Coffee Anyone? (6)

The coffee table build progresses - you've arrived at station 6 on the climb. Previous marks on the journey are archived to the right of the page.

Work continues on the shelf frame members. I received the custom shaper tooling a few days back - here's a look at the profile for the outer edge of the shelf frame:


The next task in the tick list was to dado the shelf frame members for the shelf panel. I set up my router table carefully, using some MDF to span the slightly uneven opening in the router table, and to make the fence a zero-clearance cut zone:


The results came out pretty cleanly:


Here's a look at the parts after the dadoes are completed:


With the basic elements of the miter joints on the frame complete, I could lay out for the parallelogram-shaped locking pins, shachi sen:


Those lines were later knifed.

I was able to effect a certain amount of the cutting with the router, but ultimately these finish out with a bunch of chisel work:


A marking knife served double duty as a chisel:


The meeting spot of the shachi-sen mizo and the rear vertical wall of the joint is a little fiddly to clean out - again, my marking knife proved useful:


Here's the trench completed:


Here's the group of frame parts with those trenches completed:


The male ends were a bit simpler to cut out. A couple of photos of the completed pieces:


The above picture shows clearly how the frame's dado (for the shelf panel) and the joint's interior dado are configured so as to work together and leave the inner face of the joint clean.

With both halves cut out, I could reassemble to check how things looked:


Another view:


I'm pleased with the way these came out.

I finished the day by making the stock for the parallelogram-shaped wedges, along with the various splines and pegs which will be required for the joinery in all locations.

Thanks for swinging by on your travels.