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17K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  Lifesaver2000 
#1 ·
Preparation

Preparation for this new project started a couple of weeks ago, although planning has been going on for a while. I purchased 200 board feet of locally harvested, air dried 4/4 walnut lumber. It has been sitting in a barn for quite a few years, and most of the boards are wide and fairly straight. Price was $2.00 per board foot. From what I have seen for prices on here, this seems to be pretty good. (I know 200 bf is more than I will need for this project, but I have a few others planned.)

The plan is to build a more-or-less "standard" size coffee table, but to have four drawers in it under the table top and no open space or lower shelf. Size is to be 48" by 25" by 18" LWH. In some ways it may resemble some type of short chest of drawers rather than a table, but my wife and I both like the idea of some storage space in the living room to hide away magazines and books and things. I will try to post a Sketchup-based shot of it soon.

I spent my last day home before my shift trying to get the shop ready. I had already done the basic cleaning before I started spraying finish on my last project, so just had to get everything moved back into the "woodworking" arrangement instead of the "finishing" arrangement. Since almost everything is on wheels, not a big job.

I also opened up the table saw, did a thorough cleaning and lubrication of the mechanism so that the tilt and lift are back to being smooth and easy. Miter saw got a cleaning and lubrication, and everything I could think of got a coat of Johnson's paste wax. Then I took my eight most used router bits and three most used saw blades in the house and gave them a good cleaning in the bathtub (sshhh, my wife wasn't home so don't tell her…). They all came out looking and feeling as sharp and shiny as when they were brand new.

I have to say that having a clean and maintained shop and equipment just feels good. But then again, I was the kid who had to have everything in his room right where it goes. I look at pictures of my old ham radio station for example, and recall that it wasn't posed for the picture, it always looked that way. And I think my penchant for organization has served me well as a firefighter and paramedic, so carrying that in to my latest hobby is only natural.

Next time will be more details on the actual plan. Bye for now.
 
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#2 ·
We (finally) Have a Plan

After several attempts, we have finally settled on a design for the new living room table. I had created several different Sketchup designs, with things like raised panels and different leg designs, but my wife asked that I come up with something simpler and more rounded. We also did some measuring, and decided to go with a shorter height, taking it down to sixteen inches.

The pictures here show the basic design. This plan is intended just to allow construction at this point. Finalizing thing such as the edge profile of the table top and any trim or embellishments will be done in progress during construction, with me making samples and then trying things just to see what looks good.

This table will be placed in an area that get a lot of use, and my wife was concerned that square corners would lend themselves to frequent encounters with legs. This is the reason for the rounded corners on the table.

The drawers are likely to get a lot of use with heavy items like catalogs and magazines, so I will be using 100 lbs rated full extensions slides. Internally there is a center panel that will be where the center slides will attach. The bottom of this panel will have adjustable legs that are set back far enough that they won't normally be visible, but will support that weight of the drawers and allow me to compensate for variations in the floor if needed.

Now for a question to anyone who wants to chip in. I am using air-dried 4/4 walnut. I know that with things like table tops it is the practice to use narrower boards that are glued up with alternating growth rings to reduce the effects of wood movement.

The rear panels will be about 9 ¾ by 11 ¾, and 5/8 inch thick. On these smaller individual panels, is there any problem with using a single piece of wood for the floating panel, or should I use three narrower pieces glued together? I would really like the look of each panel being a single board, but I don't want problems down the road with them bowing in or out.

Barring any problems, I hope to start rough sizing of the lumber next week. I'll be cutting everything a little long and wide to start with, then letting it sit a while in case there was any internal stresses that have been released.

Furniture Rectangle Wood Outdoor furniture Tire


Furniture Rectangle Tire Table Wood
 

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#3 ·
First Shop Day & a Riving Knife Works

I managed to get a few hours in the shop earlier this week, and have the lumber for the main base of the table cut to rough size. I cut everything a little long and a little wide to allow for any movement and fine tuning that I need to do, and I can already see that it was a good thing I did. After it sits for a few days, I will be ready to cut and plane to the final dimensions.

For now I am dividing the project into different sections; the main base, the top, the interior drawer supports and finally the drawers themselves. I think this division makes sense, and will also allow me to do some of the finishing more easily. If things go really, really well, I might have the base glued up this weekend, and be ready to start cutting boards for the top.

I thought I would relay one interesting experience. My table saw has a riving knife, and I keep it in place pretty much anytime I can. While cutting one of the longer boards (about 48") I noticed that the board was becoming quite difficult to push even though the blade and motor were not bogging down any. I looked up and saw that the far end of the board had bowed back together. I can only assume that the board had internal stresses that wanted to cause it to squeeze back together after passing through the blade. The board was pinching down onto the riving knife, making it impossible to push the board through. I can just imagine what would have happened without the knife when the back of that board had pinched the back of the blade!

