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Of all the projects that Kevin undertakes he enjoys working with timber the
best. Today Mitre 10 has provided a Mitre plan that is simple and
straightforward even for a beginner.
You won’t need a lot of timber for this job. Inexpensive Radiata Pine will more
than suffice. All the timber is available at Mitre 10 and they will even cut it
to size if you ask.
Now that you have your timber, first you need to butt join the two wide boards
(240x19mm) together and to do that we used timber dowels to provide us with a
very strong and accurate joint.
Dowelling is best done with a doweling jig. We used one from the Supercraft
range.
Start by marking the timber approx 250mm apart for each dowel position.
Then position your dowelling jig on the mark with the ‘V’ facing the top or
finished side of the tabletop.
Wrap a piece of masking tape around the drill bit to mark the correct depth for
the dowel hole then drill all the holes.
Using Selleys Aquadhere fill the dowel holes and evenly spread the glue on both
surfaces to be joined.
The dowels are best purchased pre-cut & fluted rather than cut dowel rod into
small pieces.
Hammer the dowels into the holes and using a rubber mallet hammer the two
pieces together. For the perfect joint use sash clamps to squeeze the two pieces
together with one clamp under the timber and one on top to stop any twisting and
keep the two boards flat.
Using the same dowelling method, join the rails and the legs positioning the
rails in the centre of the leg to create a quirk and hide any inconsistencies.
A tip when marking out these joints to ensure accuracy is to nail a panel pin
5-6mm proud of the surface where the dowels go on the leg.
Cut off the nail heads and this will mark each rail the same when it is held in
position and pressed onto the nails thus giving you the drill position for each
hole.
Before you assemble the rails and legs it is much easier to sand the pieces in
preparation for finishing.
Glue and dowel the pieces ensuring that there are no twists or ‘out of square’
sections.
After the glue has dried on the tabletop sand it to finish stage.
Take the assembled legs and drill slightly oversize screw holes at an angle
through the rails.
Position both assemblies together and screw ensuring the screws don’t go through
the top surface.
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