Thread: Coffee table for my nephew

Chair pulled up and watching with interest.

In the photo the legs appear to be connected at their tops with rails, is it your intention to keep that feature as well as adding stretchers further down?

Looks like it's going to be an interesting build Derek.For the legs are you going to angle the mortices both sides so they spley out.


cheers....Roy

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Chair pulled up and watching with interest.

In the photo the legs appear to be connected at their tops with rails, is it your intention to keep that feature as well as adding stretchers further down?

Cheers Chief, that should have read rail and not stretcher. An added stretcher would be too busy.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I've pulled up a seat.

SB

I'm watching too. Ready for another Masterclass.

Cheers,

ajw

Good luck with it so to speak.

Combining the two ideas you were considering - dovetails with rounding a mitre - should look great using the one piece for top and sides.

The latest newsletter from Australian Wood Review has an article about a student making a similar table; he used finger joints for joining the elements making the rounded corner components. A young fella by the name of Ethan Edwards.

Click!

Thanks Chief

That table ... sideboard really ... is beautiful, and I am filled with admiration for someone of Ethan's age building something as complex as this.

The ends are similar, but not similar enough to copy. The coffee table I am building is about 1/3 of the height, and the end curves are going to be much tighter. I also prefer to link the sides directly to the top to achieve a wrap-around of the figure. As nice as Ethan's is, his sides are multi-part.

I am hoping to start this work next weekend.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I'll be following this also.
You've definitely chosen the best way to join the top. Like you, I think the other way was a bit too much. It drew your eye to only one part of the board, rather than admiring the whole thing.

Grabbing the popcorn for this one. Looking forward to more progress

The immediate challenge is to create the curved ends. The plan is to make dovetailed corners, round them on the outside and add a filler/filet to the inside corner, which will be hollowed to compliment the outer radius.

Complicating this is the need to mitre the insides of the dovetailed ends, since this will permit the shape to flow better than butt ends. Interesting ... as I have never made mitred dovetails to date. This is going to be a steep but quick learning curve!

I spent some time researching mitred dovetails. There is not much around. The only book I could find with directions was Ian Kirby's "The Complete Dovetail". I like Ian's work, but the writing here were not his best. There is a short video by Chris Schwarz (Google for it), which was helpful. There was also an article on the UKWorkshop forum (by Custard), which is a Pins-first method (I tend to saw Tails-first). There were one or two other articles to be found, of less assistance to someone like yours truly, who becomes easily spatially challenged. In the end I worked it out but, reflecting on the method that evolved, it does not look like those who came before. Perhaps it is a different way of doing it? I really do not know. Let me have your thoughts here. Anyway, I plan to show it for the education of those who want to learn a method.

Beginning with a tail board that has been marked and sawn (to speed up the description). Note that there is no shoulder here (which is common on butt ended dovetails). The wood is Merbau, which is hard, hard, hard. 20mm thick, as per the panels on the table ...



The aim is to saw all the tails. Forget about the mitre for now (... this is a departure from the methods I observed).

To make the removal of waste easiest, undercut the baselines (shallow cuts to avoid losing vertical) ...



Now fretsaw away the waste. Get as close to the baseline as you dare! My cuts are about 1mm ...



This enables the minimum of waste removal. You can place the chisel immediately against the chisel wall and pare/chop down halfway ...



With the waste removed, mark the mitre cuts at the sides - but do not cut them yet (this is another departure) ...





Time now to transfer the marks to the pin board.

First, here is an alternative to the "#140 trick" (the #140 trick involves creating a shallow rebate to securely connect the tail board to the pin board when transferring marks. This was popularised by Rob Cosman and Chris Schwarz, amongst others). My alternative is three layers of blue tape, which is peeled away afterwards.

Lay three layers of blue tape over the baseline. No need to be careful ...



Now use the cutting gauge (which marked the tails) to slice away the tape, leaving an edge butting against the baseline ...



This is the fence. Here it is seen with the pin board, which has a layer of blue tape on the end ...



The "fence" makes it easy to align the boards, while the blue tape on the pin board also acts as a non-slip ..



When you trace the sockets (with a knife), the outlines look like this (great for old eyes!) ...



Drop all the vertical lines, with the exception of the line on the outside at each side ...



Remove the waste in the same way as done on the tail board (undercut the baseline, fretsaw and chisel) ...



Mark out the mitre lines ...



... and drop the verticals on the reverse side...



Now saw the mitre cuts and remove the waste ...





Do this on the tail board as well - the reason it was left until now was that it would be difficult to transfer the outside tail if the mitre was sawn.

Stay about 1mm from the mitre line. Do not saw to the line. This will be more accurately shaped with a chisel.

For chiseling, use a mitre guide. This is just a 45 degree saw cut. I made a double-ended guide - to use on opposing sides ..





Take it slowly, a smidgeon at a time.



Finally ... the moment of truth arrives ... will she .. won't she ??



Looking promising as the top is pressed together with finger pressure. Then I wack it - the wood is uncompromising. The clamp is to prevent any cracking in such circumstances.



Not too shabby.

Mitres are tight ...





Now about the rounded edge ... here is the secret weapon:



After marking out, the waste is removed with a block plane, and then sanded smooth. Just lacking the inner filet ...





Enough practice. Now for the real thing. A bit more of a challenge as the panels are 500mm wide.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

The latest newsletter from Australian Wood Review has an article about a student making a similar table; he used finger joints for joining the elements making the rounded corner components. A young fella by the name of Ethan Edwards.Click!

Thanks for the link Chief. That’s a beautiful unit and from such a young guy. I really love the internal radii at the ends rather then a square corner or units that have timber added in the corner to create radii that you see in other like units.

Wow that awesome work

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

This is impressive for a test piece, can't wait for the real thing.

SB