(upbeat music) - Sometimes in life, you see something and you just can imagine what it could be, and Suzy, tell us the story on the root.

- Well we found this really cool sycamore root in the river.

It was in a log jam and I just had to have it.

I just could see the possibilities.

So, thinking maybe a coffee table.

- Okay, and that's what we're going to make today, and two other amazing mixed medium tables today.

So, join us on The American Woodshop.

- [Announcer] The American Woodshop with Scott Phillips is brought to you by Woodcraft since 1928 providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen, Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

Pro tools for tool pros.

RIKON tools.

Woodcraft magazine, projects, plans and web links designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood home of Timber Wolf Swedish Silicon Steel band saw blades and super sharp scroll saw blades.

A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home, the Furniture Bank of central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

So, today we're making the trifecta of tables.

Three different tables.

The dogs are helping.

And what we have here is a Cyprus stump that's been cut off, and I put these feet on it.

And Suzy, if you could let me bring this over.

Okay, up and on.

Very good.

And we are going to join this river root onto the Cypress table, just like that.

And then I'll show you the trick on making a tempered glass top with that.

Doesn't stop there.

Over here this is called a parlor table and it had a thin, white Oak top, because they would use these outside.

They'd always use white Oak, and obviously the tops didn't stand the test of time very well.

That's lead paint, so away it goes and we're disposing of that carefully but we glued up a white Oak top, a new one, and we're going to undercut this lip and give a detail along the rim on a mega wood lathe.

And look at those legs.

Those are vintage.

Those are over a hundred years old.

So, when you go to antique shops, keep an eye open for the pieces that are falling apart, that you can get for pennies on the dollar to use and up cycle the legs.

And then this, well Suzy, how would you describe this?

- Oh, I just think it's cool.

I love the live edge a little side table.

- Okay and it's hard maple.

Tree that blew down with the hairpin legs okay.

- Yeah, I love it.

That's going to be really neat.

- Well, actually, this is what we're going to turn into a table as well.

It's a stump from a silver maple tree.

Should be a lot of color in there.

So we'll get set up for this, and we'll show you how it all comes together.

[Sanding noises] Boy, that's come a long way Suzy.

- Yeah, it really is.

- Now, so what tools have you used to detail this root?

- A bunch, but sanders, I've got this little detailer with a little flap wheel.

It's good to get into tight spots.

I'm using this microplane, which is like a zester, to shave off, you know, some of the dead wood and everything to save my sanding pads.

So, just kind of working it away and profiling it.

I couldn't tell you how many hours I've spent on it yet, but it doesn't matter.

I just want it to be right.

- Now speaking of being right, it comes from nature, so you have to deal with challenges and right here, this limb's going to support a piece of glass and look at this.

This is overfilled, and this is quick wood.

This is a two part epoxy stick.

It's like a big Tootsie roll.

You knead this together until it's a uniform color.

And you want to pack that in there in about three or four minutes because it starts getting hard about five to 10 minutes.

Depends on the temperature, but that's rock hard.

That's cured overnight.

And I used it over here on this piece as well, right in here.

Now, let's say you don't have a ton of money.

This sanding disc that you put on to a Velcro pad and that's foam back, that's on your drill.

You can go in there and really go to town to take that material down and get it clean.

And the other spots, Suzy, let's see how you work on that place that's been fixed.

- Yeah, I've just been smoothing over the rough edges, getting off the small little particles and stuff and boy, she's looking good.

It's a she.

- Let's go up here.

- Oh you want me to do that okay.

- Okay, we'll get that perfected, and then we'll join the feet and then the two pieces.

(sanding) - Are you ready?

- I'm ready, let's do it.

- Okay, so, to marry the Cypress base to the Sycamore root, we've already done the test drive and now we're [Drilling Noise] bringing the long one in, that's going to be adjustable.

- Hey, I got this braced so.

- You better have it braced (Drilling Noise] because I don't want to be a dead man walking.

- That's right.

- Okay, so hold it, yup, and now I need to change out drivers for these different structural fasteners, as they're called.

These are heavy duty steel.

And, so hold that until I get this started and the moment of truth.

Yes, I believe I do.

I believe that's exactly where we want it.

Okay, and then three more, and then we'll set it up and make minor adjustments.

And earlier these four feet were glued, then screwed to the base okay.

That's good right there.

And now, one more.

I can fasten it down and then, that looks good right there.

Time to set this up.

Are you ready?

- Yep.

- Okay and that is solid.

- There we go.

- Okay, so now.

- How about that?

- The next trick is to set this on a level surface, and then we use a level.

After it's on a level surface, to mark where we're going to trim off a little flat spot here with the razor saw and the mating pieces here to float the piece of tempered glass.

So, we'll get that marked up.

- Right because that's where the glass will rest, on those three pieces.

- So there we go.

- Gotta make her right.

- Now, I'm using a Japanese razor saw and this level, and this base has been blocked so it's level to the ground.

And then, that means that all four points of contact there, here and these two places are also marked to be level.

Now I need to trim that one off.

