Kid's Table and Chairs - The legs have been a challenge

It has been two months since my last update, but that's not due to lack of shop time, it's due to lack of progress. I've spent a good amount of time trying to cut the rears legs of these chairs and as of this moment, they are still not done. Allow me to explain.

The rear legs are angled out from where they meet the apron to floor and to the chair back. So far in the small number of cuts I've made I have not yet cut any piece other than in a straight line and I am finding that cutting the inside angles is a challenge. My original plan was to rough out the shape on the bandsaw and then clean them up using a plywood template and the router.

Kid's table and chairs - I finally started making the chairs

Its been just over a month since completing the table and now the chairs are finally under way. The reason for the extended break? I dunno. It was not an intended break as if I had gotten sick of this project, it was just how things worked out. Life. Regardless, the chairs are now progressing at the glacial pace I am becoming accustomed to.

Kid's Table and Chairs - The Completed Table

There comes a point in every project where you finish the final step and the project is complete. After buffing a coat of wax and attaching the table top, I looked at the table standing atop my bench and thought, "... huh, I'm done". But really, I wasn't. It hadn't been delivered. It hadn't been tested. It hadn't been approved by the customer.

With that thought in mind I took the table upstairs, removed the battered table that was the impetus for this project and placed the new table in its final destination. Too bad I was the only one awake at that hour.

Kid's Table and Chairs - Finishing the table

I have found that among the DIY home improvement projects I have done, the biggest bang for my buck, as well the biggest and most dramatic change, has been in painting walls. Taking down wallpaper or just painting over the existing color will transform the entire feel of the room, even if no other changes are made. The same can be said for finishing this table.

Building my shop on a budget - My bandsaw and drill press

My wife and I have done a fair amount of business on craigslist, both buying and selling. Our play room is bursting at the seams with quality, used toys we acquired for our boys and when the toys are outgrown, off to craigslist (and most recently freecycle) they go. I've sold my unused electronics, a small table saw and even a car and all have been decent experiences. So it was a no brainer for me to turn to craigslist to hunt for used tools.

Kid's Table and Chairs - Table Assembly

Up until recently my first furniture project has included the process of taking pieces of wood and making them smaller. There's not much of an emotional or intellectual payoff in that. I can get excited about making square cuts and pieces of consistent length and width, but after doing that you still only have what amounts to a pile of pretty sticks. Arranging those sticks to be the object I see in my head... that's where the sexy is.

Kid's Table and Chairs - The table is down to final dimensions

It has taken a while, but I have finally seen the table, or close to what it will look like upside down. I recently finished jointing, planing ripping and cutting all pieces to final dimensions and had to at least line them up like a table to see what I had. Of course joinery is needed to keep a table upright so I loosely assembled the table upside down on its top and saw what it will look like from a bug's eye view. I should have taken a picture but I was too excited to think about that This one of all the pieces stacked up will have to suffice. On the far left are the aprons, the center pile is the legs and the big pile on the right is the table top.