Project: "Making a Harvest Table"

	Well, finally we are getting back to the Harvest Table and some real progress here. Beth and I have installed the hinges along both side drop leaves and are now clamping it up to make one more check before final glue up.    If you recall, the center portion has been glued as one large piece and each of the sides leaves have been hinged to the next panel, but not yet glued to the center portion. Most of the delay was so that I could get some new white oak to match a few of the pieces better.
Did you notice the different clamp above. It is the new Gross Stabil Scott Phillips signature line. I have seen these clamps displayed at the local Woodcraft store, and when I was short some clamps long enough to handle the tabletop, I decided to add a couple to my meager collection.    Frankly, in my view, they are almost a carbon copy of the K-body — but better.
	Over the 10 years that I have used the K-bodies, I sometimes got very annoyed at their tendency to slip when tightening. The arrow points to the enclosed action. Actually, you can slip a finger underneath but that doesn't always do it.
The open mechanism of the Gross Stabil clamps make it very simple to "assist" the clamp grab. Of course, for both clamps, once it starts clamping, the extra assistance isn't required.
	Beth caught on real quick. There are some other product features that are nice, but this one alone pays for it in my book. Now to work on the tabletop.
You can see the offset hinges for the drop leaf sides (arrows). There seems to be a wider gap than we want. One of the things we learned is that when you cut the rule joint, it needs a little room so that it doesn't bind and "lock open." And "yes", we learned that the hard way. We routed a bit more of the cove cut on the leaves. This gave us some play without causing a gap on the top surface.    Beth is making marks for dowels to join the leaf segments to the main board.
	Beth gets clever and uses clamps and a right angle block to lock  the hinged board open so that she can drill dowel holes for attaching this assembly to the top center section. "Dowel holes" you ask. Yes, we had already cut biscuit slots, but since then we have changed boards around for grain matching.
Beth sets the Dowelmax in position on the first mark. We were so impressed with this jig last week, we decided to use it even though there were already some biscuit cuts. She made marks every six inches or so all the way along the length of the board  — even if right over a biscuit slot. As you can see, she has the jig so that she is against the top side of the board. This way, the top will be aligned even if there are small differences in board thickness.
	She drills the holes. Beth will drill two at the end positions and one the rest of the points.
The Dowelmax makes it so easy to lineup on the mark.
	Beth has moved the hinged boards she just drilled to the back (arrow) so that she could get some clearance to drill the main section.
She has completed drilling all the holes, and it is time to see if the sections fit together as they should.