Console Table (Day 7)

Well today started off to be an exciting day because this was the first time I ever attempted putting an inlay into a project.

I went to Woodcraft and purchased some 1/4" wide inlay, this stuff is exspensive but the results speak for themselves.

So this is what I got accomplished today:

• Marked my solid oak table top to where I wanted the inlay to go
• Set up my handheld plunge router using a edge guide (first time using an edge guide and it wont be the last)
• Completed cutting the grooves that the inlay will fit into
• Inset the inlay into the oak top and glued it in.

Notes on today's Progress;

• In theory inlay shouldn't be as difficult as you would think but because this was my first time and I had a faulty depth stop on my router it came out OK, perfect no but I can live with the results.
• I used a 1/4" diameter spiral router bit but the bit didn't provide as much clearance as I thought so i had to do a second pass widening the groove. Going forward when I do inlays again i will need to use a router bit that is hair wider than the inlay in today's case I should of use a 5/16" diameter bit instead of the 1/4" one. I tried sanding away the clearance to fit the inlay but it just didn't work.

Tomorrow

• I will be cleaning up the inlay and removing the tape that I used to keep the inlay in position while the glue set, 
• I will also be using my router to add a profile to the tabletop... ill probably add a chamfer to the underside of the table top and if I can Ill add a ogee profile to the top.
• If there is enough time I will start doing a final sanding on the entire table and preparing it for a finish.

Plunge Router with edge guide

Since I just completed laying out all reference lines of where I want to place the inlay. I set my router up with an edge guide.

Getting ready to route the grooves

The edge guide was awesome to use and this step was nerve racking, but it came out ok.

Setting my edge guide up

I set my edge guide up 1 3/4” from the outside

Here you can see the inlay

I used blue painters tape as clamps to keep the inlay in position while the glue hardened, I really hope I didn’t add to much glue as tomorrows cleanup might be a challenge

Another angle of the table top

We will see tomorrow what this will be like

You can see the tabletop all finished with the inlay and ogee profile I applied using my router table and it looks awesome. I sanded the top with 3 grits 80,150,220 grit paper and it came out so smooth so it is already for the poly-acrylic finish.

Inlay Glued In

In this picture you can see the top all sanded down 220 grit sandpaper I also used my router to apply the ogee edge profile on the top. Looks awesome

Inlay

Here you can see the full board with the inlay

Another Inlay Pic

Below you can see me staging the unit for finishing, I decided to finish the top and the unit separately and then fixing the top after everything is done.

Tabletop after 1 coat

I love apllying the finish to a project because you can see the grain pattern pop and it can either look awesome or not so good. I am happy at how this turned out.

Finishing the unit

I decided to raise the unit to a comfortable height and to that end I used my workhorses

3rd coat

This was after the 3rd coat of finish was applied.