From Design to Reality

[Marvin Keys]

Here is my first attempt at preparing a project using sketchup to design and basically following it to completion.

[Marvin Keys]

It was also my first time trying to use those neander tools I've heard about called chisels. It ended up being quite the challenge because each of the slats are put into place using mortise and tenon joinery. I intended to take more pictures during the middle phases, but just didn't remember to do it.

[Bruce Page]

Marvin, I'd say that you nailed the Sketch-Up design right down to the hardware!

Beautiful table!

[Keith Christopher]

Marvin,


Excellent job !

Keith

[Glenn Clabo]

Sweet! Nice job on the sequence of events. It's nice to see how other people do things...through pictures.

[Bill Arnold]

Excellent work, Marvin. Please tell us more about the material and finish.

My wife would be proud of you for taking all the photos -- she gives me a 'gentle reminder' about photographing the major steps in my projects.

Merry Christmas!

[Brian Hale]

Looks Great Marvin!

What was your inspiration for the design, something from a WW magazine or or book or is this all yours? Just curious......

Keep 'um coming!

Brian :)

[Dave Richards]

Very nice. Good work with SketchUp and even better with the Neander tools. Definitely keep 'em coming.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Excellent work Marvin! For me it would be a real challenge to design and follow through! Excellent!

[Jim Becker]

Golly gee wiz!! That drawing morphed into a real table! Wonderful job, Marvin!!!

I really love the ability to actually visualize things in three dimensions when designing. As you can see, it really works!

[Tyler Howell]

Well Done! Are the drawers functioning?

[Mark Singer]

Very nice account of design through construction! Excelent looking piece!

[Alfred Hoffmann]

Beautiful job! What type of wood did you use? Looks like oak. I also just finished a coffee table. That convinced my wife that I deserve some better tools. UPS just delivered a DW735 as a christmas gift! :) :)

[Boyd Gathwright]

Hello Marvin,

.... In that last pic I want to know how you glued the rug, chair and table to the wall like that, you got all the wrinkles out of the rug that's amazing! Oh, or is it I can't turn my neck that far. But, seriously, beautiful table. I'm sure someone loved the results of your work. Great job! :D :D :D

Merry Christmas

Boyd

[Byron Trantham]

Nice work. I'll bet having Sketchup as a tool is really nice. I've been thinking about it ut it's so expensive.

Merry Christmas

[Marvin Keys]

The wood is all red oak. I finished it with three coats of Miniwax Special Walnut stain and three coats of Miniwax Satin Poly on the top. The stain was applied with old socks and the I used the foam brushes to put on the poly. The foam brushes are great because they cost about a 30 cents each and you can just toss them after each coat, no cleanup required.

The drawers are all potentially functioning, but only one is actually functioning. My wife said she only needed one drawer, but I didn't like the look of the one drawer or two drawer designs I found, so I decided to do three drawers. Since she didn't want the other two to work for now, I figured I would make them so I could turn them into functioning drawers if needed in the future, but for now they are held in place by some hot glue that will come off when needed. The middle one is the working drawer, although I am currently working on changing how it works because I wasn't happy with my original design.

As far as the original design itself, I posted to the design forum a little while back looking for a plan that matched the picture (see below) I had found and my wife liked. I was not able to find a design, so I went ahead and started my own.

As far as the cost of Sketchup is concerned I still have quite a while left on the free trial period, but I have a feeling it is going to end up permanently on my computer...