10 Attachment(s)
Cheap but Pleasing Occasional table
I'm afraid my phone died, which cost some photos, but people might like to see what can be done with some minimal tools and wood.
My sister wanted a bedside/occasional table, and I had some ironbark and some merbau/kwila lying around. I decided to try for a very light and simple frame, with an inlaid top - a fusion of federal and shaker, which are two of my favourite styles. They're normally seen as opposites, but both have a purity of line which I like.
The legs and aprons were simple: blanks cut to length, squared and brought to size with jointer and delta lunchbox thicknesser. They were then tapered on the hugely expensive tablesaw - a Bunnings Ozito circular saw upside down in a home-made table.
The top was a section of Bunnings merbau panel, cut to size. I routed a 3mm groove around it. This was going to have some pine inserted as the inlay.Here's some pine being planed to thickness with a Stanley sweetheart low angle jack:
Attachment 488182
After reaching a suitable thickness, here it is being compressed: pressing on the side of the pine to crush it before inserting, to ensure a good tight fit (it'll swell as the glue moistens it...)
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And here's a section glued into the slot. Looks pretty crude at this point:
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First stage of refining used a home made spokeshave with a Ron Hock blade. With an aggressive set and a sharp blade, this tool rips pine down at a rate that is scary - check out the beautiful, thick shaving curling off. (Blade needs to be sharp, and the pine was specifically chosen for straight grain...):
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The next phase is to move to a very tight mouth and very light setting on a low angle block plane. You don't want to sand at all with merbau - it's a wood that will stain anything, and sanding would make the pine 'muddy' in seconds, and irretrievably so, as the merbau dust worked into it. This is a Luban bronze block plane, blade sharpened to 8000 grit and then stropped on green compound. The trick is to position it at an angle, resting on the table top,, so that the plane of the merbau table top acts as a reference surface as you bring the pine down to its level. with a camber on the blade, you are getting pine shavings only: no room for error, and you have to 'feel' the wood as you go. Hard to describe, but instantly recognisable once you've done it a few times.
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The final result: I was ready to scrape, but got away with the plane only - the cross grain inlay is a bit nerve-wracking as you reach the surface:
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The top was mounted on tapered legs: they are actually dowelled together, as I didn't want to mess around with tenons in the Ironbark legs. Here's a shot of the corner braces being individually fitted to each corner: however hard I try, I find that there's inevitably a half degree or so variation from corner to corner: rather than fight it, I just adjust with a plane:
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The braces have an oversized screwhole drilled: on a table of this size, that gives enough movement to accomodate seasonal changes. Here's the end result:
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Finished with Danish oil, wet sanded at 400 grit (except on the inlay!) and then waxed. Cheap, simple, but great practice. As ever, some faults, but "Perfect is perfect, but done is better"
