Make a solid table with a few basic tools.
Overall dimensions: 44 1⁄2"w × 22 1⁄2"d × 30"h
This one-drawer table is a basic design that I’ve built many times over the years. Its small footprint and straightforward design make it flexible for a wide variety of uses and locations. Similar tables have served as entry tables, kitchen workstations, and as accent tables in living or family rooms.
As far as a primer on basic joinery and construction techniques, few projects have as much to offer as a desk with a drawer. For beginning woodworkers (and to encourage more advanced woodworkers to hone their hand-tool skills), I’ve kept the use of heavy machinery to a minimum. For example, the mortises in the legs are first bored at the drill press and then cleaned up with chisels. I tapered the legs using a bandsaw and a hand plane. In a similar vein, the dovetailed drawer can be completed using only a few machines and hand tools see (“Build a Drawer That Fits” on page 61).
My design was inspired by similar Shaker and Federal tables, but I think the dark walnut and the deep bevel on the underside of the top create a more modern look. By using different woods and changing the edge profile on the top, you can adapt this project to complement the look of just about any room.
Start with the legs
1 Choose the leg material from 8/4 stock. Cut the blanks to rough size at the bandsaw, and then square two adjacent edges of each leg at the jointer. Thickness the legs (A) to the size shown in the Cut List; then cut them to final length.
2 Determine the location and orientation of the legs, assigning those with the straightest grain or most appealing figure to the front of the table. Mark the tops of the legs so you’ll know which faces to mortise and taper.
3 Lay out the mortises as shown on Figure 1, Leg Detail. To cut them, chuck a 5⁄16" brad-point or Forstner bit into your drill press and bore a series of overlapping holes, as shown in Photo A. After drilling, clamp the leg to your bench and use a wider chisel to pare away the remaining waste on the sides. Use a 5⁄16"or 1⁄4" chisel to square the ends of each mortise. (Photo B).
Starting from the foot end, bandsaw the leg’s taper. Keep the blade on the waste side of the line.
Plane down to your taper line. A well-tuned hand plane is quiet and quick, and can eliminate the need for finish-sanding.
4 Mark one of the tapers on the inside face of the leg. Bandsaw the first taper, mark out the adjacent taper on the sawn surface, and cut the adjacent taper as shown in Photo C. Now cut the tapers on the remaining legs.
5 Set the leg against a stop with the tapered edge facing up, and smooth the taper with a bench plane (Photo D). Plane the other tapers in the same manner.
Make the aprons and drawer front
1 From 1"-thick stock, cut the front apron (B) 3⁄8" wider and 1" longer than the dimensions in the Cut List. Cut the rear and side aprons (C, D) 1" longer, but to the final width given. Mill all the aprons to 15⁄16" thick for now.
2 Draw a line across the middle of the front apron. Referring to Figure 1, rip a 7⁄8" strip from each edge using a 1⁄8" saw blade. On the center section, mark two additional lines exactly 9 1⁄8" from that center line, and crosscut along the outside edges of those lines to obtain the drawer front (E).
3 Center the drawer front between the top and bottom strips, and mark out the front’s location on the strips. Now remove the front and insert the front apron’s middle sections, aligning their inner ends with the marks you just made. (This inward shift will compensate for the wood lost to the crosscut saw kerfs.) Glue and clamp the outer strips to the middle sections.
4 Scrape off dried glue from the front apron, and then thickness plane the front (B), rear (C) and side aprons (D), as well as the drawer front (E), to 7⁄8". If the glued-up front apron is wider than the rear, trim material from both edges so that the drawer opening remains centered. Set the drawer front aside until work on the base is finished.
5 Mill stock for the drawer runners (F), drawer guides (G), and drawer kicker (H) to the sizes in the Cut List. (Note: The runners and kicker are slightly thicker than the front apron’s top and bottom strips to maintain a consistent drawer reveal and to prevent the drawer from sagging when extended.)
Build the base
1 Cut the front (B), rear (C) and side aprons (D) to the finished lengths listed in the Cut List. (Note that each apron is exactly 2" longer than the distance between legs [A]. This allows for a 1" long tenon on each end.) Referring to Figure 1, lay out the tenons on the apron ends.
2 Equip your tablesaw with a 3⁄4"-wide dado set. Using the layout lines on an apron as a guide, set the fence and cutter height. Make sure your miter gauge is square to the blade, and then cut the tenon cheeks in a series of side-by-side passes, starting from the end and working toward the shoulder (Photo E).
3 Adjust the dado height and cut the top and bottom shoulders.
4 Using a mitersaw or tablesaw, cut 45° angles on the ends of the tenons.
5 Lay out the mortises for the drawer runners (F) and kicker (H) on the front apron (B) and rear apron (C) where shown in Front Apron Detail in Figure 1. Use a drill press to remove the bulk of the mortise waste, and then clean the edges with a chisel.
6 Glue the front and rear aprons to the front and rear legs. Work on a flat surface and measure the diagonals of each assembly to make sure that it is square under clamp pressure.
7 Clamp the side aprons (D) in place between the front and back assemblies. Set the runners (F) and kicker (H) between the legs as shown in Photo F and mark out the length of each. Add the 1⁄2"-long tenons to both ends, and then cut the pieces to length. Saw the tenons at the tablesaw, and then use a shoulder plane or chisel to fine-tune them so that the runners and kicker protrude slightly (about 1⁄32") into the drawer opening.
8 Brush a light coat of glue onto the tenons on the side aprons (D), drawer runners (F), kicker (H), and mating mortises in the legs. Then clamp up the base and check to make sure the assembly goes together square.
9 From 1 1⁄2"-thick stock (I used leftover leg stock) mill a board roughly 1 1⁄2 × 3 1⁄2 × 24". Using a mitersaw, cut four corner blocks (I) to the size listed in the Cut List and Figure 1. Bandsaw the small notches that fit around the legs. Attach the corner blocks to the aprons, using two 2 1⁄2" long screws in each corner block.
10 Cut the parts for the drawer sides (J), back (K) and bottom (L) to rough size. To learn how to build the dovetailed drawer, refer to “Build a Drawer That Fits”.
11 Crosscut the drawer guides (G) to fit the base. Drill and countersink 1⁄8"-diameter holes along the length of the guides. With the finished drawer centered in its opening, place business cards between the drawer side and the guides to create a 1⁄32" gap, and then screw the guides to the runners.
Make and install the top
1 From 3⁄4" stock, glue up an oversized blank for the top. Referring to the Cut List, rip the top to width, and then cut it to length using a crosscut sled at the tablesaw. Alternately, you can cut it to length using a circular saw guided by a straightedge.
2 Attach a tall fence to your tablesaw. Adjust the blade angle so that it cuts a 1 1⁄8"-wide bevel while leaving a 3⁄8"-wide flat on the edge of the tabletop. (Because my own saw is right tilting, I move the fence to the left side of the blade, [Photo G], to prevent trapping the offcut between the blade and fence.)
3 Using a 3⁄4" Forstner bit, drill shallow mortises into the top edges of the aprons where shown in Figure 1. Drill pilot holes, and then install the figure-8 fasteners.
4 Finish-sand the base, drawer, and top through 220 grit. Finally, apply your choice of finish. I used Waterlox, wiping four coats on the base and six coats on the top. Allow a day for each coat to dry. Give the final coat several days to cure before rubbing it out with 0000 steel wool and wax.
5 Center the top on the base and attach it with 5⁄8"-long screws. Last but not least, drill a hole through center of the drawer front and attach the knob.