I stopped the saw, used a screwdriver to spread the end of the board and inserted an appropriately sized wedge of wood. When I started the saw back up, the cut was easily completed without further incident. I guess I have to chalk one up for this particular safety feature on my saw. I am just glad that I am in the habit of using it whenever the cut permits.
 
#6 ·
Base Section Complete (with pics)

My schedule didn't work out as planned last week, but this past weekend things moved along nicely. I have completed construction of the base of the table. There is still a lot of sanding to do but for now I am ready to move on to the next step.

Wood Rectangle Table Wood stain Hardwood


Wood Rectangle Plank Wood stain Hardwood


Furniture Outdoor bench Wood Natural material Rectangle


You can see the pine lumber on the inside which will support the full-extension drawer slides. This was a case where lack of planning actually caused more work than should have been necessary, but as I was drawing up the plans I just couldn't quite visualize how I wanted this to work. I had decided to just wing it once I got to that point in the construction, but I see now I should have worked it out before hand. It is all together now and I believe it will work fine, but next time I will spend more time planning things out.

Also visible in the photos is where I have already done some pre-finishing on the inside of the case. This is water based polyurethane which will also be the exterior finish over Watco Danish Oil.

Next up I will start work on the drawer boxes and rough cut the boards for the top. The forecast is calling for weather that will be too cold for glue-ups this next week, so the best I will be able to do is get all of the parts cut out. After that I should just need one day of decent temperatures to get the final glue-ups done.

In the meantime I have started plans for a matching low entertainment center that will have a couple of interesting features, including a concealed compartment for a PC that will connect directly to a large-screen HDTV.
 

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#7 ·
Base Section Complete (with pics)

My schedule didn't work out as planned last week, but this past weekend things moved along nicely. I have completed construction of the base of the table. There is still a lot of sanding to do but for now I am ready to move on to the next step.

Wood Rectangle Table Wood stain Hardwood


Wood Rectangle Plank Wood stain Hardwood


Furniture Outdoor bench Wood Natural material Rectangle


You can see the pine lumber on the inside which will support the full-extension drawer slides. This was a case where lack of planning actually caused more work than should have been necessary, but as I was drawing up the plans I just couldn't quite visualize how I wanted this to work. I had decided to just wing it once I got to that point in the construction, but I see now I should have worked it out before hand. It is all together now and I believe it will work fine, but next time I will spend more time planning things out.

Also visible in the photos is where I have already done some pre-finishing on the inside of the case. This is water based polyurethane which will also be the exterior finish over Watco Danish Oil.

Next up I will start work on the drawer boxes and rough cut the boards for the top. The forecast is calling for weather that will be too cold for glue-ups this next week, so the best I will be able to do is get all of the parts cut out. After that I should just need one day of decent temperatures to get the final glue-ups done.

In the meantime I have started plans for a matching low entertainment center that will have a couple of interesting features, including a concealed compartment for a PC that will connect directly to a large-screen HDTV.
This is going to be beautiful! I love walnut!
 

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#9 ·
Final Glue-up Complete

Thanks to the cold weather and some other things that had to be done, progress has slowed on this project. Last week I completed the drawer boxes and rough dimensioned the boards for the top. Today I finished dimensioning the top and got it all glued together. I was able to warm my shop up to about 70 today for the gluing, but brought the top in over night so I wouldn't have to heat the shop as the outside temperature drops.

Brown Wood Wood stain Floor Flooring


In this picture, the grain on some of the boards looks rather crazy because of the camera flash, but in person it isn't so bad. I think once this is all sanded down and I get the danish oil on it the color will even out and it will make for a nice top. I still have to round the corners and put the round-over on the edge.

My plan now is to get the sanding and other prep work done this week and be ready for finishing the first day it is warm enough. I also have to make the drawer fronts, but these will each be single boards so no gluing will be needed.
 

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#10 ·
Crossing the "Finish" Line

Despite a slow down due to cold weather, I have been able to get bits and pieces done, to where I can see the end is in sight for this project.

Since my last post, I was able to get the glue scraping done on the top, get the corners rounded, round over the edge and get the whole top sanded down to 220. Even without any finish, this made a lot of difference in the look, and I really like it.

Over the course of a few days, I also finished sanding the drawer boxes and the main base of the table, and was able to rough cut the four boards that will make the drawer fronts.

While on the subject of scraping the glue, I made a bit of a discovery (for me at least). I have often seen woodworking videos with card scrapers used to finish the wood,thought that would be a handy thing to have, but have never gotten around to getting one. Well, as I was scraping the glue from the joints in my table top using my paint scraper, I realized that I was getting a lot of wood on the spots where the joints were a bit uneven. In the past I had used a block plane when working with pine or oak to even the joints, but this cheap paint scraper was making fast work of the joint, and leaving a very smooth, tear-out free surface to boot. In no time I had the joints in my top completely smooth and even, ready to final sanding.

