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Been procrastinating on posting this project, but I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out.

Some close friends in my neighborhood recently remodeled their kitchen, and wanted a small table to fill the gap under their window to accommodate a toaster, coffee maker, etc. They had recently purchased a kitchen island with a white base and natural wood top, and wanted the same here.

Aprons are roughly 8" tall, legs about 1 7/8" square with a taper starting approximately 8" off the ground. Legs and aprons are joined by 2 vertically aligned 3/8" floating tenons, appr 2 1/2" long/deep and about 2" wide. I went ahead and installed leveling feet, as I know from living in the neighborhood for 30 years that none of our houses have even remotely level floors anymore.

Drawers are 1/2" maple with box joints at the front made with my dovetail jig (I couldn't use half-blinds as I originally wanted, as the bit I have for it was a hair too wide for the finished thickness). Drawers are fitted to slide on runners, with slightly less than 1/16" gap on each side to eliminate too much play. The finish is several (and I mean SEVERAL) coats of rattle can shellac, then very lightly wet-sanded 1500 grit before working through the 3 finest 3M finishing pads.

Top is 3 edge-joined boards of maple, with the middle board having some ambrosia spots at the end (my friends picked the boards from my pile themselves and really liked the character). Appr 3/4" thick with a slight chamfer.

The big part is that this is the first project I got to use my Earlex 5500 on. The top got 2 1lb cuts of sealcoat sprayed on, then 3 coats (per manufacturer's recommendations) of EM9000 water-based poly (semi-gloss). This was also wet-sanded to 1500, then worked through the 3m pads until I put on the coat of paste wax to buff it out (man, I need a buffer something fierce, my forearms were on fire).

The base it sprayed with Emtech's EM6500 bright white tinted water-based lacquer. 3 coats after a wash coat of shellac (to help seal the poplar) covered really well, but I may get their primer to apply next time. As it was my first time spraying, I was fretting this pretty badly, but the EM6500 is very forgiving, and any runs were simple to eliminate with a sharp chisel and light sanding. I took extra care on the last coat not to spray on too much, then sanded with 1500 micromesh to achieve a flat, extraordinarily smooth finish.

This was a fun project, and my friends are thrilled with the outcome. But my big takeaways are that I'm now sold on the Emtech line of products and spraying my finishes from now on.

Gallery

Comments

· Registered
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585 Posts
Very neat table. Well done.
 

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604 Posts
Thanks, ralbuck! First time spraying and making drawers, wasn't a total disaster, so I chalk it up to a win. :D
 

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7,023 Posts
Looks great, matches well and you got to try out your sprayer. All around WIN!!!
 

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Very clean looking, almost clinical with the white. Looks like it will function well for it's needed use.

"I need a buffer something fierce, my forearms were on fire"

That made me chuckle. If you have a compressor with some guts look at air tools for a buffer, really gets the job done, and usually at a much lower price point than electric.
 

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Looks great, matches well and you got to try out your sprayer. All around WIN!!!

- woodbutcherbynight
Thanks, woodbutcher!

Very clean looking, almost clinical with the white. Looks like it will function well for it s needed use.

"I need a buffer something fierce, my forearms were on fire"

That made me chuckle. If you have a compressor with some guts look at air tools for a buffer, really gets the job done, and usually at a much lower price point than electric.

- therealSteveN
I think I actually used the word "clinical" to describe the idea to them :p

As for the buffer, my compressor is just a little Porter Cable pancake. Which is a shame, because as you pointed out, the electric buffers can get pretty pricey.
 
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