- [Suzy] And get it right, measure twice cut once.

- Yes ma'am.

Okay, so, I'm bringing it right on over here.

And you want your fingers out of the way, because you can see this razor saw melts through the wood, faster than you can ever imagine.

That's good like that.

Okay and the moment of truth, Suzy, let's bring the glass up.

This is three eighths inch recycled tempered glass.

- Okay, ready?

- Okay, yeah.

Tempered glass is safe to use for tabletops, and the front limb is designed to just hold it out.

- Rest right there.

- I think we need to swing it that way just a little bit and voila.

- All right it's time for the finish.

I think she's ready.

I can't wait to see what it looks like on the Sycamore and on the Cypress base.

I'm using a water-based finish.

I want to get the brush charged up but I don't want a lot of drips and all that.

Just take my time and here we go.

Oh, look there, boy isn't that pretty?

Love all the grain and everything.

Boy, it's really starting to pop.

Look at her, man that's awesome.

Love it.

Get a little bit more, and, just really, look at that.

It's been a fun project just seeing and man, even better than what I expected.

Woo, look at that, man!

And I love using water-based finishes.

You don't have to worry about all the noxious fumes, man.

And working outside is always a plus.

Make sure you have your gloves.

Let's get this charged up again.

Let's get to the base.

Love this Bald Cypress.

That is just pretty and boy, some beautiful rings in there.

Look at that golden color.

And that's all from the wood, because this is a clear base coat.

Man, look at that.

I love it.

Wonder what Scott's doing.

Let's go see what he's up to.

(sawing) - Look at that.

This is an old timey tool.

I bet this tool is an easy 25 years old and this is heavy duty.

So what I can do is work through the rough cut.

Now this was all chainsaw cut and I'm going to smooth this all out.

I'm going to take a lighter cut.

I don't want to take more than a 16th of an inch off at a time.

That was a heavy pass right there but I'll work this all down then we'll take it inside and we'll see what we can do at the bandsaw.

This is awesome.

(sawing) All right now we're back inside and wait until you see that beautiful top.

And I'm using iron-on edge banding right here.

And what you do is trim it off after you iron it on to plywood.

This is three quarter inch plywood and watch what we're going to do on the bottom of the planed-down work piece.

I have this all marked so I just bring it up to my witness lines.

And now what I can do, because the bottom is irregular, it's not perfect.

I'm using this as a flat, like a jig that will stay there when we put the legs on this table.

And so, I locate this banded plywood on the bottom of the slab so when the three turned legs go through this in to that, it all makes it strong.

Let's take a look at the other side.

Right there like that.

Man, that's beautiful.

But look at the heart right here.

That's the heart of the tree and see how it's cracking all over the place?

We have to get rid of that to make this stable so it doesn't crack up and we'll do that at the bandsaw.

We have three jobs at the bandsaw, let's get to it.

This slab is six inches thick back here, tapers down to five inches, and I'm going to use these beautiful hard maple turned legs in order to make all of this come together.

Now we'll show you some metal legs as well.

That's an option.

And the other thing is we need to make this turning square an octagonal, and we'll do that with the rip fence.

And we'll cut that circle round out of Oak for the wrought iron legs.

So let's get the hearing protection on and dust collection and we'll make that cut using a three-quarter inch blade.

That column needs to be locked in place.

I want to take the line.

Nice and straight.

(sawing) This is called a billet, okay.

When you take a turning square and get it ready to turn and that's ready, but on the lathe now, I'm using a face plate and a jam chuck on this white Oak top for the wire frame.

And so we'll turn the top first and then we'll turn the leg.

You have to make sure you have clearance.

That looks good.

And I'm using a bowl gouge to work this round, undercut the back edge and add a detail here.

So we'll bring that up to speed now.

I have this set at 260.

Big turnings you take it nice and slow.

So, you lay the chisel on the tool rest, bring it up until you touch the wood.

Hold the chisel in place and you can tell, I didn't quite get it perfectly round at the band saw because you can hear it hitting and missing.

So as I turn this round and make it smooth, you'll hear a very fluid, there we go, we're close to round right there.

You have to take light cuts and you do not want to jam the chisel into that wood.

So I'll work this round with this bowl gouge first, and then, undercut the back side slightly.

Here, I've moved the tool rest so I can undercut the bottom back edge and what that does is it makes the table look like it's floating to the eye.

And once I get this cut, undercut as it were, and the key is rubbing that bevel as you make that cut to get it smooth on dry wood, then I can work on the top accent.

Now with that undercut, on the very top, I'm using a round carbide cutter and the cutting edge is right at center line.

And what I'm doing is I'm smoothing that out, making it uniform, and now watch what happens.

It goes straight in with a nice light cut.

And look at that, those shavings they're just magical.

It's like they have a life of their own.

I love that.

And this is a fun thing that you can do on a parlor table.

Just take it in nice and deep like that.

Ooh, it's so much fun.

You can get carried away.

Okay, and then I'll just do a little bit of sanding on this but I'm going to get set up to turn the leg now.

That's where we use drive spur and the live ball bearing center.

