I did the dry fit of the frame this morning and everything seems to go together in an acceptable manner.  There's a little more detail that has to be put into these pieces before I glue them up, but so far, all is well.

It's a good sign that the fits are adequate when the joints will hold everything together without adhesives.

The night stand project continues...

I took some time and made a little more sawdust today.  I wanted to get the table frame pieces completed.

The first task was to cut the mortises in the table legs.  Using a test block, I set up the mortising machine to try out the set up.

Satisfied that the set up was good, I began cutting the first of 14 mortises.

A finished mortise.

Next, I needed to make all of the table rails.  I started by planing some stock to thickness.  Since these pieces were going to have tenons on them, it was important that I start with all the stock exactly the same thickness so the tenons all end up the same size.

Then, once I had all the stock ripped and cut to length, I cut the tenons on the table saw using a dado blade to remove stock a bit quicker.  This isn't the textbook method, but it works for me.  A pro would probably use a tenon sled.

After a few hours of shop time, the kit is complete and ready for dry fitting.

...but that will have to wait for another day. 

Household chores have occupied most of my time the past few days but I did make some minor progress on the project.

The legs of the table have tapered legs.  I had purchased a taper jig a year ago and returned it because it was a piece of garbage.  I need the jig for this project, so I made my own.

With the jig made, I took the leg blanks and cut the leg tapers.  Each leg is tapered on two sides.

Legs with tapers completed.

The next step is to cut the mortise pockets.  Here, I lay out the cuts to be made on each leg.

Tomorrow I'll make some chips and drill the mortises.

Well, time to take a little break from the sawdust creation to get a little boat maintenance done. 

I traveled over to the boat for a day this week with good friend Jim Sarna to polish the hull sides.  Jim's technique has evolved over the past year or two and he has become quite accomplished at this craft.  After Jim applied the polish/cleaner with a wool bonnet, I followed up with a coat of Collonite paste wax.  The results were impressive.  My 23 year old hull looks like it came out of the mold yeaterday.

Here, Jim applies the polish/cleaner.

The results.  An almost "wet" look.

Now, back to the winter project.

The weather was nice this week, so I did a lot of outside chores but did manage to get the stock glued up and sized for the table legs.

Rough size lay up.

Squaring up the stock.

Final thickness planing and cutting to length.

I'll have a bit more time for this in another week with time off for the holiday.

The first boating event of the 2013 boating season occured this week.  I had some reward credits to redeem so invested in a new VHF radio for the boat.  The old one had an abraided mic cable (worn through to the wire) that was suspect.  In the event that I might actually need the radio for an emergency communtication, I thought it might be a good idea to have something reliable.

Now, back to the off season.  The project: (x 2)

...and so the work begins.  Reviewing the plans.

Rough cutting stock for the table tops.

Truing up edges for glue-up.

Sorting and matching the grain for the best appearance.

Cutting the joint biscuit slots and initial glue lay-up.  The top is 18" wide and my planer will only handle 12'" so I initially glue the tops in halves.

Then plane the glued top stock halves to final thickness.

Then glue the halves to get the full width

Final end trim and squaring using a straight bit in the router.

Final ripping on the table saw and jointing to width.

Routing a chamfer detail on the edge.

A little final hand sanding.

...and we're done with the table tops.

There's more to it than what you would think.  This is the easy part of the construction.