Thread: A Coffee Table With A Twist

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

What are French fit pens, pencils?.

I've always though of "French Fit" as being tailored to fit a specific profile, which'd give you a different shape slot for each pen or pencil.

In this case I 'd guess that he means routed grooves for the implements. Instead of making a box with dividers.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

What are French fit pens, pencils?.

Like this sort of thing. Basically slots for pens and pencils. Usually the rebate matches the shape of the tool. Google French fit tools images for examples..
box1.jpg

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

I've always though of "French Fit" as being tailored to fit a specific profile, which'd give you a different shape slot for each pen or pencil.

In this case I 'd guess that he means routed grooves for the implements. Instead of making a box with dividers.

Right yeah. In the case of pencils and pens, they're all the same shape so you would end up with a bunch of routed slots. Instead of saying that, I just gave it it's typical name of French fit. The slot these trays might fit in is quite narrow so this sort of constructions out of a solid panel suits better than building up a tray with dividers...

Still waiting for my 13mm plywood sheet to arrive. In the meantime can I have some suggestions on how to attach the 90mm frame to the plywood sheet edge as shown in the illustrations below. Am I safe to assume that it would be ok to glue the frame to the plywood sheet?.

joinery.jpg joinery2.jpgjoinery3.jpg

Is it safe to glue the 90mm frame to the plywood or should I screw it in instead?

SEE PHOTO:

joinery.jpg

Glue it up and it should be good. The worst thing that could happen is if you left it sitting for a long time in the sun un finished, as in not polished. The 90mm widths of solid would want to shrink back probably. That wouldn't be much movement though. Plywood is incredible stuff. I have a piece of what must be marine ply about 2 x 1 Meters x 12.7 mm thick that's been hanging around outside in the rain and sun for 30 years. Its a bit rough and worse around the edges but its stayed straight and together.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Is it safe to glue the 90mm frame to the plywood or should I screw it in instead?

SEE PHOTO:

joinery.jpg

Ply is dimensionally stable. I'd glue it, but you can likely fasten it any way you like.

One of the things to like about veneered panels, regardless of whether the veneer is over decent ply, MDF or particleboard, is that we can tenon (or biscuit) and glue web frames into place making a very strong cabinet.

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

I started by making the four legs which will become part of the side panels. The core is hevea timber laminated with 5mm Oak to make them hopefully look like solid oak legs.

Attachment 520217 Attachment 520218 Attachment 520219

Next I did the joinery.

Attachment 520220 Attachment 520221

Done, side's finished. Well, apart from the beading and fancy bits which will be done later.

Attachment 520222

Looks good so far! For some time, I thought that legs must be made from a single piece of timber. However, I'm beginning to realise that the cost and lack of availability of timber for larger legs (such as this and dining tables), laminated timber is the way to go. Look forward to seeing the table finished! What type of glue did you use for the lamination?

Originally Posted by Hilltop Woods

Looks good so far! For some time, I thought that legs must be made from a single piece of timber. However, I'm beginning to realise that the cost and lack of availability of timber for larger legs (such as this and dining tables), laminated timber is the way to go. Look forward to seeing the table finished! What type of glue did you use for the lamination?

Thanks for the comments. I used Titebond 2 for everything on this so far. When laminating thicker legs or anything for that matter just make sure you have the end grain rings going in the same direction like this:

edca.png

Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Thanks for the comments. I used Titebond 2 for everything on this so far. When laminating thicker legs or anything for that matter just make sure you have the end grain rings going in the same direction like this:

edca.png

Thanks for tip!

That's a laminated Oak leg from 50mm oak Ive just made. Its finished around 90 x 90mm.



IMG_5422b.jpg


This is the outside face below. The upper face of the picture above.

IMG_5423b.jpg


When cutting for laminating legs and columns like that, try at all times to cut and stack like below. A is placed on top of B,
C on D, E on F and C on D. The heart is kept on the low side of each for the movement possibilities. But important as well is the visual appearance. Stacking A on B gives the best visual appearance. For the 1/4 and face grain appearance match and specially when the wood has large medullary rays like oak has. You can see how well the rays line up on my first picture and because they run out on an angle they are not so visible on the face. When they run right across the face they don't match up perfectly on laminations but stacking that way is the best that can be done.
Untitledasaba.png

If you stacked A on E you have heart side down . Or to the left in these pics. Which is good but the grain and the Medullary rays will not be the best visually. The red lines are the rays.
UntitledHJH.png

Rob.

Thanks Rob, you explained it much better than I could. I took my example from the post you made here:

Laminating Different Species of Wood

I'm still waiting for the plywood to be delivered so I've been experimenting with the design of the rail system. For those that don't know here is a little about Board Game Table Rail Systems:

Rail Systems
A games table rail system is used to give you flexibility in positioning "accessories" around your table when needed. These accessories could be cup holders, personal player spaces, dice/component trays, whatever you can think of. Since each accessory can be removed, you can keep your table clean and clutter free until it is needed.

This is the most common way of making a rail system:

pic2446135.jpg pic2446134.jpg

And here is one I made:

accessory attch1.jpg accessory attch2.jpg

Unfortunately because the coffee table will have two table leaves on top of each other, it would mean the rail system grooves would be around the edge of each 27mm rail. I've done drawings of this and it looks very odd, taking away from the traditional look I'm seeking.

So the only other alternative is to do it like this:

topedge2.jpg topedge1.jpg

Unless I can be swayed to do it another way then I will be making the rails like that.

Originally Posted by auscab

Plywood is incredible stuff. I have a piece of what must be marine ply about 2 x 1 Meters x 12.7 mm thick that's been hanging around outside in the rain and sun for 30 years. Its a bit rough and worse around the edges but its stayed straight and together.

That would have been the Oz made stuff.
Form ply was similar back then.
We used strips of this at the bottom of lattice fencing to keep an escape mad Jack Russel in.
Hardwood from the weight of it.
The spec was 24hrs in boiling water from memory.
The new stuff is half the weight and less than half the quality and life.
H.