Both sides of this face plate turning and that face plate mounted right on there, and this drive spur now goes into that number two morse taper for the leg spindle.

But look at that.

Look at that right there.

That's just uplifting.

That's beautiful and that's solid white Oak right there.

So now you go, "but the leg's too long!"

The leg's 33 inches long and see, I have the drive spur malleted in so it will fit right on there, but we have to do this.

We have to extend the bed so it will fit.

So we'll take it right on out there.

And this will go out to 40 inches.

How cool is that?

Now, once we get it out far enough, we will lock it between the drive spur and the live ball bearing center.

Then, we'll rough this round with the roughing gouge.

Now, you have to do one thing.

You have to lock the bed and now I can unlock the ram and adjust the ram forward so that live ball bearing point is right on that center point, right there, that's been drilled.

We want to make sure that tail stock's secure.

So the drive spur is seated and that's solid.

You want to make sure of that.

And you adjust the banjo up that holds the tool rest so the cutting edge of the chisel, in this case the inch and a quarter roughing gouge, is right at or slightly above center line.

That looks really good.

Everything's locked.

Okay, that looks good, let's turn it on.

So what speed should I turn?

Well, because this is well balanced, I'm going to take this up high and that's what knocking those corners off does for you.

So right now that's at one thousand RPM.

So I lay the roughing gouge on.

I ease it in, and notice how I marry that handle to my hip.

That's for stability.

And as you ease that in, then you rest your finger in the groove on the back of the tool rest.

At no time, do you let your fingers get caught between the tool rest and the spinning work piece.

And this is a shearing cut, not a scraping cut.

Scraping cut would have been going straight in.

So, this takes it down round very quickly.

And what I'll do is repeat this process down the full length of the cylinder, but I never move the tool rest unless the lathe is turned off.

And so we'll rough it round.

Now, I turn by eye a lot and you can too.

It's just something that takes practice.

So, we'll turn that off and let that come to a stop now.

If you hold that work piece, don't be doing it by the tool rest.

Okay, so now, I like the form and you go, "What are you talking about?"

Well, that's it, that's the diameter I want.

I need a little bit of work right here, but to cut this tenon down here, that's two and a half inches long.

Just make a mark off of my other leg so it's identical and that's an inch and a quarter in diameter and to form that, what I do is I use, not the round carbide cutter that you saw me use on the table, I'm going to use a square cutter.

And I love this chisel 'cause it's got three different shanks that you can put into it with different cutters and swap those out and solid carbide right here.

So with these, I want that cutting edge to be right at center line.

Okay, not higher.

So it needs to go up just a hair and let's make a cut, so you can see what this does.

And we'll size that tenon so that this wrench, inch and a quarter, fits on there.

And once I get all this done, a little bit of sanding, and then we assemble the legs.

It looks good right there.

And where we're at is riding right at a thousand RPM.

And watch this, going straight in.

You can take it right on down.

So much fun.

So, we have three beautiful, hard maple legs right there and I have this assembly table ready to roll, inch and a quarter piloted bit.

I use that square to get this drill square and then I cant this out at a comfortable angle and the comfortable angle is between seven and nine degrees.

I've done this enough to know what I want right there.

Then I can mallet that home, so I'll take my time.

I'll drill this about two inches down.

Okay, and bracing that drill to my body.

So, we'll take that on down clearing out the chips as we go.

Now, let's do the test fit.

We'll see how that goes.

I want that Tiger Maple leg that we just turned out, and let's see how that is.

Oh yeah, that's perfect.

Now, I'll get the other holes drilled, canted left and right, and then we'll flip it over and take a look at the finished project.

- Scott, the table looks beautiful.

- Well, you can't beat white Oak and that's just Arm-R-Seal.

And your table is outstanding.

Now tell us how you keep that top on there 'cause that's not going anywhere.

- I'm using a hundred percent silicone to keep it from moving and I put it on all the contact points 'cause this glass was not cheap and don't want it going anywhere.

And it'll dry to clear in about a week probably.

- Exactly, and then over here, this Arm-R-Seal goes on the maple stump, half of the maple tree, and you'll get to see the finished table in the end credits of the show.

So here's a hot tip for anybody.

When you see something that just stops you cold, like this piece of wood did or that root or the hardware on that parlor table, make it your own and make it something that enriches your life because these pieces will be right at home.

Now, I think that should go in the loft, where the dogs will never be.

- Yes, in the barn, yes for sure.

- Okay, well, thanks for joining us this week.

Hope you got some good ideas.

We try to share them.

See you next week for folk art right?

- Right.

- Okay.

- See ya.

- Thanks, see ya.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft, since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

Pro tools for tool pros.

RIKON tools.

Woodcraft magazine projects, plans and web links designed to help you make wood work.

PS wood home of Timber Wolf Swedish Silicon steel bandsaw blades and super sharp scroll saw blades.

A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home, the Furniture Bank of central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information on tips behind the American Woodshop, and watch free episodes 24 seven, check us out online and like us on Facebook.

(upbeat music)