spacers that will get screwed to the table feet (once the height is finalised) and will keep the wood a few millimetres off the ground to help longevity. In the front is a new version of the column cap and back-left is an insert for the parasol hole.
The new column cap is smaller and thinner and has ribs on the underside. The idea of the ribs that is that they will hopefully allow any condensation to escape. The idea of it being thinner is that it leaves a small gap above the spacer and below the table top, so water is less likely to pool there. I'll see how it goes and keep an eye on it (above and below). If it's causing more problems than it's solving it'll be very easy to remove later.
The parasol hole insert thing just protects the edges of the holes from being battered if the parasol sways in the wind. It's designed to be fairly flimsy (while still looking okay from above). The benefit of it being flimsy is that, if/when the central cross-bars expand with humidity, the plastic thing should just flex rather than restricting that movement.
The rest of what's been going on whenever it has been cool enough to be in the workshop has been noisy, dusty and tedious sanding:
The result of the filling is very visible to me, but I suspect no-one else will ever notice it, so I'm going to accept it as I'm really keen to get this project over and done with. We'll be considering the height a bit over the next day or two and then will hopefully get the legs finalised and glued in very soon and then I'll call it done.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
It's finished! Well sort of. It's finished in the sense there are no major jobs (that I can think of) left to do, but it isn't finished in that I'm still waiting for the glue holding the legs on to dry. When that's done, the top will get screwed back on and then it's genuinely finished.
While we've been thinking about table height, the table top was in the garden and got rained on slightly. I say slightly: it was only a few drops really. However, it highlighted another good job to do as the bits that had been rained on felt a bit rough. When applying finish to wood, the first coat (at least) causes the grain to raise slightly and that's why it's best to sand the surfaces down after the first coat. This table isn't getting any finish, so in lieu of that, I got a little atomiser bottle and sprayed water all over the top:
When that had dried, I stuck a bit of 240 grit sandpaper on a hand sanding block and went over the whole top surface to deal with the raised grain.
I'm sure it'll still roughen up with more water applied, but then it'll roughen up with other things being applied too (like red wine, jackdaw poo etc!) There's no point being too precious about the surface of a garden table in my opinion.
I've said a few times that we've been debating the table height quite a bit. That wasn't as simple as it sounds as I also took this as an opportunity to debate the chair height! We have some simple metal frame / plastic mesh chairs (from B&Q). They're very comfortable but a bit too low for us. I've never done anything about it before as the old table was also similarly low but now that I have the opportunity to get the right table height, I can also adjust the chair height.
Of course that introduces another variable, so we spent a while trying different chair heights (with off-cuts under the legs) and finally settled on raising them up by 25 mm. To raise the chairs up, I 3D-printed (with 100% infill) some simple blocks that go over the end of the chair legs:
With that done, we could set the table up in the garden and again tweak the chair height with blocks of wood (this time ignoring how comfortable the chairs were) until the table felt right. That height tweak ended up being 20 mm, so that's how much I need to take off the legs:
Having marked all the legs, I sawed off the bottom...
... then shot the end smooth...
... then repeated for the end.
With that done, I decided to round the end over (thanks for the suggestion Ian), using a saw rasp for the rounding, a spokeshave to continue the edge round-over down around the end round-over and my little home-made block plane to chamfer the bottom edges. Finally, the sandpaper block smoothed out the rough finish left by the saw rasp:
The last job on the legs was then to drill four pilot holes in each one and to screw the plastic spacers (which will hold the wood above the paving slabs and hopefully reduce water ingress) in place:
I decided to try clamping the legs in place (if you remember, I didn't bother with the arms: just relying on the tapered dovetail). It was probably unnecessary again, but I thought it might be good practice for the techniques involved for whenever I have to do something like this for real.
