# Darrell Peart's Aurora Sofa Table



## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

*In the Beginning...*

This is my most ambitious project to date. I'm going to make a Greene & Greene sofa table that closely follows the design of premier G&G LJ Darrell Peart. I pinged him the other day, and he sent me to American Furniture Design Co. to buy plans. As you can see, they're not identical to the one made by Marc in Darrell's class at William Ng's woodworking school.

American Furniture's Version:



TheWoodWhisperer's Version:



What I plan to do is to take the plans I bought, and convert them into a sofa table, using the same design features as TheWoodWhisperer's table built in Darrell's class.

I recently bought 30 board feet of old growth Honduran Mahogany off of CraigsList. The boards are 18" wide, more than enough for a solid piece for my sofa table top. I will be following the directions in Darrell's book, "Greene & Greene: Design Elements for the Woodshop"' that I got at the Gamble House, to make the breadboard ends, splines, indents, cloud lifts, etc.










To give it scale, that's my planer and sawhorses behind the boards.

Wish me luck! It's going to take awhile for this blog. I need to finish up some previous projects. BTW, according to AFD Co. this is an intermediate project. I'd hate to see advanced…


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## Scarcraig01 (Aug 27, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *In the Beginning...*
> 
> This is my most ambitious project to date. I'm going to make a Greene & Greene sofa table that closely follows the design of premier G&G LJ Darrell Peart. I pinged him the other day, and he sent me to American Furniture Design Co. to buy plans. As you can see, they're not identical to the one made by Marc in Darrell's class at William Ng's woodworking school.
> 
> ...


Sounds great, I look forward to following your progress. Very nice mahogany board, looks like it might be african though??










Honduran is usually darker:










It doesn't really matter… as long as you can finish the project with the pieces you have. I did a mahogany barrister set once from Honduran that I bought at an auction and didn't have enough to finish, so I went to my dealer and got more. He assured me that what I was buying was Honduran and would darken in time to match the rest. Its been almost 2 years now and it doesn't match, and I suspect it never will! Oh well live and learn…


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## edreher (Feb 3, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *In the Beginning...*
> 
> This is my most ambitious project to date. I'm going to make a Greene & Greene sofa table that closely follows the design of premier G&G LJ Darrell Peart. I pinged him the other day, and he sent me to American Furniture Design Co. to buy plans. As you can see, they're not identical to the one made by Marc in Darrell's class at William Ng's woodworking school.
> 
> ...


That is a beautiful design.

Finish, schminisch. Projects are meant to be started.


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## matt1970 (Mar 28, 2007)

CaptainSkully said:


> *In the Beginning...*
> 
> This is my most ambitious project to date. I'm going to make a Greene & Greene sofa table that closely follows the design of premier G&G LJ Darrell Peart. I pinged him the other day, and he sent me to American Furniture Design Co. to buy plans. As you can see, they're not identical to the one made by Marc in Darrell's class at William Ng's woodworking school.
> 
> ...


very nice!


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *In the Beginning...*
> 
> This is my most ambitious project to date. I'm going to make a Greene & Greene sofa table that closely follows the design of premier G&G LJ Darrell Peart. I pinged him the other day, and he sent me to American Furniture Design Co. to buy plans. As you can see, they're not identical to the one made by Marc in Darrell's class at William Ng's woodworking school.
> 
> ...


Looks like a wonderful project ,can't wait to see you progress.


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *In the Beginning...*
> 
> This is my most ambitious project to date. I'm going to make a Greene & Greene sofa table that closely follows the design of premier G&G LJ Darrell Peart. I pinged him the other day, and he sent me to American Furniture Design Co. to buy plans. As you can see, they're not identical to the one made by Marc in Darrell's class at William Ng's woodworking school.
> 
> ...


This is going to be a wonderful project!


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

*Virtual Design*

I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:










It's 36" wide and 30" tall. Please let me know what you think. This project is too important to leave it up to me…


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## Ozzy1812 (Oct 2, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Virtual Design*
> 
> I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:
> 
> ...


This looks really good. The proportions look good. I noticed that you are using the same indents on the legs that Darrell has used before. I used the jig that is used in the the book and they came out pretty good. By the way, I have read and used Darrell's book so much I may have to get another one since I am wearing this one out. LOL. Great Job on the design as usual. Ed. E.


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## jlsmith5963 (Mar 26, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Virtual Design*
> 
> I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:
> 
> ...


