Thread: Plans for "chunky" table

Hi, are you able to produce a drawing yourself ?
It is a very simple design with Mortice and tenon frame, the legs need to protrude from the top of the frame equal to the thickness of the top you will be making.

I have made many pieces over the years but very rarely do I put a design to paper but probably most can't and prefer to do exact plans

If you are going for a lime wash you will need an open grained timber something similar to oak which has been used traditionall for that type of finish or whatever is available to you.

Hate to say it but distressed finishes works best on traditional table design, whereas on a modern table design like that it will just look like a crappy made modern table.
Just my 2c worth.

Originally Posted by BobL

Hate to say it but distressed finishes works best on traditional table design, whereas on a modern table design like that it will just look like a crappy made modern table.
Just my 2c worth.

Now there's an idea. I should just make a modern table and with my skill level it will probably turn out just as she wants it.

Maybe distressed is not the word I am looking for - she wants the table with all the "warts" (splits, knots etc) if you look at the picture you can see the flaws in the legs etc. She would also like the grain to be a bit open but I have not worked out how to achieve that yet. First job is to sort the table design and I pretty much have that in my head and just have to put it down on paper and sort dimensions.

We currently have a large, round black lacquered table and it spends all of its time covered. No way would it fit the design for the new house

Lime wash doesn't look to good on pine. You sort of have to go the oak for it to work best. You could do recycled hard wood of some sort. So you would have old nail holes and stuff. Although a table that size would be very heavy. In for a penny in for a pound I guess.

What sort of pine can you buy in NZ and in what sizes ? and are you thinking of dry, kiln dried wood or the stuff for building, like fence posts which can be wet ? some shift more than others while drying . You can get nice big sizes though.

A simple table is a good place to start to learn how to draw your projects for yourself and all your projects will be better from that day onwards .

I draw all my work out with pencil and paper pretty much the same as this, I have a draughtsman's drawing board now but was taught and did it this way when starting out.

You just need to buy or make a T square , a set square, a board, bigger than A1 paper with one dead straight edge , the bottom edge. Set square's are simple just cut from masonite , or solid.
T square is just a straight edge with a stick glued across the bottom, glued square .

Get a scale ruler with 1:5 and 1:10 on it , buy a few sheets of A1 and while your at it get same size tracing paper. Some push lead pencils and a rubber .

Work within the timber sizes you can buy and then machined and draw a plan view of the top, Dotted lines under the top show rails tenoned into legs and leave room under it so that when your happy with it , using your T square you drop down from the top to draw an elevation of the side or end , depending on which way you drew the top , across the page or down. You can draw out joins life size off to one side. that's important to work out tenon position into the leg looking down from the top

When you like the drawing a cutting list is worked out off that, not by measuring off the drawing but using some maths , like if you know your legs are coming out of 150 x 150 and will be dressed to 140 x140 and the width of table is 1.5 wide and tenon length is 50 mm and your end rail is from machined 100 x 40 the sum is

Short rails 1500 - 140 - 140 = 1220 + 50 + 50 = 1320
Long rails 2400 - 140 - 140 = 2120 + 50 + 50 = 2220

Don't try and be a Smart A by pre adding things together like the two tenons as 100 , keep it simple so you can see individual measurements for all parts. Ive seen many $300 planks of good wood cut the wrong, to short length, because of this

Your cutting list starts looking like this , amount x length x width x thickness.
Do the same for the top and legs and any under the top support rails.
triple check and cut.

Top
legs
short rails 2 x 1320 x 100 x 40
long rails 2 x 2220 x 100 x 40
Mid rails

When you draw it out like this, you start out with the top and draw in all the things you know , off the known things that go into the drawing the unknown can be worked out one step at a time .

