This is a build thread for a poplar craftsman/ Greene & Greene style coffee table 22” wide x 41” long x 21” tall. Open shelving on both sides with the central nest of 3 drawers. I didn’t plan to post so some of the early construction doesn’t have pics – sorry my bad. Also I’m struggling getting pictures in the right sequence on Photobucket so some of the pics below are probably out of order.
Rationale for this build is twofold: using up accumulated shop lumber too small for larger projects and also an attempt at redemption. I built a similar, slightly larger version of this table out of QSWO with an attempted a “Stickley” finish. Turned out bad! The finishing regimen was way over my head with multiple stains followed by surface topcoats etc. Resulted in a terrible, muddy finish-obscuring the compass inlay on the tabletop, in addition to my many other mistakes. My plan is to die the Poplar black, to hopefully hide the green color in the Poplar, while still allowing the figure to show through. Sounds like a very iffy strategy, but I guess we’ll just have to see!
Here’s the carcass already glued up 2” square legs, joined rails with pegged mortise & tenon joints. Bottom rails have a “cloud lift” design element on the bottom edge typical of Greene & Greene. ½” square vertical dividers are glued into small mortises in the top/bottom rails. I use a sector and dividers to evenly divide spacing for vertical dividers. In previous version of this build I attempted to glue up the side rails, legs and these vertical dividers at the same time which was a headache. For me easier to add the small vertical dividers after the main side components were glued up.
Prior to assembly, I chopped small mortises in front and back rails that will be used to capture the vertical dividers/ends of the central drawer unit.
Crosscutting 4/4 stock for panels of central drawer unit. Quick pitch for vintage saws with narrow saw plates. This is one of my favorite finish crosscut saws, Disston # 16, 12 PPI great performer stiff, light and easy to maneuver. Not surprising because the only way a saw plate gets sharpened away this much is because several generations of preindustrial woodworkers liked using it.
Here is the tabletop glued up. – Gonna take a lot of black dye to try and cover up that prominent green color! All at the breadboard ends and install the tabletop as the last step so that I maintain easy access to the inside of the carcass when assembling shelves and central drawer runners, kickers etc.