I dug around in the wood bin and found some of the off-cuts that had come off the ends of the legs. Using masking tape, superglue and superglue activator, those blocks got attached to the sloping edge of the legs:
Two of them promptly fell off as the masking tape hadn't stuck to the off-cut for some reason. I re-did those two with the masking tape wrapped all the way round and then added some more masking tape as I figured it couldn't hurt:
I could then daub glue all over the relevant surfaces, tap the pieces home and then use some F-clamps across the clamping blocks. I also added a simple strap around the top end of the legs, but I couldn't pull that tight without it working it's way round the round-over, so I used my home-made bar clamps instead.
The khaki-coloured blanket/throw thing wrapped around the bottom of the column and the arms was there to protect the arms in the event that the F-clamps fell off. I was glad to have used that as I when I went back to the garage an hour or so later I found that both F-clamps had fallen off! Thankfully in this case they probably weren't really needed anyway so it doesn't matter.
That's pretty much it I think. I'll leave the glue overnight and if I have time tomorrow evening I'll move the table into the garden and that'll be that.
While we've been thinking about table height, the table top was in the garden and got rained on slightly. I say slightly: it was only a few drops really. However, it highlighted another good job to do as the bits that had been rained on felt a bit rough. When applying finish to wood, the first coat (at least) causes the grain to raise slightly and that's why it's best to sand the surfaces down after the first coat. This table isn't getting any finish, so in lieu of that, I got a little atomiser bottle and sprayed water all over the top:
When that had dried, I stuck a bit of 240 grit sandpaper on a hand sanding block and went over the whole top surface to deal with the raised grain.
I'm sure it'll still roughen up with more water applied, but then it'll roughen up with other things being applied too (like red wine, jackdaw poo etc!) There's no point being too precious about the surface of a garden table in my opinion.
I've said a few times that we've been debating the table height quite a bit. That wasn't as simple as it sounds as I also took this as an opportunity to debate the chair height! We have some simple metal frame / plastic mesh chairs (from B&Q). They're very comfortable but a bit too low for us. I've never done anything about it before as the old table was also similarly low but now that I have the opportunity to get the right table height, I can also adjust the chair height.
Of course that introduces another variable, so we spent a while trying different chair heights (with off-cuts under the legs) and finally settled on raising them up by 25 mm. To raise the chairs up, I 3D-printed (with 100% infill) some simple blocks that go over the end of the chair legs:
With that done, we could set the table up in the garden and again tweak the chair height with blocks of wood (this time ignoring how comfortable the chairs were) until the table felt right. That height tweak ended up being 20 mm, so that's how much I need to take off the legs:
Having marked all the legs, I sawed off the bottom...
... then shot the end smooth...
... then repeated for the end.
With that done, I decided to round the end over (thanks for the suggestion Ian), using a saw rasp for the rounding, a spokeshave to continue the edge round-over down around the end round-over and my little home-made block plane to chamfer the bottom edges. Finally, the sandpaper block smoothed out the rough finish left by the saw rasp:
The last job on the legs was then to drill four pilot holes in each one and to screw the plastic spacers (which will hold the wood above the paving slabs and hopefully reduce water ingress) in place:
I decided to try clamping the legs in place (if you remember, I didn't bother with the arms: just relying on the tapered dovetail). It was probably unnecessary again, but I thought it might be good practice for the techniques involved for whenever I have to do something like this for real.
I dug around in the wood bin and found some of the off-cuts that had come off the ends of the legs. Using masking tape, superglue and superglue activator, those blocks got attached to the sloping edge of the legs:
Two of them promptly fell off as the masking tape hadn't stuck to the off-cut for some reason. I re-did those two with the masking tape wrapped all the way round and then added some more masking tape as I figured it couldn't hurt:
I could then daub glue all over the relevant surfaces, tap the pieces home and then use some F-clamps across the clamping blocks. I also added a simple strap around the top end of the legs, but I couldn't pull that tight without it working it's way round the round-over, so I used my home-made bar clamps instead.
The khaki-coloured blanket/throw thing wrapped around the bottom of the column and the arms was there to protect the arms in the event that the F-clamps fell off. I was glad to have used that as I when I went back to the garage an hour or so later I found that both F-clamps had fallen off! Thankfully in this case they probably weren't really needed anyway so it doesn't matter.
