I've just finished the assembly of a prototype for a coffee table. It's turned out pretty well so far, so if I don't screw up the finish too bad, this should end up a nice table. My final will be cherry and padauk - the design requires a number of techniques I've never tried so I didn't want to lay blade to expensive wood without some practice...thus the prototype. I had enough QSWO and walnut leftover from previous projects to get it done. Unfortunately I didn't have any QSWO that was thick enough for the legs, so I had to glue them up. The grain match on the legs isn't great, but good enough for prototyping.
Here is the view from the top. The glass lifts so you can put small items into the display area.
I've used hand tools more on this project than any other, though the heavy lifting was still done by power tools. All surfaces have been scraped - no abrasives were harmed in the construction of this project :> I don't have a router bit to match the profile I wanted for the edge, so it was done with bench and block planes. I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the edge profile changes gradually from the corner to the glass, so that the glass isn't left hanging out on the end.
One of the most fun parts has been trying to get tight, accurate joinery. The table, as it stands in these pictures, has no metal fasteners AND no glue! 8 pinned bridle joints hold the legs to the stretchers and the tops go onto the stretchers with sliding dovetails. My bridle joints ended up a little too loose to leave this one without glue, but I'm hoping my final product will not need it.
I don't have more pics at the moment...I'll just tease y'all for now and try to get better pics when I build the next one. After I fill the grain on the top this one will be ready for finishing. Then I will dive into the next and hopefully not find any new mistakes to make. And yes, there are quite a few mistakes on the prototype, but I'm getting better at hiding those.:wsmile:
Here is the view from the top. The glass lifts so you can put small items into the display area.
I've used hand tools more on this project than any other, though the heavy lifting was still done by power tools. All surfaces have been scraped - no abrasives were harmed in the construction of this project :> I don't have a router bit to match the profile I wanted for the edge, so it was done with bench and block planes. I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the edge profile changes gradually from the corner to the glass, so that the glass isn't left hanging out on the end.
One of the most fun parts has been trying to get tight, accurate joinery. The table, as it stands in these pictures, has no metal fasteners AND no glue! 8 pinned bridle joints hold the legs to the stretchers and the tops go onto the stretchers with sliding dovetails. My bridle joints ended up a little too loose to leave this one without glue, but I'm hoping my final product will not need it.
I don't have more pics at the moment...I'll just tease y'all for now and try to get better pics when I build the next one. After I fill the grain on the top this one will be ready for finishing. Then I will dive into the next and hopefully not find any new mistakes to make. And yes, there are quite a few mistakes on the prototype, but I'm getting better at hiding those.:wsmile:
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