Are you aware of the photo match function in Sketchup? There are several tutorials available (for a start you might try this basic one and also this one ) you could confirm the proportions of your AutoCAD version using Peart's photo and photo match (you can import your AutoCAD dwg into Sketchup for direct a comparsion). In the future you might want to use Skecthup's photo match at the start of the process to establish all the key proportions and then export to AutoCAD to complete the dwgs or you could model the whole project in Sketchup.


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## MikeGager (Jun 15, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Virtual Design*
> 
> I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:
> 
> ...


i threw together a quick sketchup model of the table using your dimensions and assuming a 16" depth and it looks pretty good. i used 4" over hang on each side and 2" legs just going off a rough scale of your drawing (by holding a ruler to the computer screen lol)
i was worried the drawer might look to wide but it looks ok in "3d"


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Virtual Design*
> 
> I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:
> 
> ...


Thanks Ed. I've had Darrell's book for years (from the Gamble House gift shop), but had only leafed through it. It wasn't until I found TheWoodWhisperer's blog about taking Darrell's class that I decided to read it all the way through. It's very informative with great pics and a decent read.

jlsmith5963, I would love to be able to do this stuff in SketchUp, but it would take me as long to learn as building the table. I really need to sit down with the tutorials and dig into it soon. The import functions you're talking about sound cool too.

I don't know if I need to state it or reiterate it, but I'm not trying to "copy" Darrell's design. His plans are for a square-drawered night stand/end table, and Marc & Brad made arched drawer bottoms in class. Since I'm already making our night stands (see other blog), I needed to apply the Greene & Greene details to another project. The way our living room is now, we need a sofa table (longer and shallower). If we ever rearrange/move, it can be a foyer table under a mirror. I thought this would be a good excuse (read rationalization) to dig into the G&G details.

With that being said, I'll bet there's a way in SketchUp to "copy" Marc's table and stretch it into a sofa table. I just thought of that. Sigh…

Mike, please post a pic or link. I'd love to see it. As I've said before, I'm envious of everyone else's ability with SketchUp. As a relatively bright person, it's frustrating that this tool has eluded me.

One more thing I forgot to mention in the original post. I'm going to try hard to fit a tsuba into the design somewhere. Since the aprons will be pretty crowded, I might have to do an inlay on the top somehow.



This is not exactly what I had in mind, but close. It was ironically found on Darrell's website. I wish tsubas were covered in Darrell's and Robert Lang's books. It looks like I'll have to draw that up in AutoCAD too.


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## jlsmith5963 (Mar 26, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Virtual Design*
> 
> I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:
> 
> ...


It's inconceivable to me that someone with AutoCAD skills can't master Sketchup. Once you familiarize yourself with the basics of Sketchup your biggest problem will be that your AutoCAD keyboard shortcut habits won't work in Sketchup. Seriously, adding Sketchup skills will be one of the most productive things you can do as a woodworker who already has AutoCAD skills. I say this as someone who uses multiple CAD programs and has used AutoCAD since it was first introduced back in the early 80's.


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## MikeGager (Jun 15, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Virtual Design*
> 
> I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:
> 
> ...


well i have no idea how to post pictures on this forum lol. i dont have a photobucket or whatever website. anybody have any ideas?


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Virtual Design*
> 
> I've spent a couple of hours in AutoCAD trying to find the right proportions (using the Golden Mean religously), and here's what I've come up with:
> 
> ...


looks good!


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

*Wood Selection*

Being as it's Labor Day Weekend, and I'm out of QSWO, and my lumber yard isn't open until Tuesday, I turned from my other projects and worked with what I had, a butt-load of mahogany. My buddy was over talking boat stuff, so I asked him to give me a hand with the behemoth boards. We laid out both 3/4" x 18" x 10' boards on the sawhorses and looked at the magnificent, flowing grain patterns. We picked out the nicest 4' section and he helped me rough cut it out for the sofa table top.

Now, I at least have two manageable sections from either side on that one board, as the top was out of the middle of the board. It hurt to do this from an economic standpoint, but the value of the finished table improves immensely with proper grain selection.

This is the first time I've ever worked with mahogany, much less really dry, old growth Honduran mahogany. I'm going to relish every step. My buddy asked what it will look like finished, so I rubbed some water on the corner and he was blown away.


