Cherry and Glass Coffee Table

Following up on the cherry end table I posted three months ago, this coffee table uses the same design features, but scales them to the larger but shorter table. The holes in the aprons are increased to 1 inch, and the aprons are 3 inches high; the number of holes is increased to 5; and the legs are increased to 2½ inch stock.

The idea here is to have a glass-topped table so the beauty of the oriental rug will not be covered up; but instead of the traditional approach of insetting the glass top in a wood frame, I extended the solids between the apron holes up above a flange to support the glass at its midpoints along the edges, giving it a floating effect. The glass is 3/8 inch thick with polished edges and pencil-round corners.

The corner details of the flange are based on the pinned miter detail described in issue 200 of Fine Woodworking . My flanges are much wider than the members in the article, and I had to cut the mortises at my drill press with a Forstner bit. This is a difficult joint to make, and although I am happy with how it turned out, it took a good deal of fine tuning to make it work.

-- Bob