so let me preface this video by saying i'm
far from being an expert when it comes to woodworking joinery and i hate hand tools so
you won't be seeing any of that in this video what you will see in this video is actually
my second attempt ever at making castle joints and they turned out really well – but that's not
the point i'm trying to make what i'm trying to say is that i believe that anybody with a table
saw can succeed in making this joint perfectly by using the simple systematic approach i
described in this video at least that's my hope so with that i hope you enjoy the video and by the
way i have plans available for this coffee table build so be sure to check out the links in the
description below i've already squared up my cedar posts and cut my pieces to length the size doesn't
really matter as long as they're perfectly square the shorter pieces will be the four legs and
will essentially be the castle part of the joint these other pieces over here will be
the table aprons you'll only need two cedar four by fours and two cedar fence boards
for this outdoor coffee table build so despite the increase in lumber prices it shouldn't
break the bank okay so the aprons will connect with a half lap like this and the leg will
then lock it in and connect all three parts okay so i'll start with the legs first and
work my way from there i picked up this great little combination square and six inch ruler at
princess auto first i'll measure the width of the stock and divide that number by three then set my
combination square to that length don't stress too much here it doesn't have to be exactly one-third
just close enough so it'll look evenly balanced next i'll grab a second combination square and
set it to the width of the stalk and then use it to mark the top of the joint and by the way
you'll want to keep these settings on the squares because we'll be using them again later you
actually only need to mark one of the legs you don't need to mark them all i'll be making all
of the cuts for the castle joint using my table saw and a flat bottom blade i'll leave a link to
the blade and all the other tools i used down in the description below i raised the blade up until
the tips of the teeth just kiss the line and lock that height in alright there are two things i
strongly recommend for cutting castle joints number one make sure your stock is square
and number 2 you'll want a solid tenoning jig this is one i made specifically for this
build it's essentially four pieces assembled into a tall box with one piece just above the
fence and the other higher up for stability the jig rides along the fence so you want to make
it snug to the fence but use a little paste wax inside the jig to help it slide smoothly it's
critical that the jig be square to the table and have a back stop to support the stock
you'll be cutting so it won't go anywhere and it'll also help to prevent tear out
the stop can simply be screwed to the jig just make sure it's also square to the table
too as you can see i made a little cutout at the front of the jig so i could easily clamp
my stock to the jig for safe and accurate cuts alright so back to the table legs now that i
previously marked and with the blade height set i'm ready to make the first cut i'll secure the
stock to the jig making sure it's properly seated and then proceed to line up the tips of the blade
just inside my markings because i'm working with square stock for all the parts of this joint it
doesn't actually matter if you're off by a hair here whatever the cut ends up being here will
become the reference for the other parts so don't worry too much about it the most important
thing here is to get the blade height dialed in and don't move your fence from this spot until
you finish making all the cuts on all four legs i kept cutting then turning the leg and making the
cuts on all four sides when you're done you should be left with a tic-tac-toe looking pattern i could
then grab the next leg and make all four cuts alright with all four legs done i can finally
now move the fence and slowly hog away the material that's left in the middle i move the
fence in really small increments about the width of the blade now this is a pretty messy
operation with sawdust flying everywhere so it helps to occasionally wipe down the fence and the
underside of the jig and add a little more paste wax to keep the jig sliding smoothly now there are
definitely other ways you could go about removing the material here like using an oscillating tool
followed by a chisel or a dado stack or even a coping saw i chose this method which yes is slower
but the end result will be clean and accurate all right so that's it for the legs i can
now move on to shaping the table aprons for this i'll use the same combination squares as
before without adjusting the settings there are two cuts i need to make for the aprons the first
being to create a tenon that'll fit into the legs i just cut okay so these are the parts i'll be
removing and keeping this tenon in the middle to cut the tenons i can once again use my tenoning
jig as the name implies once the stock is secured to the jig this time i'm going to line up the
tips of the blade on the outside of the line in fact it's a good idea to first start
a little wide and sneak up on the cut so i'll actually stay just outside the line and
see where i get after making the cut on both sides i want to do a test fit with the leg to see if it
fits now visually here i can already see it's too wide but for a more accurate dry fit i'll use my
bandsaw to cut away the material without going all the way to my line yet but just enough to expose
a good portion of the tenon i'm using my band saw here because i don't want to move my table saw
fence but you could also do this using a handsaw okay so with the tenon exposed i clearly see