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## kcrandy (Jan 1, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Wood Selection*
> 
> Being as it's Labor Day Weekend, and I'm out of QSWO, and my lumber yard isn't open until Tuesday, I turned from my other projects and worked with what I had, a butt-load of mahogany. My buddy was over talking boat stuff, so I asked him to give me a hand with the behemoth boards. We laid out both 3/4" x 18" x 10' boards on the sawhorses and looked at the magnificent, flowing grain patterns. We picked out the nicest 4' section and he helped me rough cut it out for the sofa table top.
> 
> ...


I'll be very interested in this project. I have a beautiful slab of solid walnut that I finished some time ago for the top, but I've been stumped on the legs. I work at an art museum which has some beautiful ancient Chinese furniture and there is a table in the collection in which the slab of wood just sits on an open box like structure. I want to study those joints if I get a chance. I'll try to get pictures and post and also of the walnut slab I have ready to use. Do keep me updated.


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Wood Selection*
> 
> Being as it's Labor Day Weekend, and I'm out of QSWO, and my lumber yard isn't open until Tuesday, I turned from my other projects and worked with what I had, a butt-load of mahogany. My buddy was over talking boat stuff, so I asked him to give me a hand with the behemoth boards. We laid out both 3/4" x 18" x 10' boards on the sawhorses and looked at the magnificent, flowing grain patterns. We picked out the nicest 4' section and he helped me rough cut it out for the sofa table top.
> 
> ...


Impressive piece of wood. Cool project.

By the way…..What happened to the night stands?


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Wood Selection*
> 
> Being as it's Labor Day Weekend, and I'm out of QSWO, and my lumber yard isn't open until Tuesday, I turned from my other projects and worked with what I had, a butt-load of mahogany. My buddy was over talking boat stuff, so I asked him to give me a hand with the behemoth boards. We laid out both 3/4" x 18" x 10' boards on the sawhorses and looked at the magnificent, flowing grain patterns. We picked out the nicest 4' section and he helped me rough cut it out for the sofa table top.
> 
> ...


Randy, that sounds like a magnificent piece of wood. I really appreciate Oriental design & joinery, so please do post anything you can find.

Giz, thanks. I ran out of quartersawn white oak, so the night stands are waiting patiently for the lumber yard to open on Tuesday morning. I ran over there Friday without making the proper pick list, so I left instead of wasting time, or worse, money. I'm also trying to stitch these blogs together, depending on the process. For example, if I have to wait overnight for a glueup on one project/blog to cook, then I'll work on another and post accordingly. Optimizing shop time is important because it doesn't help pay the rent.


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## kcrandy (Jan 1, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Wood Selection*
> 
> Being as it's Labor Day Weekend, and I'm out of QSWO, and my lumber yard isn't open until Tuesday, I turned from my other projects and worked with what I had, a butt-load of mahogany. My buddy was over talking boat stuff, so I asked him to give me a hand with the behemoth boards. We laid out both 3/4" x 18" x 10' boards on the sawhorses and looked at the magnificent, flowing grain patterns. We picked out the nicest 4' section and he helped me rough cut it out for the sofa table top.
> 
> ...


I just realized I didn't see your first to posts on this project. The sofa table I have in mind is quite different. The slab of single-piece walnut I have ready to go is two inches thick and 9.5 inches wide and 54 inches long. It will run behind my sofa, with no drawer.


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## matt1970 (Mar 28, 2007)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Wood Selection*
> 
> Being as it's Labor Day Weekend, and I'm out of QSWO, and my lumber yard isn't open until Tuesday, I turned from my other projects and worked with what I had, a butt-load of mahogany. My buddy was over talking boat stuff, so I asked him to give me a hand with the behemoth boards. We laid out both 3/4" x 18" x 10' boards on the sawhorses and looked at the magnificent, flowing grain patterns. We picked out the nicest 4' section and he helped me rough cut it out for the sofa table top.
> 
> ...


wow…that wood is beautiful…


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Wood Selection*
> 
> Being as it's Labor Day Weekend, and I'm out of QSWO, and my lumber yard isn't open until Tuesday, I turned from my other projects and worked with what I had, a butt-load of mahogany. My buddy was over talking boat stuff, so I asked him to give me a hand with the behemoth boards. We laid out both 3/4" x 18" x 10' boards on the sawhorses and looked at the magnificent, flowing grain patterns. We picked out the nicest 4' section and he helped me rough cut it out for the sofa table top.
> 
> ...


Beautiful peice of wood!


