Another coffee table

[James Pallas]

I didn’t mean to hack Derek’s thread. There was talk of weakening the joint by full blind tails and such. With 12 tails it would be hard to weaken the joint. People aren’t supposed to sit or stand on coffee tables. I realize that today there is more of that. What I remember is that if I dared sit on furniture other than what was intended for sitting my mother would have made it so I couldn’t sit on anything for a while. Derek’s build will look great. I just think it would look better without the tails showing and that there would be no sacrifice in strength.
Jim

[Brian Holcombe]

I don’t mind the exposed dovetails on this piece because it is dark.

Ive been tending to avoid exposed joinery anymore, but I often enjoy seeing hints such as the square draw bore pegs when they’re small. Just a little bit on each piece so the audience is aware of the considerations made.

[Denis Kenzior]

Probably not for the purists, but shows another approach that I found interesting. Note that the video is showing off the machine more than the woodworking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt1ES1WP454

[James Pallas]

I don’t mind the exposed dovetails on this piece because it is dark.

Ive been tending to avoid exposed joinery anymore, but I often enjoy seeing hints such as the square draw bore pegs when they’re small. Just a little bit on each piece so the audience is aware of the considerations made.

Could be that a discussion in another thread would be interesting. I don’t want to go too far abroad in Derek’s build thread. I’m very interested in this build.
Jim

[Patrick Walsh]

I couldn’t even watch the video, think I got like 15 seconds into it and had to run away.

What Derek is doing is actually fun, for the life of me unless it’s simply about making $$$ i can’t seemwhere the joy is in cnc.

Each to his own but I just assume go out and buy said item vrs building that way and find another hobby that isn’t Woodworking.

No offense meant to anyone we all find fun our own way. I like Derek’s way

Probably not for the purists, but shows another approach that I found interesting. Note that the video is showing off the machine more than the woodworking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt1ES1WP454

[Derek Cohen]

Could be that a discussion in another thread would be interesting. I don’t want to go too far abroad in Derek’s build thread. I’m very interested in this build.
Jim

Go with it, Jim. I don't mind these side tracks. It is all about making decisions, and this process is as important as the physical side of building. Perhaps more important, since building is just cutting to a line ... and we have to know which line to cut to!

Denis, I have seen that video. My reaction was much the same as Patricks'. I suspect that the woodworker is an amateur using CNC woodworking to by-pass hand skills. Some may find this a way of building without going through the learning phase that most here have travelled. But it lacks all meaning for me - half the fun is the challenge. Plus, the result looks crude to me.

I received an email notification, from Wood and Shop, of a video by Dave Heller on London dovetails which feature one mitred side. This is done pins first, as an alternative to the tails first I demonstrated. The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdBHpbUxCPE

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jessica de Boer]

I don't know if it's available in Australia but it's the easiest and fastest way to do a curved corner. I can get them in several radii with or without a veneer top layer and a thickness of 15, 18, 20 or 22mm.

I would in fact make the whole table from veneered plywood and connect the round corners with cookies. Keep it simple.

[John Patric]

Kinda takes the fine out of furniture. (Plywood curves that is).

[Derek Cohen]

I don't know if it's available in Australia but it's the easiest and fastest way to do a curved corner. I can get them in several radii with or without a veneer top layer and a thickness of 15, 18, 20 or 22mm.

I would in fact make the whole table from veneered plywood and connect the round corners with cookies. Keep it simple.

Jessica, I can see that would work. And veneered, it would look like the model my nephew chose. This method is exactly what I would do if I were building several and to a short deadline. It is the way of a professional woodworker with an eye on costs, effort and time.

The coffee table I build for my nephew will be something he will hopefully treasure for many years to come. It will have an individuality that sets it apart from mass-produced pieces. This is not about sensible short cuts, but about romantic handwork. And hopefully, some of the passion and care that went into the work will be recognised and appreciated by the family that live with it.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[J. Greg Jones]

Wow, I could have used some of those curved corners last summer. I volunteer as the prop maker for a high school marching band show, and last summer I made three large cell phones (plus a phone charger), with the largest one 12 feet long. I made the corners by cutting non-through kerfs in the ply, then soaking them and bending them on a form. I expect I made well over a thousand cuts total on the table saw to get the 16 corners made. I wasn't aware that pre-curved corners exist. Sorry to veer this off topic, but I had to comment on those corners.

[Brian Holcombe]

I don't know if it's available in Australia but it's the easiest and fastest way to do a curved corner. I can get them in several radii with or without a veneer top layer and a thickness of 15, 18, 20 or 22mm.

I would in fact make the whole table from veneered plywood and connect the round corners with cookies. Keep it simple.

I like this, makes a nice big radius without having to make your own forms. I made a lego's table for my son over the holiday from BB ply and used a lock mitered corner. It makes a hard edge, this radius would have been a better way to do it.

[James Pallas]

I have to admit that I’ve not seen those plywood radii before. Upon seeing them many uses come to mind, pedestal tables, columns etc. A little veneer and away you go. I like plywood for filling in those big open spaces. I don’t have a problem with it at all. Similar things have been done for a long time. Laid up brick curves and such. The quality of the plywood comes into question more than the product itself.
Jim

[Edwin Santos]

I suspect that the woodworker is an amateur using CNC woodworking to by-pass hand skills. Some may find this a way of building without going through the learning phase that most here have travelled. But it lacks all meaning for me - half the fun is the challenge. Plus, the result looks crude to me.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek - C'mon no need to be condescending. No question he's not an artisan in your class but I don't think he's trying to be one either. It may not be fair to characterize him as a clod relying on an expensive crutch. Some people's art medium is the innovative technology and engineering. I see what the video is showcasing as a very different apple to your orange and one doesn't have to suck for the other to be good.

I think they're selling that machine, probably aimed at a production customer.

BTW I think your work is awesome. My comment goes both ways. The guy in the video would have no business criticizing you or any hand tool artisan either.
Edwin

[James Pallas]

I’m positively no expert on these things. Here is my take on exposed joinery. In the past a lot of effort was made to coverup mechanical joinery in favor of smooth and free flowing work. Crown molding on case work, beaded molding to cover sliding dovetails, cock beading on drawers. I think that in the machine age the need for speed became the driving force. The advancement of glue technology helped. Miters glued and stuck together with nails. Things began to fall apart and people didn’t like it. Furniture was suppose to last after all. In order to prove the work was good and strong makers began to expose the joinery to prove their products worth. I can remember my parents talking about furniture purchases and saying things to indicate that dovetails made it better, true by the way. The era came that you had to prove it, it was not excepted that drawers were dovetailed if you couldn’t see for yourself. Greene and Greene, Stickley and such. This is just my take on the subject.
Jim

[Jessica de Boer]

I looked up the specifications from my supplier just to be sure and I was actually a bit off on the thickness because I don't use these corner profiles a lot.

Thickness: 12-13mm, 15-16mm and 18-19mm.
Radius: 30, 40, 55, 70, 100, 130, 170, 200, 250mm.