Joining the two pedestals together actually went better than I though it would. Those really long lag screws hold the two pieces together very solidly, if I do say so myself. And, the good news is you have to look really hard to see them in between in the gaps. Yep, I missed where I really wanted the screws to go, but it turned out ok in the end because, like I said, you really have to look hard to even see them.
Drilling out a plug to accommodate a dowel was also pretty easy to do. Luckily, those 3/4" dowels I bought a long time ago work wonderfully when cut off short and tapped into the hole. Now all that's necessary is to grind down the nubs still sticking out after the glue dries. All in all, a very good morning.
After lunch setup: because the two pedestals didn't join together quite perfectly, one was a little higher than the other. Back to the router planer.
In order to keep the piece (no longer two pieces, eh) completely solid while passing over it with the router, I attached a 3/4" thick shelf scrap to the bottom using 4 deck screws.
Once they were in place, the shelf was attached to the planer table with another 4 deck screws. Very solid! No movement at all! Just what I was looking for.
Next step is to adjust the height of the runners to match the height of the pedestal, make the necessary passes with the router in the sled, and voila....straight and level!
Better check the height, though, because if it goes under 27 inches, the tabletop won't make up for the difference. I've measured the height of quite a few tables, and they invariably wind up at between 29 and 30 inches high.
Well, THAT's a relief. Still have some wiggle room to now do the bottom.
Turned the whole thing upside down, unfastened and refastened in reverse, made the necessary passes with the router again, and voila.....perfectly level. And that's how I get parallel tops and bottoms on all the pedestals I do for tables. Did I mention how much I like this router planer?
Even after leveling the top and bottom, the height is still at 27 1/2". Perfect!
This is why I like the router planer so much. Using pipes, I can adjust the height to just about anything I want to. The only limitation is from the length of the pipes, themselves. For this process, you can see the maximum height of the bottom of the sled is 29 inches. If you look at the corner of the apparatus in the left of the photo below, you can see there's still about 3 to 4 inches I could have raised the sled if necessary. Nice!
Just a couple of photos of the leveled pedestal top and bottom.
Before applying the first coat of stain, there was still some significant sanding that had to be done. Also the dowel plugs had to be ground down and made flush with the contour of the opening they went into.
All that being done, it was time to apply the first coat of Watco Danish Oil "Natural" stain/varnish combination.
All 4 sides with one coat:
I think one coat of stain is all that will be necessary. The topcoats from here on in will be spray varnish as I can't get into all the nooks and crannies even with an artist's brush. So, tomorrow it's off to the hardware store to get some spray varnish.
I think it's coming together nicely. What do you think?
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