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

*Table Top*

As I was waiting for another project to dry, I did a little work on the table top. I had cut it oversized on purpose to take advantage of the wavy figure in the board. I then had to face the difficult decision of how to trim it down for a sofa/foyer table that didn't stick too far out. I settled on a 14" wide board, which leaves plenty of room for a decent overhand in the front, 2 1/4" legs, and a side apron that doesn't look like a chubby baby's leg.

I then decided to bust out Darrell Peart's book and work on the breadboard ends. He suggests making a slot in both the breadboard edge and the top, using a slot-cutting bit in the router. Not wanting to buy one of those, and not really understanding what the difference in having a cross-grain spline vs. a cross-grain tongue, I milled a tongue on each end of my top, according to Darrell.










Another interesting thing he does is make the bottom flush, and the top creates the shadow line. I opted for an equal shadow line on both the top and bottom (in his book, he recommends we diverge from the Greene & Greene paradigm). I think this will give balance to the piece on the front elevation. Other than that, I adhered to his drawing.










In the interest of this being the most challenging, technical, and properly made piece I have ever attempted, I taped the dadoes to reduce (notice I didn't say "eliminate") tear out, and for some reason I felt compelled to finish sand the table saw marks out of the top afterwards. I think this will give me a sense of how fine a piece I'm making (if I actually pull it off). I think it also encourages me along the way. The top is still breathtaking, and the proportions are great. I actually held it up to the back of the sofa.

One thing I've notices is that mahogay is a very homogenous wood, even with the grain figuring. It's not nearly as brittle as oak, therefore less chipout.

I was also able to glue up the breadboard ends, which are at this point twice the thickness of the top, but depending on how the glue seam looks, I'll plane that down to just over 1/4" thicker than the 7/8" top. The breadboard stock is made from the straight grain that I trimmed off the top because it didn't have as much visual interest. This means that the grain and color will be nicely consistent with the top, albeit at right angles.

Now that I think about it, I'll probably have to buy that damn slot cutter because Darrell does a really cool trick in his book. He cuts the slot for the spline that attaches the breadboard to the top with the same router depth setting that he cuts the ebony spline dado. This makes everything line up perfectly because you don't mess with any settings. Sigh… It looks like I'm heading out to Woodcraft. Good thing it's my birthday month.


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## tenhoeda (Jun 27, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Table Top*
> 
> As I was waiting for another project to dry, I did a little work on the table top. I had cut it oversized on purpose to take advantage of the wavy figure in the board. I then had to face the difficult decision of how to trim it down for a sofa/foyer table that didn't stick too far out. I settled on a 14" wide board, which leaves plenty of room for a decent overhand in the front, 2 1/4" legs, and a side apron that doesn't look like a chubby baby's leg.
> 
> ...


I think the mahogany was an excellent choice for this table. The grain on the top is perfect for this piece I think.

I enjoyed working with mahogany on my huntboard. It has a nice smell when machined and sands pretty easily.


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## reggiek (Jun 12, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Table Top*
> 
> As I was waiting for another project to dry, I did a little work on the table top. I had cut it oversized on purpose to take advantage of the wavy figure in the board. I then had to face the difficult decision of how to trim it down for a sofa/foyer table that didn't stick too far out. I settled on a 14" wide board, which leaves plenty of room for a decent overhand in the front, 2 1/4" legs, and a side apron that doesn't look like a chubby baby's leg.
> 
> ...


You will like having a slot cutter…I use mine very often..I got the Amana dial a slot also and it very easy to set and use.


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Table Top*
> 
> As I was waiting for another project to dry, I did a little work on the table top. I had cut it oversized on purpose to take advantage of the wavy figure in the board. I then had to face the difficult decision of how to trim it down for a sofa/foyer table that didn't stick too far out. I settled on a 14" wide board, which leaves plenty of room for a decent overhand in the front, 2 1/4" legs, and a side apron that doesn't look like a chubby baby's leg.
> 
> ...


Nice post.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

*Breadboard Ends*

While I'm ammonia fuming another project, I figured I'd make progress on this one. I pulled a WoodWhisperer and threw away the tape measure. I milled the ends to the proper thickness (which also gave me some nice mahogany veneer). I can't tell you how lovely working mahogany is, compared to oak. Then while the stock was still one long piece, I used the table saw blade to make the dado that fits the tongue on the top (Darrell calls it the "core"). I achieved a nice slip fit.


















