Finally finished first project.

[Andy Howard]

I finally finished my first "real" project that will hopefully stay in my living room for years to come. It is a small drum table based on one I saw David Marks make on Wood Works.

I used walnut for all the pieces except the top and bottom skins, which are 1/4" maple ply. Not sure if it is "curly" or "quilted" or somewhere in between? The finish is a coat of BLO, followed by about 4 coats of ARM-R-Seal.

I scaled the piece down a bit from the original; to fit a particular spot that I needed a table for, so the porportions may be off a bit?

I think it turned out ok for my first real project, and I learned a ton by making it.

Hopefully the pics appear below!

Andy

[Dennis Peacock]

You should be real proud of yourself Andy. Looks great and I really like the mix of the two woods you chose. Very nice and the corner joinery looks good too. Congrats on a project well done.!!!!:D

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats on your project. Love the two woods. Finish looks excellent.

[David Fried]

Andy,

The table looks great and goes well with the chairs. They look really comfy!

Dave

[Dick Parr]

Great job Andy!:) Where do you buy your plywood from? I have never been that lucky to find that nice of plywood when I use it.:p Very nice combination of woods and are those dovetails or box-joints on the corners. Which ever they are they look nice.

[Mark Singer]

Andy,,Nice proportions and very simple elegant design.....Excellent!

[Jason Tuinstra]

Andy, it turned out great. The maple board looks great. I really like the contrast of maple and walnut, so this ones a winner with me.

[Eric Porter]

Andy,
Wow! Your drum table turned out great. The figure in the maple is even more pronounced with the BLO. Did you find 8/4 walnut for the legs, or did you glue up some of the walnut you used for the body of the drum. Either way, I hope the "new" jointer worked well for you.

All,
I had the pleasure of seeing Andy's drum table project when it was in process and I can attest to the quality of the joinery. Since it appears that Andy is too humble to brag about his figured wood gloat, I will do it for him. When I was in Andy's shop last week I commented on the figured maple plywood just as some of you did. That's when Andy told me he only paid $7 for an entire 4x8 sheet of the figured maple ply. His lumber supplier wanted to get rid of it because no cabinet shops are interested in figured lumber. The only problem I have is that I didn't go by the lumber yard, which is also local to me, before Andy.

Eric

[Andy Howard]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Dick - I got that plywood from a local hardwood center. It is a branch of a chain called the Hardwood Group. They have a branch in Chattanooga if you are ever down that way.

They cater mostly to cabinet shops and commercial accounts, but also sell to hobbiests and our woodworking guild has an account there. The few times I have gone there I always talk to the sales guy and just try to be friendly with him and see what he has that is really neat. Well it turns out that he usually pulls any figured stuff out and stashes it away becuase the cabinet shops in the area dont like to use it. I guess in a production environment you want pretty even and consistent looking grain so you can interchange pieces readily and not worry about the grain. He usually has the curly and figured stuff in a different bin, and this piece of plywood was actually sitting over to the side by itself cause nobody wanted it. The ENTIRE 4X8 sheet looks like the top on my table!

The joints are half blind dovetails, and they came out ok. Still have lots to learn when it comes to joinery.

The finish of the maple actually came out a bit more yellow than I would have liked, but such is life.

Andy

[Byron Trantham]

Andy, lookin' good! If this is your first "real project" we have some nice looking stuff comming in our future.:D

[Andy Howard]

Eric,

I got to looking at the cutoffs from making the body and had enough left to glueup the leg stock. The jointer is great and makes it a lot easier! I ended up getting the entire body, and all 4 legs out of a single board, which I think is cool. One leg has a bit of sapwood in it and there are some visible knots in the legs and sides, but I actually like the look it gives to the piece.

Now if only you all could hear it! I cant get a good recording of its sound due to my cruddy microphone on my computer, but it sounds pretty neat.

If only I had a single ounce of rhythym to play the thing!

Andy

[Vaughn McMillan]

Andy, curly or quilted...that maple is beautiful, and you did a great job of showing it off. And for 7 bucks? You thief! Very nice job, even more so if this is your "starter" piece.

- Vaughn

[Dan Forman]

A beautiful and very interesting table. It's really designed to make a drum sound? Never heard of such a thing. Well done.

Dan

[lou sansone]

looks great to me... so what is next on the list?

lou

[John Hart]

Don't look like no "first" piece to me!! Beautifully executed Andy! :)

[John Motzi]

Andy, This is very very nice.

John

[Gregg Mason]

I can only hope my first looks that good. Nice job.

[Doug Shepard]

Very nice job - especially for a first project. My first project came out looking like a cross between a fork-truck mangled pallet and premium firewood.