Thread: WIP - Chessboard Ottoman

I had a whole heap of offcuts sitting around which I decided to put to good use. Initially I thought I'd just cut 64 squares the exact same size and just glue them together......on reflection not such a good idea...especially given I dont own a table saw and even then....

So I had 64 poor fitting squares. Solution? I glued them together and then ran my Festool TS75 along each not so good joins creating a nice join. Did this both way and then glued each of the individual squares back together on a bit of ply. As you can see it didn't work out perfectly, but was a hell of a lot better than the first attempt.

Part two - cutting the circle. I was going to use a jig saw for this until a fellow forum member suggested I use a router. I have 3 of my fathers old ones which I have never used, and to be frank I was a little nervous about using. One of these includes the legendary Hitachi TR12, which I see many in use today. Mine has to be 20+ years old (made in Japan) and still works very well. No dust extraction unfortunately but apart from that its a pretty darn good first router. I also have a 800w Rupes which takes smaller bits too - same sort of shape as the 1400w Festool router.

Now I know I am a novice in these parts so please allow some latitude - HOW FREAKING COOL ARE ROUTERS! ok got that out of my system. I whipped up a quick circle jig by getting some threaded rod from bunnings and putting that in a block of 2x4. Add a 75mm screw and it worked a treat. I'll never use my jig saw again I think, certainly not for any curves in furniture work.

So here is the

Attachment 215295



Here is the jig:

Attachment 215296


Its going to be upholstered on the sides (about 300mm) and have two semi circle cushions on top. Idea being we need an upholstered surface most of the time and when someone wants to play chess or a board game or we have friends around we've got a nice little coffee table for drinks etc