Now it was time to cut the ends to length. The overhang isn't specified in the drawing, but probably in the text, but since it's one solid board, I wanted to give it plenty of room to expand across the grain, so I cut the breadboards over half an inch longer than the top (plus I still have to joint the edges of the top). My first attempt in trimming an end resulted in a lot of chipout, so I wrapped it with tape. Chipout inside the dado! That'll look like crap when the ebony spline is there. So I made a filler strip of oak (I've got lots of oak scraps lying around for some reason). Viola! A perfect cut.










Not using the tape measure gave me a very organic feeling when deciding how long to cut the ends. I just slipped the stock on and made a mark. To make the second one, I just sat the first one on the offcut and made another mark. Very satisfying. I immediately ran the assembled top into the living room and held it up to the sofa. Magnificent.

As you can see, I've got to remove wood along the sides of the top for the ebony spline. I haven't really decided how I'm going to do that yet.

Thanks to sufficient clamping pressure, the glue line on the laminated ends is almost invisible. I'm a little conflicted about putting a thin veneer along the edge. I guess this is the time to buck up and become a real woodworker…


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> While I'm ammonia fuming another project, I figured I'd make progress on this one. I pulled a WoodWhisperer and threw away the tape measure. I milled the ends to the proper thickness (which also gave me some nice mahogany veneer). I can't tell you how lovely working mahogany is, compared to oak. Then while the stock was still one long piece, I used the table saw blade to make the dado that fits the tongue on the top (Darrell calls it the "core"). I achieved a nice slip fit.
> 
> ...


I just realized that I already have a slot cutter, in my biscuit joiner. If I set the height right, then I can lay both on my table saw and make a perfect slot to receive the ebony spline, then flip it over to make it centered.


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## Jimi_C (Jul 17, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> While I'm ammonia fuming another project, I figured I'd make progress on this one. I pulled a WoodWhisperer and threw away the tape measure. I milled the ends to the proper thickness (which also gave me some nice mahogany veneer). I can't tell you how lovely working mahogany is, compared to oak. Then while the stock was still one long piece, I used the table saw blade to make the dado that fits the tongue on the top (Darrell calls it the "core"). I achieved a nice slip fit.
> 
> ...


Why not use your table saw with a feather board to cut the slot for the spline?


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Breadboard Ends*
> 
> While I'm ammonia fuming another project, I figured I'd make progress on this one. I pulled a WoodWhisperer and threw away the tape measure. I milled the ends to the proper thickness (which also gave me some nice mahogany veneer). I can't tell you how lovely working mahogany is, compared to oak. Then while the stock was still one long piece, I used the table saw blade to make the dado that fits the tongue on the top (Darrell calls it the "core"). I achieved a nice slip fit.
> 
> ...


Looks great so far!


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

*A Class Act*

It looks like we'll be running down to SoCal at the end of February to visit family & clients. We'll take advantage of the opportunity to hit the Gamble House Joinery Tour, hit Disneyland while the kids are at school, and most importantly: Darrell Peart's Greene & Greene Details I class at the William Ng School of Woodworking!

I noticed that Marc Spagnoula (Woodwhisperer) is teaching classes there (i.e. Hall Brothers Frame, etc.). I'm really jazzed because I've never taken a woodworking class (other than shop), I'll get to meet Darrell, and I'll get to practice all of the details I'll need to make our Aurora sofa table.

For those of you not familiar with the class, you make a corner of a table with leg taper details, ebony splines, breadboard ends, and cloud lifts. You walk out of there after two days with a cute little display piece:


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## mtkate (Apr 18, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *A Class Act*
> 
> It looks like we'll be running down to SoCal at the end of February to visit family & clients. We'll take advantage of the opportunity to hit the Gamble House Joinery Tour, hit Disneyland while the kids are at school, and most importantly: Darrell Peart's Greene & Greene Details I class at the William Ng School of Woodworking!
> 
> ...


Very very lucky!!! I am still working on the other half to take a woodworking vacation at some point…


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## Darrell (Jul 29, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *A Class Act*
> 
> It looks like we'll be running down to SoCal at the end of February to visit family & clients. We'll take advantage of the opportunity to hit the Gamble House Joinery Tour, hit Disneyland while the kids are at school, and most importantly: Darrell Peart's Greene & Greene Details I class at the William Ng School of Woodworking!
> 
> ...


Hi Skully,
I look forward to meeting you in February.
Jim Ipekjian's Details and Joinery tour is the ultimate way to see the Gamble House.
You might also consider a side trip to the Huntington while you are in Pasadena - lots of G&G furniture on view there!