All of that was done late last week. Thanks to some very nice weather for January (high of 66 today) I have made much more rapid progress this week. Yesterday the drawer fronts were worked down to final dimensions. I also rounded three edges, and used a cove bit to create a finger hold on the under side of the board for pulling out the drawer. I then sprayed a light coat of shellac over the drawer boxes, then I cleaned up the shop and made preparations for today's work.

Wood Table Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood


Today has been all about finishing. First thing this morning, I gave a final wipe down to everything, then brushed on some polyurethane on the middle part of the underside of the table top and the inside of the drawer fronts (you can see the different areas on the drawer front picture above). These areas won't be seen so I didn't want to "waste" the Watco Danish Oil I am using for finishing, but I didn't want to leave one side of these pieces unfinished for a week and end up with bowing or curling.

Finishing has always been a weak spot for me, even when it has just been painting shelves for the house. But using this oil has worked very well. I followed the directions on the can, and it came out great. Now I plan to wait a week and then apply a few coats of polyurethane for durability. I know the can says it can be top coated in just 72 hours, but I want to be extra careful so will give it a full week or more.

Wood Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood Varnish


Wood Rectangle Hardwood Wood stain Composite material


Oh, the purplish spots in these photos seem to be reflections of the flash. And what looks like a crack in that one side panel is just a spot where the wood changes from heartwood to sapwood. It is actually more subtle in person, and gives it a nice character.
 

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#11 ·
Crossing the "Finish" Line

Despite a slow down due to cold weather, I have been able to get bits and pieces done, to where I can see the end is in sight for this project.

Since my last post, I was able to get the glue scraping done on the top, get the corners rounded, round over the edge and get the whole top sanded down to 220. Even without any finish, this made a lot of difference in the look, and I really like it.

Over the course of a few days, I also finished sanding the drawer boxes and the main base of the table, and was able to rough cut the four boards that will make the drawer fronts.

While on the subject of scraping the glue, I made a bit of a discovery (for me at least). I have often seen woodworking videos with card scrapers used to finish the wood,thought that would be a handy thing to have, but have never gotten around to getting one. Well, as I was scraping the glue from the joints in my table top using my paint scraper, I realized that I was getting a lot of wood on the spots where the joints were a bit uneven. In the past I had used a block plane when working with pine or oak to even the joints, but this cheap paint scraper was making fast work of the joint, and leaving a very smooth, tear-out free surface to boot. In no time I had the joints in my top completely smooth and even, ready to final sanding.

All of that was done late last week. Thanks to some very nice weather for January (high of 66 today) I have made much more rapid progress this week. Yesterday the drawer fronts were worked down to final dimensions. I also rounded three edges, and used a cove bit to create a finger hold on the under side of the board for pulling out the drawer. I then sprayed a light coat of shellac over the drawer boxes, then I cleaned up the shop and made preparations for today's work.

Wood Table Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood


Today has been all about finishing. First thing this morning, I gave a final wipe down to everything, then brushed on some polyurethane on the middle part of the underside of the table top and the inside of the drawer fronts (you can see the different areas on the drawer front picture above). These areas won't be seen so I didn't want to "waste" the Watco Danish Oil I am using for finishing, but I didn't want to leave one side of these pieces unfinished for a week and end up with bowing or curling.

Finishing has always been a weak spot for me, even when it has just been painting shelves for the house. But using this oil has worked very well. I followed the directions on the can, and it came out great. Now I plan to wait a week and then apply a few coats of polyurethane for durability. I know the can says it can be top coated in just 72 hours, but I want to be extra careful so will give it a full week or more.

Wood Rectangle Wood stain Hardwood Varnish


Wood Rectangle Hardwood Wood stain Composite material


Oh, the purplish spots in these photos seem to be reflections of the flash. And what looks like a crack in that one side panel is just a spot where the wood changes from heartwood to sapwood. It is actually more subtle in person, and gives it a nice character.
Looking great , photos can be a challenage to show how great your projects are coming.
 

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#12 ·
Project Completed

I have completed the final finishing and assembly of this project. I was able to spray four coats of Sherwin-Williams Wood Classics® Waterborne Polyurethane Varnish. I also mounted the drawer slides and fronts. The top was attached with tabletop fasteners from McFeely's.

I am afraid I didn't have time to take pictures as I went along or to take pictures of the finished project, but I hope to be able to do that this weekend and post the project here early next week. I will add a link to the project post here when I get it done.

Overall this project turned out well I think. It is definitely solid and heavy and will be a useful addition to the living room. I did learn a few things, and this is the first project I have done where I like the way the finish turned out.

I had hoped that during this blog I would be able to post more about how I did things and have more project pictures, but during the winter time I really have to make good use of my time, sort of a "make hay while the Sun shines" type of thing. I do plan to start a new blog when I begin work on the matching entertainment center, and since that will be well in to Spring weather I will have more leisure to take photos, perhaps even some step by step type of things.

Thanks to anyone who has followed along.
 
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