The Table is Finished (or is it?)

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As you can see in the video above, the table is complete and it’s sitting in the garage. I’ve actually got a frame started on the table, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. It’s in place to help demonstrate how I intend to use the table. 

In my mind, the key to a straight Joli boat is consistent frames and then a straight, flat surface to assemble on. Let’s get started with building a table to help assure consistent frames. 

This table may be over-built and in fact should probably be used for more than one Joli boat, (maybe that is something we can talk about in the future). The frame work for the table will be 2 x 4 material. Maybe I can find framing lumber that is straight and true enough or maybe there is some manufactured material that will be better for this. 

The top could be ¾” melamine, or something new I ran across in the May/June 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking called Phenolic Plywood. This is Baltic Birch plywood with a thin coating of phenolic resin. It has superior strength and flatness compared to other plywoods. 

You can see in the pictures below that my Joli table has 2 x 4 alignment pins at key locations. It turns out that the size of the frames are actually determined by the table size. The top surface will be 8’ square. 

There is a 2 x 4 frame running under the edge of the table and the pin attaches to that frame. So, the widest portion of the Joli frame ends up being 8’ minus the 1 ½” from each side for a total width of 93”.

I tried to find a location on the frames that runs the full length of the boat that would represent the zero line. Each frame has a set distance above this and below this line. If I cut the notch in the frame first and then set it into the jig, I can then use the jig to cut my lengths. I would use this notch later during boat assembly.

The jig table is also used to cut the curved roof beams. This will be done with a router attached to a long arm that pivots on the far end. In my case, I also talked about having curved cabin sides. I would also do this with a router and long arm. Again, I think this assures greater accuracy when cutting out the parts of the frame. The pivoting arms would have multiple holes on the pivot end for cutting the outside or the inside of the curve.

 

I’m re-thinking my table design a little now that I’ve got one built. Oh the joy of a virtual build ;-) Now is the time to figure some of this out. I built the table 40” tall. This seemed like a nice workbench height but it will make it tough to reach toward the center of the table. What if the middle of the table was cut out? They use this technique on model railroads to allow access to things that are too far from the outside edge.

So either the next entry will involve making some Joli frames or rebuilding my jig table. We’ll see.

On a technical note, I’m still working on a way for the reader to view the videos in a higher resolution and larger size. I've added a link below the videos that points to my Flickr site. It's not the perfect solution, but better than the embedded videos. I think this will make it easier to view some of the detail that I’m trying to show. It seems to work well for any of the pictures on the blog. I’ve also added an e-mail link to the site. It is a hotmail address in case there are some issues with spam, but if you write to me using that link, I’ll write back to you from my gmail account. I’d love to hear from you.