I really hope you try it out .
It's the right, most efficient way to build .
( someones going to tell me some computer program is better . Not including computer programs)

Rob

Thanks Rob - that's a really helpful reply and the sort of stuff a numpty like me can follow. I'll keep away from wet fence pine after the last post I installed twisted almost 30 degrees from top to bottom over the year. No real harm as the fence has now come out so we can build the new house

I'll do as you say and see how the final plan comes out. I am planning to first off build a smaller version as a coffee table - probably using pallet timber. I can get almost new pallets for free and that will allow me plenty of chances to practise and make sure I have the dimensions down correctly. It also means Jan(SWMBO) can work out how she wants to do the staining on any offcuts. She is very good with design work being a qualified ceramics teacher

If it all turns pear-shaped I guess it will make fine fuel for the outdoor fire.

I'll take some pix as I go and once completed will (maybe) put them up for view. Its going to be a slow project for now as getting the house ready for sale is taking all my spare time at the moment

Originally Posted by Gerryattrick

Now there's an idea. I should just make a modern table and with my skill level it will probably turn out just as she wants it.

Maybe distressed is not the word I am looking for - she wants the table with all the "warts" (splits, knots etc) if you look at the picture you can see the flaws in the legs etc. She would also like the grain to be a bit open but I have not worked out how to achieve that yet. . . . .

That sounds a bit more feasible. One thing I would not recommend for an indoor table is to have lots of fine splits and open grain on the top. Food, dust etc will be hard to remove from these and it will eventually look very ordinary

Originally Posted by Gerryattrick

Thanks Rob - that's a really helpful reply and the sort of stuff a numpty like me can follow. I'll keep away from wet fence pine after the last post I installed twisted almost 30 degrees from top to bottom over the year. No real harm as the fence has now come out so we can build the new house

I'll do as you say and see how the final plan comes out. I am planning to first off build a smaller version as a coffee table - probably using pallet timber. I can get almost new pallets for free and that will allow me plenty of chances to practise and make sure I have the dimensions down correctly. It also means Jan(SWMBO) can work out how she wants to do the staining on any offcuts. She is very good with design work being a qualified ceramics teacher

If it all turns pear-shaped I guess it will make fine fuel for the outdoor fire.

I'll take some pix as I go and once completed will (maybe) put them up for view. Its going to be a slow project for now as getting the house ready for sale is taking all my spare time at the moment

The legs and stretchers are pretty straight forward. On the table on the photograph they look to be chuncky square sections of timber. You CAN get 100x100 mm timber quite readily - Bigger is available but a bit harder to find. Or you can make them by gluing four thinner sections side to end (to be clear, this would made a thick but hollow leg). Here is where the slats in your pallettes may come in handy.

The legs are joined together by stretchers using mortice and tenon joints.

If you are comfortable with sanding and planing and gluing up narrow or thin sections into thicker and/or wider sections and boards, pallette timber in general may well make an interesting table... My father made me a beautiful bookshelf out of an old packing crate once... and if the boss wants a "rough look with an interesting modern design"... well... clean, sanded pallette timber may be just the way to go.

I've seen timber laminates at some of the major hardware stores, that my provide a ready made table top. These are becoming popular for kitchen counter tops... They are made of timber off-cuts glued together, so they can have an interesting "timber cutting board" pattern to them. Take an excursion to a smaller specialty timber store or building material recycler... You might just find a ready made table top that you love and only need to trim to size with a circular saw.

Finally I recently made a stool (see below). The seat is made from 45mm x 100mm construction grade oregon (pine) off cuts of the type that come with a grooved pattern for use in house timber frames. It should be easy to find several 2.4 m lengths of this stuff to glue together, but you'll have to plane and sand the grooves away before you glue them up. You may be able to find this sort of timber without the grooves quite cheaply.

Anyway the end result is as you see it below: a beautiful yellowish smooth surface with a coarse grain and lots of knots. Something like that would make a beautiful table top of the sort you are after. The yellow intensifies with age.



Lots of options... no right or wrong answer. Have fun planning and building.

Jorge