A Small Stretched Octagon table, featuring some Tanzanian Dunnowood

[Art Mulder]

For the past 5 (or so) years, a small piece of "dunnowood" has sat down in my shop waiting for the right project. My Father In Law brought this small (11x20ish) board home with him from Tanzania after visiting my Sister-in-law's family there.

The design was inspired by a photo of a small Green-and-Green table in the book "In The Craftsman Style" from Taunton (p21 if you care), but it was tweaked a lot to fit my space, and with a stretched out top, it seemed like finally I had the project for that board.

Building went fairly quick, using my recently-acquired Dowelmax jig to join the stretchers to the legs. Works like a charm, allows for easy/accurate joints and easy dry-fits, results in a quick and solid construction.

Finishing was pretty much the exact opposite of simple and quick. Yes I used test boards, lots of tests. I wiped on BLO, let it cure for 24-36 hours, and then wiped on Minwax wipe-on Poly. The top wouldn't cure. It stayed sticky.

To make a long story short, I found a reference in Dresdner's book "Wood Finishing Fixes" that certain rosewood species will not work with oil-based poly. I thought that this was likely African Mahogany - it doesn't look at all like rosewood, but nevertheless, it sure exhibited the exact characteristics he described of not curing properly. The finish was sanded off the top (and the inlay) and I used rattle-can zinnser shellac (two coats) followed by three coats of Flecto water-based varathane. (wasn't messing around with oil-based on this project any more!)

And I think the result was pretty slick.
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More images and description are on my web page (http://wordsnwood.com/2008/octagon/) for this project.

...art

[Jim Becker]

Looks great, Art! A nice compliment to that comfy Ikea chair, too... :)

[Brian Penning]

Yeah, it does indeed compliment the chair.
Glad the Dowelmax worked well for it.

[Art Mulder]

Looks great, Art! A nice compliment to that comfy Ikea chair, too... :)

Tanks, and tanks for moving the thead -- I hadn't noticed the new forum, guess I was snoozing...

And yes, it was designed precisely for that chair -- though it will sit on the other side, but that was too hard for photographing.

I designed it in real life by sitting in the chair, and guesstimating how high a table would be to complement the chair, and fall nicely under my hand for putting down a book or glass. Then I mocked it up with a milk crate, some boards, and a piece of cardboard. That's in part how I concluded that a 12x12 top was way too small, and that the 16x10 dimension would work.

Funny coincidence though, I didn't really consider how nicely the maple would match the pale wood (Birch? Maple? Bleached Beech? Who knows?) used in the Ikea Poang chair. I did discover that you can find a Sketchup model of a Poang chair in the free Google Sketchup Internet model database, which makes designing the piece more fun and realistic.

[gary Zimmel]

Nice looking table Art. The pair look good together.

[John Thompson]

Looks very good and indeed compliments the chair. The shellac gives a nicer finish than poly's IMO... just not as scuff resistant and you don't want to subject it to a drowning for any significant length of time.

Very nice work...

Sarge..

[Walt Caza]

Hi Art,
That is a sharp little table...nice work.
I love the top, and it's nice to have a story along with it.
(carried home from Africa by family...cool!)
I think the leg stripe was a good idea, it adds to the appearance.
Looks like you left the inlay stand proud of the leg, neat design choice.
keep up the good work,
Walt
:)

[Art Mulder]

Looks like you left the inlay stand proud of the leg, neat design choice.

Yup I did. On purpose even. ;)

[Chris Padilla]

Art, very nice. Are those legs straight or splayed a bit? I can't tell. Maple legs/support?

[Art Mulder]

Art, very nice. Are those legs straight or splayed a bit? I can't tell. Maple legs/support?

Straight. Slightly wormy maple.