Final Check, Cleanup, and Building the Next One
module: sanding and finish
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ok. finish is on, it's dried, you've probably touched it about forty times to see if it's dry even though you know better than to touch it. that's fine. everybody does that.
this lesson is the last one, so it's part wrap-up and part "here's what you do with yourself now."
the final check
before you call the table done, go over it like you're the one buying it.
put your hand flat on the top and drag it slow, corner to corner, in a few directions. not just with the grain. you're feeling for anything the finish didn't smooth over — a raised bit of grain, a drip that dried proud, a spot you missed with the rag. dry air out here means finish sets up fast, so drips happen quicker than you'd think. if you find one, don't panic. let it cure a few more days, then knock it back with 320 and wipe on a thin coat just in that spot.
check the joints. every apron-to-leg joint, put your hand on it and push. there should be zero movement. none. if something gives even a little, that's not a finish problem, that's a glue problem, and you want to know that now instead of finding out when somebody leans on it at thanksgiving.
check the top. it should sit flat with no rock. if you used the figure-eight fasteners or the buttons like we talked about, give the underside a look and make sure nothing backed out during clamping or handling.
flip it over, check your feet are level. table on a floor, no rocking. if one leg's proud, that's usually a measuring problem from way back, and it's a good reminder of something I did on a side table once — measured the legs, cut three, went to cut the fourth and got distracted, ended up with two legs at 17 inches and two at 17 and a quarter. a quarter inch, on a table leg, you can see across the room. I tried to sand it out. you cannot sand a quarter inch off a table leg, not without turning it into a toothpick. I finally just admitted it and recut the two long ones. cost me an hour I didn't need to lose. if you're off, recut. don't sand and hope.
cleanup
expect to help clean up the shop, and I mean that whether you're in my garage or your own.
- wipe down your bench. finish drips harden into little bumps that mess up your next glue-up.
- rags with oil-based finish on them can start a fire on their own if you just wad them up and toss them in a bin. lay them flat outside to dry completely, or soak them in water in a metal can with a lid. I know that sounds dramatic. it's real. it happens from the oil curing and giving off heat, not from anything touching a flame. don't skip it.
- put your clamps away actually clean, not "clean enough." dried glue on a clamp face transfers to your next project and leaves a mark you won't understand until you're three steps past it.
- sweep. dust from 220 grit gets into everything, and it's fine dust, the kind that sits in the air a while. worth a shop vac pass if you've got one.
what you actually have now
you've got a table built with dowel joints instead of just screws and glue, which — my opinion, and I'll say it plainly — matters. screws and glue alone holds for a while and then the joint starts to rack and you're re-gluing it every couple years. what you built holds because the joinery does the work, not the glue.
you also now know how to dry-fit before you commit, how to clamp square and check the diagonals instead of eyeballing it, how to deal with pine when it wants to blotch on you, and how to lay down a finish without leaving lap marks. that's most of what you need for the next thing, whatever the next thing is.
building the next one
people ask me what to build after the table. I'd say pick something with the same joints you just learned — a bench, a small bookshelf, an end table — before you jump to something with joinery you haven't touched yet. get a couple more reps of dowel joints under your hands. the first one you build, you're learning the steps. the second one, you're actually getting faster and cleaner, and that's when it starts being enjoyable instead of just work.
if you want to try hand-cut dovetails after this, good for you, I mean that. I still haven't gotten mine clean, so you'd be ahead of me on that one.
Before next time: if you're starting a new build, go measure your material and get it on the truck before you show up. don't spend your shop time at the lumber yard.