Cofee table - finally started - WIP

[Bill Brush]

I've been talking about my coffee table project around here for far too long, with far too little progress. I finally got everything collected and am making a concerted effort to get it done by Mother's Day.

Last week I took the top in and had it machine flattened. I couldn't spare the time to have it done by hand, and I didn't want to risk messing up wood of this quality.

This weekend I have cut the legs to final size, mortised them, and tapered. I cut the tenons on the aprons, put a decorative bead on them and cut the mortises for the drawer runners. I trimmed the top to final length with my router trammel.

The top is currently sitting while some wood filler dries.

Ok, so here are the pictures.

The parts at the start:
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We have tenons! This was my first attempt at mortise and tenon joints
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The dry fit table base. I was very relieved when I checked it for square and it was dead on.
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The table top.
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Cut to final size
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And finally my home built DIY mortising and tapering jigs.

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I'll add to this thread as I make more progress. I've got some Waterlox on order and hopefully I can get it done or almost done by next Sunday.

I'm basically winging this, I don't have any plans I'm working from, but I want to show what a novice can do with (the good and the bad).

[Jim Rimmer]

Looks like you've made a lot of progress. Nice looking table so far. Can't wait to see the finished photos.

[Alan Lightstone]

Looks nice, Bill. Be very careful about placing any objects on the table until the Waterlox is fully cured, not just dry. Especially rubber containing ones. I only mention this as Mother's Day is coming up, and the pictures show the table unfinished.

Can't wait to see the finished table.

[Bill Brush]

Looks nice, Bill. Be very careful about placing any objects on the table until the Waterlox is fully cured, not just dry. Especially rubber containing ones. I only mention this as Mother's Day is coming up, and the pictures show the table unfinished.

Can't wait to see the finished table.

Good tip Alan. How long does it take to cure? I can leave it in the "Finishing room" (aka the basement bathroom) indefinitely.

[Alan Lightstone]

They usually talk about it curing in 3-4 weeks, but a small degree of curing occurs after that as well.

I'm not sure what the chemical reaction is between the rubber and the varnish, but I've seen it happen on an entertainment center I built for my son which had the rubber feet from an LCD TV first placed on it 1 month after the last coat. That reaction may occur indefinitely. Not sure. Maybe someone can chime in who knows better.

I also ran into it putting those Rocker bench cookies under a table that I had finished with Waterlox to finish the other side. The cookies left a mark.

[sheldon pettit]

What is happening is called "plasticizer migration". meaning the two differing materials one of which contains the plasticizer, in this case the feet r bumpers etc., is leaching out and into the the coating that is such that the plasticizers can penetrate the film. If and when left long enough it can even migrate all the way through the film and carry into the substrate itself, carrying the darker color with it. This was a big problem in the 50-60-70 with telephone pads/feet, and why they stopped using the material here for the largest part, but it still gets imported form other countries. There is no cure but to strip or at least remove the affected area and wash with alcohols or acetone till the plasticizer is totally removed and then refinish or build up the affected area[s] again. If buying any imports with dark feet you should replace them with either clear or ones that donot contain the plasticizers. Think using radio shack or others to find out if they have such or go online ok?

[Bill Brush]

Made some good progress since my first post. It looks like a table now, but I found a fly in the ointment, and corrections will be needed. On the plus side my very first drawer ever was a success.

Pictures!

231605 The drawer front is cut from the apron so the grain matches perfectly. The long aprons are made from the same planks as the outside pieces of the top, so the grain matches from the top to the aprons.

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It looks like a table sitting there.

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The issue, which is hard to show here, is a 3/16" gap between the top and the leg, and the matching one on the diagonal matching leg. I'm going to have to spend some time with the hand planes getting it to lay flat. Other than that it went together good, and all that I need to worry about at this point is profiling the edge of the top, and getting everything smoothed down for finish. There are a variety of details floating around in my head that might make it into the table, but they're optional at this point.

[Bill Brush]

Cropped a picture of the front apron to show the drawer front grain.

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[Alan Lightstone]

How did you cut out the drawer front from the apron?

[Bill Brush]

How did you cut out the drawer front from the apron?

I will confess right up front that someone else told me how to do it (properly) but the idea was mine. I took the piece the rough piece for the apron and ripped a strip off 1/2" wide, then I ripped a wide strip 2 1/2" wide, then a final strip 3/4" wide. I cut the drawer face out of the center of the 2 1/2" wide strip. I laid out the wide strip with some 1/16" spacers between the pieces, and glued the top and bottom strip back on to the center strip. The key was keeping the pieces in the right order and facing. Once glued back together you can hardly see the glue lines.