that the tenon doesn't fit so i'll go back to the tenoning jig and move my fence over ever
so slightly so i can cut a hair off the tenon i'll run it through twice to cut both
sides of the tenon and do another test fit i can see that the fit now is perfect so i
can repeat this cut on all of my aprons making sure not to move the fence until i'm done with
that done i can now set aside the tenoning jig i can also freely move my fence and
lower the blade i'll set the blade height just below the tenon making sure that
the tenon clears the blade without hitting it to cut off the shoulders of the tenon i'll use
my miter gauge you don't want to make this cross cut directly against your fence so i clamped
a small stop and adjusted the fence until the blade was just inside the line i made both cuts
and went back to my table leg to do a test fit looks like my settings are just right
with the end of the tenon perfectly flush so i can confidently proceed to cutting
the shoulders off the rest of the aprons alright so i've now got my legs cut and my aprons
cut but there's one final cut i need to make to the aprons for this castle joint to all fit
together and that's a cross-lap joint within the tenons themselves to mark where to cut the
lap joints on the tenons i'll slip on one of the legs and mark the edges with a pencil next i need
to make another mark halfway to do this i'll grab one of my combination squares and set it to half
the width of the board a little trick to make sure you're exactly on center is to make a first mark
starting from one side then flip it over and make a second mark from the other side if both marks
line up you know you're exactly in the middle all right so with my marking lines all set i
can go back to the table saw and adjust the height of the blade it's a little challenging
to use the stock here so instead i'll use the combination square i just used to set the blade
height i set the blade just inside the line and again here it's better to first start well inside
the line and sneak up on the cut until it's just right you can always cut a little more off but
there's no going back if you cut off too much it's easiest if you can set up a second stop
so you have one stop for each end of the cutout this will allow me to make repeatable cuts on
all of my pieces after making the two initial cuts using the stops i can progressively
hog away the material remaining in between once i have the width dialed in just right
i could make all the cuts in all the aprons almost on autopilot simply using the
stops and grinding away in the middle at this point all the cuts are made and
it's time to see if this joint fits together did you know that a castle joint
is also called the shiro joint it's probably the other way around actually
but potato potato i'm super excited at this point of course everything fits perfectly
snug without being too tight or too loose just to be sure i'll do a full test fit with
all of the joints before i pull out the glue everything looks good so i'm going to glue up the
base and i did some research on this and honestly didn't find anything on gluing up castle joints a
lot of people will drive a screw through the top of the joint to pull it all together but since the
top of this joint will be a visible design feature i don't want any visible screws or plugs
so instead i decided to just apply glue to every surface within the joint and
squeeze it all together i checked for square and wiped away all the excess glue
with a wet rag then let it dry overnight the next day i hit everything with some 80 grit
sandpaper to flatten and smooth out the joints as you can see there are some small visible
gaps in the joints but you know what that's okay my biggest concern is water getting into the
joints seeing as this table will live outdoors so i'm going to pour some glue into the joints and
rub some cedar sawdust into the mix working the paste into the joints i can then hit it with
a sander and voila no one will be the wiser i considered putting a chamfer on these edges
but i like the square bulky look so instead i'm going to create a mini bevel and break the edges
by placing my sanding pad at a 45 degree angle and going back and forth maybe a dozen
times i did this on all of the edges including even the table legs so they won't be
as likely to splinter when you move the table okay it's time to add the table
top and complete this coffee table i'll start by cutting the rounded edges off
of two cedar fence boards i can then cut four pieces to length at the miter saw using my stop
block and also rip two thinner pieces as well okay so the thin pieces will go like this across
the apron and will essentially hold up the planks that will make up the top and sit flush with the
aprons so in order to get the height just right i measure the thickness of the board and then mark
that distance with my combination square after securing the support with a few screws i could
drop in the planks and check that everything fit now i could easily screw these planks down but
i don't want any visible screws so instead i'm going to flip the table over and attach them
from underneath using some corner braces i used one corner bracket per
plank and worked my way up one plank at a time after assembly the
table had a hollow sound to it so i ended up adding this small strip in the middle
which helped cut down on the vibrations i hope you like this build and that it might
inspire you to try out castle joints yourself if you're interested i have plans available for
this coffee table build which include instructions for the tenant jig 2.
you can check out the link
to the plans in the video's description below for now i'm leaving this table raw without
any finish but eventually when i refinish my cedar deck i'll likely sand down the table
and apply the same finish to it as well until next time thanks for watching see you soon.