My friends Jay Bates and April Wilkerson were visiting so we could build some projects together.  My son wanted an end table for an alarm clock so we figured we could come up with one for him.  He likes bright colors so I choose to dye a piece of curly ambrosia maple to act as the centerpiece of the table.  The base was going to be muted in flat black paint to let the top be the main attraction.  He ended up loving it which is all I can ask for.  Having Jay and April in the shop was a blast.  With woodworking being such a solitary hobby, I highly recommend trying to work with others in the shop.  Not only can it make it a ton more fun, but you can learn so much from each other.  It’s cool to see how even small and simple tasks are performed by someone else. Of course having an extra set of hands for glue-ups is nice as well.

If you aren’t familiar with Jay or April definitely check out their stuff.  Both make some really awesome stuff.  While at my shop April was learning several different methods for mortise and tenons in this video and Jay has a really good video showing how to make mortises with a router.  Now let’s get to the build!

 

 

 

The miter saw is where I started to start breaking down the curly ambrosia maple.

With a level taped to the board, April was able to rip one side of the uneven board on the table saw.

Then the level can be removed, the piece flipped around, and it can be ripped to final width.

Then Jay and myself brought the maple down to final thickness on the planer.

Using my crosscut sled, April cut the piece in half to prepare for glue-up.

Some glue on the edges and set tightly in some clamps, the top could dry.

A nice even bead of glue squeeze out indicates a nicely glued joint.

Jay then used a card scraper to smooth everything out and finesse the glue joint.

Here is our finished glue up.

For the front apron that was going to have the drawer, two edges were ripped off on the table saw, the ends of the middle piece were removed, and the center section discarded.  This is a great way to do an inlay drawer front and to get grain match.  We opted to do an overlay drawer front instead.

Then just glue the four pieces back together and you’re done with your drawer opening piece.

I turned my attention to the legs of the table.  I started with an 8 foot long piece of select pine.  It measured 2″ square.  I cut it in half, and then into quarters.

After squaring up one end on each piece and clamping those ends flush, I cut all our to a final length of 23″.

After laying out where the tenons were to go, we all took turns on the hollow chisel mortiser creating the mortises.  We could then clean them up with a chisel.

Using my homemade tenon & spline jig, I made tenons on each end of the apron pieces.

Once we had some glue on the tenons and in the mortises, we could proceed to clamping it all together.

After mocking up the top it looked a little bulky.  On the table saw I added a chamfer the the bottom edge of the top.

Figured wood such as curly maple really looks best with a stain or dye.  Using a foam brush, I applied a #12 Bright Red Cherry dye.  It’s a water based dye and also helps raise the grain.  After applying it, I immediately wiped of any excess with a clean rag. Once fully dry, I sanded it lightly to remove the raised grain.  Making sure not to sand too heavily and cut through the dye.

Four coats of satin spray lacquer sealed the dye in and gave a beautiful finish.

Jay and April painted the base with some flat black water based paint.

After gluing and brad nailing some drawer runners to the base, I made a corresponding groove in the drawer using a straight bit in my router table.  Click here to see how I make my drawers.

I also added some paste wax to the drawer runners to help everything slide nice and smooth.

After temporarily installing the false drawer front with some double sided tape, I permanently attached it with some screws from the inside.

Lastly I could secure the table top to the base using some table top clips.

Below you can see some pictures of the completed project.

Thank you so much for checking out this build.  Feel free to look around my site and see what other projects you may be interested in.  If you want to know more about the tools used in this build check out My Tools Page for more info.  Leave any comments or questions you may have down below!