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Being between requests for furniture by family members and needing some shop time, I decided to make this Shaker Candle Stand because: I had the materials left over from other projects, and I've wanted to try a project that offers hand tool time, and the sliding dovetails required for the legs.

To start I had to glue up the center 3" diameter center pedestal from 8 quarter cherry (photo 2), then turned it on the lathe.

After making a pattern for the legs and cutting them out of 4 quarter cherry, I used blue painter tape to mark the leg taper from the 15/16" top down to the required 1/2" foot (photo 4), cut the tapers on the band saw (photo 5), then smoothed all with a hand plane & spoke shave. (photo 6).

Next, the dovetail shoulders were sawn by hand and pared down by a shoulder plane and chisels, as suggested by Will Myers in his tutorial video on You Tube:



Cutting of the mortises was suggested by Will Myers to be with a hand saw, but I found after trying this once, I preferred to drill out most of the waste and then pare with chisels, as shown here:



Results, OK but I do think a second attempt would yield a better result. In one mortise, aggressive paring resulted in a chip out at the bottom, shown here:



For anyone that would like to attempt this piece of Shaker furniture, the instructions by Fine Woodworking & maker Christian Becksvoort can be found here free of charge: Shaker candle stand with Christian Becksvoort

For the YT videos, visit Wood And Shop, where the Will Myers videos can be found. Also, going to YouTube and searching for Wood And Shop, there will be 5 videos with instructions by Will Myers:
Woodturning Basics Part 1

and, Cut Sliding Dovetails with Will Myers

Linking to the above two videos will provide the links for the subsequent videos that follow.

Stain was TransFast number 3276 - Cherry, and finish was Minwax Polycrylic water based crystal clear Satin.

Thanks for viewing.

Gallery

Comments

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Wonderful job Tom with a top notch result. I'm not sure how wise it was to take the photo in front of that gorgeous tiger maple table! As I'm looking over the candle stand, my eyes keep wandering to the tiger maple! I will have to build one of these eventually. I often consider it but always drift to something else. The first one I saw built was by Norm Abram on The New Yankee Workshop. Again, nice work…well executed.
 

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Very elegant looking! Thanks for sharing the process and resources.
 

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Great work, Tom! Plus a ton of resources. I don't recall where it was, but I saw someone who cut the end hexagonal, then did the mortises, then turned it round afterwards. Seemed like extra steps, but it would give you flat reference surfaces to work from when making the sliding dovetail sockets… I know if they're through, I do better with a saw than a chisel, but for stopped sliding dovetails, I'm just not sure. Guess I'll have to try it one of these days. ;-)
 

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Nicely done. Great use of hand tools.
 

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Splendid job you did, Oldtool
 

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Turned out nice Tom.
 

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Thanks guys for the responses & compliments, much appreciated.

Dave, Paring the dovetail mortise on the round wasn't hard, after drilling out most of the waste, the paring didn't need a reference flat, at least I didn't reference anything but the bottom markings for the wall angle.
The whole thing was an exercise in testing my capabilities, which made it fun knowing screwups were not an issue, nobody was going to get this anyway.
 

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very nice stand…love those dovetailed legs….................jim
 

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great job Tom, nice turning on the riser
 

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That is one beautiful table, appreciate the references you listed. The table shows craftsmanship done the correct way, nicely done.
 

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A lovely piece. Well executed from start to finish.
 
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