Thread: My first coffee table

6. all the boards for the top glued and the first light sanding done - couldn't help myself, I just HAD to put some oil on them to check what sort of colour I'd get later on.

7. The boards were too skinny for the legs, so i glued some Unsteamed Beech in between two of them to make them the right sizes to turn legs. I only did light detail work on them as I want the whole thing to end up classy, not overstated. I hope I'm on the right track here, but we'll see when the jobs done, I guess!

8. A close up of one of the legs. The spiral work seems to break up the flat surfaces nicely. I just hope they don't collect too much dust in the long term! I still am not sure how I will finish them without having shellac or similar pooling in the spiral cutouts.

9. More floorboards made up the stretcher rails (or whatever they are called). They were joined with hand-cut mortise and tennons. They weren't perfect, but not too bad considering I haven't done one for about 17 years.

10. The top sitting in place before fixing to the legs.

(more pictures to come when I get back out to the shed.......)

I hope you like it so far,

Ian.

Ian

Looks good mate. I like the different grain directions. Nice work.

Make sure you post a final pic.

Trav

Looks great Ian. The layout of the boards of the top a really good idea.

What do you plan on doing with the edges of the top??

not entirely convinced on the change of direction in the timber yet. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Great job so far though, particularly on the legs. Makes me want to learn how to do turning.

How are you going to attach the table ?

Redback

I like it. I'm interested in the answer to the question from Redders too.

Great so Far Ian.

Love the work on the legs and to top should come out great.

As Gumby says.

Look forward to finished product.

Interesting project you got going there Ian

Very clever and it is beautiful.

I want the whole thing to end up classy, not overstated.

Well, can't see much understatement, more like bling-bling, with those laminated legs and criss-cross grain on the top. Should look good though. I like the innovations.

Would have thought the stretchers would be used to support the top, but the pics seem to show a gap between the top and the stretchers.

Gidday IanHockings

Great Craftsmanship....................I think you'll have a very special 'piece' by the time you've finished!!!! I love the LEgs Great idea!!!

Ask pleantly of questions about finishing ....................... If you make a good choice I think your onto a winner here. I'd go a Tung oil finish Just like Marksey does!!!!

The only thing I would be worried about with the top is seasonal wood movement which may lead to some gaps cracks n splitting (Hope I'm wrong here though)

....................Keep up the great work!!

REgards lou

Hey guys, thanks for the positive comments! I reckon my turning stands up against most, but considering the standards of some of the cabinet and table & chair work posted in this one, I was a little hesitant to post pics of this.

To answer some questions:
To trim the edges, my original (revised) plan was to use the same Beech as is in the legs, which would then follow the theme from the legs to the top. But the only thing I could cut it down with was a bandsaw, and I don't have a thicknesser, so my first attempt was less than satisfactory. In the end I used some more of the remaining Jarrah and just cut width down from about 78mm to about 45mm. I cut mitres for the corners (think that was a real bad move) but it's done now.

I routed 4 recesses into the underside of the melamine where the legs go, to hold them in place and stop them moving inwards. They can't move outwards because the edge trim attaches to the top, and legs as well preventing flex outwards.

The edges are dowelled into the top boards, and also through, into the legs. This plus some liquid nails on top of the legs seems to have worked OK at attaching the top to it. I'm sure there's probably better ways to do this, but as mentioned, in woodturning, I know what I'm doing, but with this it's all guesswork....

All the dowels I hand turned from the same jarrah and lined the grain up, so they should be almost invisible (one advantage of the lathe I guess!)

It occurred to me later that if I'd made the legs first, fitted the stretchers (is that the right term??), and then cut the melamine to size, I could have screwed down through the melamine into the legs to join the two together, and THEN glued the jarrah over the top to cover the screws.

Zen - yes there is a gap of about 20-25mm from the top of the stretchers to the underside of the top. Didn't think of needing them to support the top (its about 40mm thick and damn solid, so hope it's OK) but tried to get them a bit lower to help reduce movement in the legs lower down if dragged along the floor. (Damn, knew I should have asked you guys for advice before I did this...) But the top seems solid enough so I think I might get away with it.

Spoke to Neil at uBeaut and am going to use Hard Shellac for the top and dewaxed white shellac for the rest. I've wet sanded it with Organoil and wet&dry.

I have never used shellac in my life, and would be grateful for some advice before proceeding. Neil said to use a sable brush to apply. I've already bought these so if anyone can advise on how to apply them, I'd appreciate it.

More pics this weekend hopefully.

in reply to the finishing.

I have made a couple of side tables in Jarrah, which I finished with hard shellac then traditional wax.

First off, you probably want to sand to about 240, then dampen the whole surface to raise the grain. Let it dry then start sanding again.

sand through the grits as far as you want to go, but would say a minimum of 600. I went up to 1500....believe me, its something special when you see jarrah sanded that smooth.

I then thinned the shellac with meths, I couldnt tell you an exact percentage, Im a bit sloppy in the regard. was probably 40% meths... . you may want to experiement.

using the brush, apply using long even strokes.

Wait till dry, then apply trad wax or eee polish and behold your table in all its glory.

Now, if you want to know how to really do it, I would recommend buying Neils book....

cheers

Redback

Firstly, apologies for these pics. I took them in a hurry this morning and didn't get time to light them properly.

As I mentioned earlier in this posting. I hand turned the dowels to hold the edging on the table out of the same jarrah, so that they would be almost invisible when finished. (or so I thought). After initial sanding, I rubbed some oil just on those bits - As you can see in the first two pictures, it was a good theory, but not the result I wanted....

So, I figured, oh well, I'll make a feature out of them (and pretend I meant it). I thought I'd drill more holes and fill with some of the Beech from the legs.
Now I have what started out a fairly stylish piece, and has become more 'arty'. I think the Beech is too distracting, so now I'm planning on drilling them out and using the jarrah in those holes instead.

My only other option is to try to remove the edging and start again, but with the amount of glue used, I don't thing it's an option..

What do you guys think? Is it just 'unique' and should I continue on the other egding? Or, should I change Beech for Jarrah, or is it stuffed?