Woodworker's Journal 2008-32-5, страница 45

Our author takes up the

torch lit by former contributing editor Mike McGlynn (at right) and completes the third piece of Mike's Greene & Greene-inspired bedroom set. It s a fitting tribute to the memory of this gifted woodworker.

In the February 2006 and April 2007 issues of Woodworker's Journal, former contributing editor Mike McGlynn showed us how to build the first two pieces of a stunning Greene & Greene style bedroom set he designed: a chest of drawers and a bedstead. Sadly, Mike passed away last spring, leaving me the task of completing the set with the bedside table presented in this article.

With its square legs, bread-boarded top, cloud-lift-cut aprons and shelf and classic Craftsman-style details like square ebony plugs and splines, the table is harmonious with the proportions, details and overall flavor of the other bedroom pieces Mike created. It's also a practical and attractive stand-alone piece. I built the table from straight-grained African mahogany, using both 8/4 and 4/4 stock, but Honduras mahogany is just fine, too (that's what Mike used for the other bedroom pieces).

Built either as part of the bedroom set or as a stand-alone piece, the bedside table, left, is an attractive project. Square holes for the stylish ebony plugs that decorate the table are easily made with a square-chisel mortising setup in a drill press (as shown at right).

j^mww. wood^SfSjournaloom ■

Xmorg on thg wgb

Visit our homepage and click on this icon to see Mike McGlynn's prior Greene & Greene projects.

Starting with the Legs

The table's simple square-section legs are all cut from a straight-grained piece of 8/4 stock, planed down to IV2'¹ thick. After jointing one edge of the stock, rip each leg to a little less than lV, then thickness-plane it exactly lVz" wide. Re-joint the stock before ripping each of the other three legs. Now match the grain of each pair of front and back legs, and mark the ends and sides of all four legs to show their orientation relative to the assembled table — up, down, front, back and side.

The markings will help prevent mistakes during the subsequent machining operations.

Next, chop the square holes for the table's decorative plugs. The layout of plugs is shown in the Drawings on page 47. You can chop these out with a sharp chisel, but it's far easier to make them using a hollow mortising chisel setup in a drill press (see photo, below). Clamp a fence to the drill press table to keep the sides of the holes square to the edges of the legs, and bore each square hole a little more than 1/8" deep. Finally, round over the edges of the legs with a l/8"-radius roundover bit in a handheld router or on the router table.

Making the Aprons

As shown in the Drawings, the legs are joined by a wide apron that also holds a single drawer. Start by planing enough 4/4 stock down to 3/4" thick for the table's aprons. Cut three of the four aprons 5V2" wide: two that are 10" long for the sides and one 13"-long apron for the back. For the front apron, start with a workpiece that's 6V4" wide x 13% long. Mark a cabinetmaker's triangle across the entire face, then rip the board into three strips, as shown in the Drawings. Take the wider center section and crosscut it

45