| Project by DalPal | posted 528 days ago | 1220 views | 9 times favorited | 11 comments |  |
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Through the past two years I have been falling in love with woodworking! I have read practically every woodworking book, and magazine about it, and have been working on putting together a wood shop. Soon I realized that I was spending so much time learning about and thinking about woodworking, but wasn’t actually making anything!! :) I decided to start with a coffee table for my wife’s birthday present.
I was really happy with how it turned out. All of the rails and and stiles have mortise and tenon joinery, and the bottom shelf has a through tenon. I also made a significant bevel on the underside of the top, with I think makes the top look light and lifted. I cut the bevel on my table saw, raised the blade to its full height and then ran the entire top through it.
Cherry is very prone to blotching when stained, so I put Minwax PreStain on first, then I used Minwax Mahogany Gel Stain. This worked really well, I let the stain sit on the sapwood and lighter areas a little longer than the rest and it came out pretty uniform. Three coats of Polyurethane and it looks great!
I learned a ton and am excited to start on a new project now!
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11 comments so far
SteveGaskins
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111 posts in 756 days
#1 posted 528 days ago
Very Nice!! Love the table and the cherry. Excellent build. How did you attach the table top to the base?
-- Steve, South Carolina
DalPal
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8 posts in 613 days
#2 posted 528 days ago
I cut biscuit grooves, and used metal clips. Super easy!
LarryB
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34 posts in 797 days
#3 posted 528 days ago
Beautiful table! Hard to believe it’s your first project. . . excellent job! Nice to know about the cherry. I’ve had some socked away for a future project and really like your finish results.
Keep up the good work!
Larry, IA
dpow
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374 posts in 1013 days
#4 posted 528 days ago
Your table looks great! I really like the cherry, especially the top. Thanks for sharing…...and don’t hide the top with that plant.
-- Doug
jim1953
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2564 posts in 2011 days
#5 posted 528 days ago
Great Lookin Table
-- Jim, Kentucky
a1Jim
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87149 posts in 1746 days
#6 posted 528 days ago
Cool table very well done.
-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/
Geedubs
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140 posts in 1398 days
#7 posted 528 days ago
Nice. Has a mission style look to it…but the lines are a little more sleek. Congrats.
-- Todos los dias aprendemos algo nuevo.
kbiniowa
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42 posts in 733 days
#8 posted 528 days ago
Very nice job. You should be proud of what you accomplished.
-- Keith - Iowa
planeBill
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300 posts in 578 days
#9 posted 528 days ago
thanks for the inspiration and congrats on the great table. I just started a coffee table this morning. Mine is along the same a&c lines but will be somewhat different style, and is of qswo, I love cherry though and it looks like you got a way better finish on yours than I did on mine. Great work. Enjoy.
-- I was born at a very young age, as I grew up, I got older.
JoshOne
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50 posts in 860 days
#10 posted 527 days ago
Looks great!!
-- "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne"
pintodeluxe
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1739 posts in 982 days
#11 posted 527 days ago
Great job, and nice selection of cherry wood. That is some good looking stock.
Try digure 8 fasteners for future tabletops. I have tried both types, and I like the figure 8 type better because it screws to both pieces, yet allows the wood to move.
Great job!
-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush
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