Quarter Sawn White Oak Coffee Table

Welcome to LJs! Great looking table!

Thanks. It could be better but I”m learning!

Great table! I like the straight, simple lines. Of course that doesn’t mean it was simple to build!
Great choice of material.
My only complaint is… only 1 picture? Go get your camera and share a few more pics!
What type of joinery did you use?

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

Wow, this is great to have people interested enough in woodworking to ask for more pictures and more information. Here goes:

I used mortises and tenons to join the legs to the skirt. Used my router (table mounted) to cut the mortises and the table saw to cut the tenons. For both this and the top assembling I had to borrow lots of clamps from a good friend/neighbor. At one point it had turned cold enough I have to take the skirt/leg assembly to his shop – his is heated, mine is not. In fact, I shamelessly availed myself of this friend’s planer and another friend’s jointer/planer. As for the latter, I couldn’t quite get the edges true enough using my table saw and job hence a Saturday morning trip to his shop – with an extra large coffee as a not-so-subtle bribe. The last part of the assembly was the skirt/legs to the top. Here I glued one set of blocks to the inside of the skirt. I drilled a slot, then put a sheet metal screw through each slot, with washer, and screwed it into the top – to allow for some movement. This is probably WAY too much detail but…...you asked :)

I’m not sure how to add more pictures to a project once its been created, but I’ll try and find out how.

Thanks for all the encouragement you guys!!!!

After a long delay, I finally got around to taking new pictures of the coffee table. Ignore the dust on the top :)

Beautiful table.A solid oak coffee table is a beautiful piece of furniture that will enhance any living room adding the final finishing touches. Oak coffee tables are great because they are solid and sturdy and choosing a wooden table will work very well with most color schemes.

Looks great! Cool that wood came from your property. Did you mill the lumber or did you go to another friend’s shop :) ?

I had a local guy from the forestry department here at Purdue come out with his portable mill. Stacked the lumber in my barn for a few years. The planing was done at a friend’s house – he’s very generous with his tools.

I should mention that while I got to design and build this (and the side table) my wife – as always – reserves final judgement on design and dimensions….. :)

I really need a planer of my own – I must still have several hundred board feet of the oak left. Always on the lookout for projects.

Thanks for all the great feedback guys!!!