That's pretty much it I think. I'll leave the glue overnight and if I have time tomorrow evening I'll move the table into the garden and that'll be that.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I don't have much to say today, so I'll just leave these photos here:
With a couple of chairs:
I'm really pleased to see the back of this project, but I'm also pleased with the result. How long do you think I'll have to wait before a bird poos on it?!
With a couple of chairs:
I'm really pleased to see the back of this project, but I'm also pleased with the result. How long do you think I'll have to wait before a bird poos on it?!
Looks excellent Al. How long will it be before you start work on a couple of chairs to match.
Great job. It doesn't seem five minutes ago that you popped up on here as a beginner, asking if you were doing things right.
Now I follow your threads just to watch how well you plan and execute your projects, hoping I can remember your good ideas and techniques.
PS: About five minutes! Magpies are the worst.
Now I follow your threads just to watch how well you plan and execute your projects, hoping I can remember your good ideas and techniques.
PS: About five minutes! Magpies are the worst.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Thanks Andy
How long? Educated guess? Somewhere between 25 years & eternity.How long will it be before you start work on a couple of chairs to match.
I like the idea of making a chair at some point in the (fairly distant) future, but making multiple doesn't appeal at all (I'd be bored after the first one!) and even to make one I don't feel ready for that yet. The challenges with strength & ergonomics belong firmly on the "too hard pile" for now.
Also, the metal frame / plastic mesh ones we've got are incredibly comfortable & they dry out within a few minutes of getting wet. I sincerely doubt I'd match that with a wooden chair.
SamQ aka Ah! Q!
Old Oak
If your pidgeons are like those up here, seconds!
S.
duke
Old Oak
Very well done Dr.Al, sturdy and pleasing on the eyes. 
Cabinetman
Sequoia
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- Lincolnshire Wolds + Massachusetts
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- Ian
Looks really good particularly like the octagonal column, very pleasing colour too. Bet her indoors is pleased too.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
It has lasted one night at least! I doubt it'll make it through the day though...
Very well done Dr.Al, sturdy and pleasing on the eyes.
Thank you Scott
Thanks Ian. I'm sure the colour will fade reasonably soon and it won't be long before it matches the fence, but I like the colour too at the moment! Carolyn seems really pleased with it (and hasn't noticed any of the flaws that I see!)
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Fantastic Al, well done. That's a great result, a nice project, and as always, a really good write-up.
I'm glad you rounded over the end of the feet, which softened up the look quite a lot. It's too late now, but a gentle curve out of the underside of the leg might have helped too. I'm thinking maybe 15mm deep at the mid-point, so nothing too bold.
The ability to make plastic pieces adds an extra dimension, too. I've always been a bit sniffy about plastic in my projects, but it's interesting how often I'm getting DaveL to make little bits for me on one of his 3 printers.
I'm glad you rounded over the end of the feet, which softened up the look quite a lot. It's too late now, but a gentle curve out of the underside of the leg might have helped too. I'm thinking maybe 15mm deep at the mid-point, so nothing too bold.
The ability to make plastic pieces adds an extra dimension, too. I've always been a bit sniffy about plastic in my projects, but it's interesting how often I'm getting DaveL to make little bits for me on one of his 3 printers.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Thanks Mike.
I did wonder about a curve on the underside of the legs, much like the one on the underside of the arms. In the end though it was somewhere in between chickening out (I didn't want to weaken the legs too much) and just wanting to get the damn thing finished!
Steve Maskery
Old Oak
I recognise that feeling only too well!
S
Indeed which is why Al’s comment about making multiples ( chairs) resonates so well with me and why I am in awe of the chair builders around here.
MattS
Nordic Pine
It looks great, well done. I've also been looking at the plastic pieces you printed and how you've integrated it as an invaluable tool. I guess there is a shift in mindset needed, beyond making replacements when things break, to actually use it over other materials and tools.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Thanks Matt.