I had to plane the top of the drawer front so it will slide in and out easily.

[Huck Schwee]

I will confess right up front that someone else told me how to do it (properly) but the idea was mine. I took the piece the rough piece for the apron and ripped a strip off 1/2" wide, then I ripped a wide strip 2 1/2" wide, then a final strip 3/4" wide. I cut the drawer face out of the center of the 2 1/2" wide strip. I laid out the wide strip with some 1/16" spacers between the pieces, and glued the top and bottom strip back on to the center strip. The key was keeping the pieces in the right order and facing. Once glued back together you can hardly see the glue lines.

I had to plane the top of the drawer front so it will slide in and out easily.

I've seen Norm do this as well as perform a plunge cut to get the draw out from a single piece. Nice work!

[Dan Hahr]

So your top is slightly warped? Any fastening method should hold that small of twist flat. Would def not try planing it. Dan

[Ben Hatcher]

I thought the top was warped at first as well. But then I noticed that the ends of the top were curved and just look warped from the angle the shot was taken.

Nice table, Bill. I build something very similar a few years back and used the same method for cutting out the drawer. I can't think of a better way to get a good grain match and perfect reveals on the sides of the drawer.

[Bill Brush]

The top is curved, but it's also slightly warped. With 3 corners touching the 4th is 3/16" off the leg. I was advised against trying to flatten it by mechanical fastener to the base because it would pull the base out of square. I guess I don't know at this point how much stress the base can take without racking. I shellacked the backs of the aprons last night to seal them, and will probably glue it up tonight. Once it's dry I can do a test to see if it will hold up to the tension.

[Alan Lightstone]

I will confess right up front that someone else told me how to do it (properly) but the idea was mine. I took the piece the rough piece for the apron and ripped a strip off 1/2" wide, then I ripped a wide strip 2 1/2" wide, then a final strip 3/4" wide. I cut the drawer face out of the center of the 2 1/2" wide strip. I laid out the wide strip with some 1/16" spacers between the pieces, and glued the top and bottom strip back on to the center strip. The key was keeping the pieces in the right order and facing. Once glued back together you can hardly see the glue lines.

I had to plane the top of the drawer front so it will slide in and out easily.
Ah......

BTW, I like the table legs too. It's looking real nice so far.

[Bill Brush]

Daily update!

No pictures today but some good progress.

Last night I decided it was time to get things smoothed down so things can be assembled. Now I will freely declare that I hate sanding. So in the interest of avoiding sanding I bought some of these new-fangled card scrapers a while back and thought I would give one of them a try. I am sold on them. I may never sand again. I scraped all 4 legs, the aprons and the drawer (inside and out). The surfaces are so smooth they're shiny, and the nasty tearout areas were no problem at all. Even the saw marks just disappeared.

So basically my night was filled with a lot of micro thin shavings and a lot of sweat. My hands haven't had a workout like that since the last time I had to milk a cow.

I also used a plane and chamfered the bottoms of the legs. I though that would help prevent chipping. The corners also got softened with the block plane, just to clean them up a bit.

After the scraping I shot the backs of the aprons, the drawer, and the drawer runners with shellac to seal them. Hopefully the Waterlox gets here today and I can think about finishing.

[Bill Brush]

I'm waiting for glue to dry so I am going to do a quick update and head to bed.

More pictures!

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I chamfered the bottoms of the legs to help prevent chipping or splitting when it is moved. I'll add some epoxy and a foot after the finish.

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I'm not up to doing dovetails so I added pins to the drawer front to give it mechanical strength.

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Here are the drawer rails, they have itty-bitty tenons and matching mortises. They aren't glued, but they don't need to be, the only way they're coming out is if someone takes a hammer to them. This shot shows the shellac on the interior of the aprons. The aprons didn't get any smoothing on the inside, but they still look good. The clamps are there to mark where the stops need to be.

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The drawer interior.

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and finally, the base is all glued up and clamped. My plan to do the glueup in stages went out the window when I accidentally put glue in the wrong mortise. It was either go for the whole shebang or have a bigger problem.

[Bill Brush]

And tonight, we have a fully assembled table, which will be taken apart again for a few last details. But for now it looks good.

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The table top has been scraped, scraped, and scraped some more, but it looks good. The knot got filled with a mixture of wood glue and ebony sanding dust. Blends right in.

[Bill Brush]

First coat of Waterlox on the base tonight.

One word: Wow!

[Bill Brush]

Probably my last WIP post, the top is has 2 coats of finish and the base has 3. It is looking better than I hoped.

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The top is not attached, it's resting on some stickers.

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The top is going to get at least 3-4 more coats of finish to build up a good protective layer, but I couldn't be happier in how it looks.