Darrell


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

CaptainSkully said:


> *A Class Act*
> 
> It looks like we'll be running down to SoCal at the end of February to visit family & clients. We'll take advantage of the opportunity to hit the Gamble House Joinery Tour, hit Disneyland while the kids are at school, and most importantly: Darrell Peart's Greene & Greene Details I class at the William Ng School of Woodworking!
> 
> ...


Are you still coming down? There is a Lie-Nielsen handtools event this Fri and Sat. that I am thinking about going to. It is Cerritos near the Ng School.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *A Class Act*
> 
> It looks like we'll be running down to SoCal at the end of February to visit family & clients. We'll take advantage of the opportunity to hit the Gamble House Joinery Tour, hit Disneyland while the kids are at school, and most importantly: Darrell Peart's Greene & Greene Details I class at the William Ng School of Woodworking!
> 
> ...


We're coming down, I'm just trying to scrape the money together for the class. We've got some business to attend to while we're down there, and of course Disneyland. I doubt I'll be available on Friday. Thanks.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

*Truant*

Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.

I may just have to bite the bullet and plunge back into the sofa table project without taking the class. I was going to wait, but his book is really good and there's lots of online help with Greene & Greene details too. Luckily, I have plenty of mahogany to work with. I'll get the top all put together with breadboard ends and start on the legs. After my near-disaster with the lock-miter bit on the dining table project, I should be much better suited to make the legs for this project. There are a couple of jigs to make for this project too. I also plan on making more G&G stuff in the future, so that'll be a good investment. I'm not looking forward to working with the ebony again though. The sawdust kicked my butt. Sorry for the lack of progress in this update. I just needed to vent…

One thing I've noticed is that thewoodwhisperer's table doesn't have a lower shelf (probably to lighten up the look), but Darrell's design does have one. I'm going to opt for the shelf as another place for books, knick-knacks, etc. I'm also going to do the tapered inset vs. the double cloud-lift profile at the bottom of the legs (which means another jig).









^ TheWoodWhisperer's table









^ Darrell Peart's table


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## longgone (May 5, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Very nice tables. You did a great job!


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## Bret (Oct 31, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


I've been looking at these two tables too-I like the way the bottom edge of the apron(?) in the WW version is arched and the leg detail is a bit different as well.


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## toddc (Mar 6, 2007)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


That is gorgeous!


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Thats a nice table.


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## williams (Feb 21, 2010)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Love that kind of look. Very masculine.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Oops! I didn't mean to infer that these were my tables, these are the two example tables that I'm using for inspiration. I'm early into the building process.

The top one is Marc Spagnoula (aka The Wood Whisperer), and the second one is Darrell Pearts's (aka Darrell Peart). Marc made his based on Darrell's design, and I'm not sure where the arch came from, but I like it! Marc attended Darrell's class at William Ng's school (which I was hoping to also), and they ended up collaborating on the Hall Brothers' frame. Now Marc teaches at William Ng! How cool is that? Shortly after that, Marc posted his project. The lines inspired me to buy a truckload of old-growth Honduran mahogany off CraigsList.

That's about all I know about that…


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## williams (Feb 21, 2010)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Looks like those box joints are raised a little. Different and cool. How you think that dark tenon was done.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Wonderful Darrell


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## JackBarnhill (Mar 8, 2009)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Capt - I think you have the credits backwards, The top photo is of Darrell's Arched Aurora End Table. The picture is on his website and I think it is in his book too.

The bottom picture must be that of the Wood Whisperer's table. I couldn't find it on his website so I couldn't confirm it.

Both are very nice tables and excellent inspirations.


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## toddc (Mar 6, 2007)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


D'oh! Thanks for the clarification.

I thought one was yours and another was Marc's for some reason.

Sometimes I read through them too fast.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

CaptainSkully said:


> *Truant*
> 
> Well, it looks like I won't have the money for Darrell's class at William Ng's school this weekend (or Disneyland either for that matter). I'm pretty bummed. I had to do the right thing and spend my tuition on sailing instructor seminars to further my "real" career. Luckily, the woodworking classes are offered often (I've got them all on the calendar), and Mickey will always be there.
> 
> ...


Darrell shows the arched table on his real website, but the plans from American Furniture Design are for the rectangular version. I'm going to modify the design anyway because I'm making a sofa table. I've actually been concerned about being able to keep the arch proportions across a longer span. I might build the whole underbody end table size, which would allow me to follow the plan's dimensions, and let my considerably longer top hang over substantially on either side. This would be faithful to a lot of Greene & Greene pieces I've seen.


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