When I got the 3D-printer I wasn't sure how much I'd use it. I initially expected it would be something that I'd use a lot for a few months as I learnt about it and then it would taper off. That taper off has never seemed to happen.
I do really like having it as a tool. The reason I got into (electronic) engineering as a career was that I really enjoy designing/creating stuff. However, I work for a living and don't have as much time as I'd like so I've always got more ideas than time to work on them.
For a typical woodwork/metalwork project, it might be many week(end)s to make one thing. By comparison, a 3D-printed project can be designed in an evening and printed overnight, so it gives me that creation buzz much quicker and more often! Of course, it's far less satisfying to design something and have it made (by the printer) than it is to design something and then make it yourself, but as long as I can do the latter as well then I'm happy.
It also helps that I enjoy the CAD modelling process. For the simpler end of woodwork/metalwork projects, there's no point drawing it in CAD whereas it's obviously essential for 3D-printing. That means I get to do more CAD (and get a lot more practice at CAD) than I would without the printer.
MattS
Nordic Pine
That's interesting about being able to be creative in limited time. I'm a designer but don't use CAD much so my skills are limited but I think I could pick it up realitively easily. I think it will be my next tool purchase for the workshop. Interesting that you leave it running overnight, is that in the workshop or house? It needs no supervision then, not like leaving a CNC running!?
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I'd never used (3D) CAD at work (I'd obviously used things like 2D electronic schematic capture tools and such-like) and I only learnt how to do so for hobby purposes (starting with some 3D-printing a long time ago using a 3D-printer my previous employer had).
Some of the CAD tools that are freely/cheaply available now (e.g. Onshape, Solidworks Makers Edition) are quite intuitive and there's plenty of good (and up to date) tutorials available so the learning curve isn't as steep as you might imagine. Others are equally powerful (e.g. Solid Edge Community Edition, Autodesk Fusion) but (in my opinion) less intuitive, but still perfectly usable. Then there are open source tools like FreeCAD that are getting better and better (and FreeCAD has the advantage of running on any operating system). Fusion & FreeCAD both suffer from having a lot of out-of-date tutorials around so you can spend a while trying to find something applicable.
The principles of all of the above tools are much the same though so it's not too hard to switch from one to another once you've grasped the basics. I can switch reasonably easily between Solidworks, Onshape, ZW3D, Solid Edge, NX and FreeCAD now (although I use Solidworks by preference). Fusion always takes me a bit longer as they seem to have tried to make things just different enough to be awkward. However, it's quite nice to be able to use the different tools as I occasionally find a Fusion or Solid Edge source file on-line for an interesting design and it gives a bit more power for tweaking vs a STEP file.
It lives in the dining room (which is used more as a home-office than a dining room these days). As to supervision, it depends a bit on the printer and the level of trust / experience you have with it. Newer printers (that do automatic first layer calibration) from reputable brands are generally fire-and-forget. Slightly older printers from reputable brands (like mine) need a bit of care to get the first layer calibration right (which you only have to do again if you change nozzle or base plate) and then they're pretty much fire-and-forget. A lot of the lower end ones you might want to be more careful with as I'm not sure I'd trust them so easily.
I added Octopi (a web interface) to my 3D-printer and it gives you an idea of how confident I've become in its operation that I've designed stuff while away from home and sent the designs over the web to the printer, safe in the knowledge that the printed item would be finished by the time I got home.
My printer is a (designed and made in the Czech Republic) Prusa i3 mk3s+ if memory serves me correctly. If all goes according to plan, I'm going to upgrade it to a newer (and more capable/expensive) one later this year. That's not because there's anything wrong with it: if I had space I'd keep the Prusa as well as buying a newer one (but sadly it's going to have to be sold to make room). The main reason I'm thinking of an upgrade that I want a slightly bigger bed (for larger prints), although I'd also like some of the features that are more readily available on newer printers (e.g. automatic first layer calibration so I can swap nozzles more easily when desired).