Small Cherry Coffee Table - completed


rodger.

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We have a small TV/Media room for watching movies and such. I built a wall unit for the room last year (its in the journal section as well), and we recently added a new sofa to the room.  So now when i go in there, I need a place to rest my coffee cup (or my feet).  So i decided to make a table similar to the one I built for my living room earlier on (again, in the journals section).

I took some measurements, and this coffee table will be long and skinny (and not very tall).  Here is a rough sketchup file of my plan without any edge detailing, etc.  Just the "bare bones" so to speak.

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Now, this project will be a bit more work than normal as I don't currently have a jointer in the shop.  All initial surfacing and jointing will be done with hand planes, before going to the planer and table saw.

So I went and picked up some 4/4 Cherry this afternoon:

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I tried to buy the straightest I could, cause I'm going to be sweating to get the stuff flat!

 

Edited by franklin pug
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So I began by chalking out the parts

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And then I did all my rough cross cuts and rip cuts on my saw bench with handsaws (hardpoint for crosscut, and pax rip saw for ripping).

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Then I had my rough stock all set for initial flattening.

 

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Then I began flattening the faces of the short aprons, followed by the leg blank, and then the long aprons.  I'll leave the top until the base is finished so that it doesn't have a chance to move on me.

I planed accross the grain with my jack, then diagonal with the jack, and finally along the grain with the jack and then the jointer plane. Lots of shavings!

 

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Today I started by re-flattening each face, and then running through the planer to get to final thickness.  I also cut up the leg blank into the individual legs.

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Then I cut one end square on the kapex, and then I set up a stop block to cut them all to length.  I love the Kapex - awesome tool!

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Then I went back to the bench and started squaring up all the edges by hand.  The veritas jointer plane is a great tool, and was a pleasure to use today.  I also used the jointer fence, which is handy on really long boards.17_squaring_the_edge_by_hand.thumb.jpg.a

I found that one of my apron boards was way out of whack, so I didnt even bother using the jointer plane on it.  I rigged up a quick sled and ripped a square edge on it.  Man, I miss having a jointer!

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The sled did a pretty nice job - here are the two aprons touching each other edge to edge - hard to find the joint unless you look closely.  I did run them through the power planer on edge as well, so I'm sure that helped too.

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Everything was ripped to final width on the TS, and cut to final length using the Kapex.  All ready for joinery, which will be dominos.

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I know that my daughter will probably use this small coffee table as a springboard when she watches "how to train your dragon", so I decided to beef up the joinery.  I went with two 6mm X 40mm dominos in each apron.  Should be plenty strong!  I laid them all out using a 4" combo square and pencil.

I use this benchtop table for biscuits, dominoes, and splines.  I like using the base to refrence from, so that what I did to plow out all the mortises (32).

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Here are the legs:

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Then I did a dry fit, and all was well.27_dry_fit_base.thumb.jpg.393e14b4ed7419

I wanted to dress up the aprons by adding a curve, but my wife really wanted the "squarish" shaker style look.  So i disappointingly put my lee valley drawing bow away...

I did add a small chamfer on the router table though.

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Then I sanded everything up to 220 while the sanding was easiest. 

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Finally, I glued up the first stage of the base (the short aprons).

 

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And tomorrow I will start flattening the stock for the top (again, by hand).  It should be a workout!

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Today is a scorcher, so i decided to wait on milling the top.  I did brave the heat to create some cross members for the coffee table, so I had something to attach the top to when final assembly comes around.

I used some offcuts from the long aprons, and routed some domino slots in them on the middle setting.  I matched up the center line of the cross member with some witness marks on the aprons.  Insert a 5mm x 40mm domino, and all set.  Before I did the glue up, I drilled and countersunk some oversize holes for some #7 fine thread screws.

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And here is the final glue up for the base.  I'll go back in a few hours to remove the clamps and do some light sanding to get rid of any left over glue and bench rash.

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Now, off to hind from the 33 degree heat (that's Celsius folks!)

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Got the base and sanded up and ready for finish.  Just doing some "dewhiskering" and it should be good to go.

I got a start on the top today, leveling one face of each board by hand using my jack and jointer planes.  After flattening one face by hand, I ran it though the power planer a few times to flatten the opposite face.   The I stickered it up to let it move a bit if it wants to, in preparation for the lamination.  I'll re-flatten and plane later tonight or perhaps tomorrow.

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Finished getting the top dimensioned, and the used the sled to square one edge of each piece.  Then I ripped the other end of each board.

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Next, I found a match that I liked, and then clamped the two boards together face-to-face.  I ran The jointer plane over the edges together to make sure I had a tight fit for the lamination.

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Then I marked and mortises some 5mmx30mm dominos to keep the panels aligned during glue up, did a test fit, and then glued it up.

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Took the top out of the clamps, cleanup up the glue line, and then smoothed one face, and sent i through the planer for a final very light pass.

The I used my jointer plane to true one edge, ripped the other, and then cleaned up the edge grain with a smoother.

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Then I cleaned up the end grain with a bevel up jack, and LA block.  I attached a sacrificial board to eliminate blow out.

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Then I added a slight chamfer, and sanded everything to 220 with the 150/3.

Finish is next!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here it is in its final home, dutifully holding my blu-ray remote.  I expect lots of dings and scratches soon as my daughter will be watching movies and eating popcorn in there, getting her juice box "rings" all over it :)

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I had a lot of fun building this table, mostly due to the fact that I did it without a power jointer.  It gave me a good refresher in flattening, jointing, and removing twist, using only hand planes.  My winding sticks and sharpening stones got a work out as well.  I also earned a few new hand calluses :)

Hope you enjoyed the build!

-Pug

Edited by franklin pug
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