Location: Hatfield, PA

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Experience: 0-2 yrs

Project Name: Black Walnut Hall Table

Wood Species: Black Walnut

Finish Used: Sealed with shellac then a bunch of coats of Arm-R-Seal

Project Description:
A simple hall table in walnut. The top is bookmatched, and I carried the grain across the drawer fronts which also have hand-cut, half-blind dovetails.

Project Description:
This Guild project, which was kindly offered to non-members, looked like a great way for me to try using primarily hand tools. The table provided an opportunity to do my first real hand-cut dovetails and inlays. All joinery was hand-cut. I also took inspiration from Steve Latta and Garret Hack for the inlay embellishments. Instead of plywood, I used a traditional raised panel pine panel for the drawer bottom, allowing room for cross grain expansion. The curly maple was a bear to plane and I had to fight with the tear-out (a high-angle plane is next on my wish list), but the beautiful figure was worth the effort. Many thanks to Marc and the Wood Talk Online Forum for their generous support for this and all the other resources.

Website: Lumberjocks Page

Location: Broken Arrow, OK

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Experience: 0-2 yrs

Project Name: Corner Table with Inlay

Wood Species: Poplar, Maple

Finish Used: Sanded to 220 (for blotch). End grain was burnished to help slow absorption. 1/8″ masking tape to protect the inlay. This has to be perfect, and where the tape meets in the corners has to be flat on the inlay right up to the perpendicular tape to prevent stain from being worked under the tape should it “slope” up to the adjoining tape.

1/2 lb. cut Sealcoat – 2 coats
1 coat GF Georgian Cherry gel stain
1 coat GF 1:1 Georgian Cherry / Java
2 coats Arm-R-Seal wiped on, undiluted

White abrasive pads were used to remove excessive hard lines where stain had built up along side the tape causing the oil to accentuate the flaw, as well as any dust or other in-between coat needs 2 coats 1:1 diluted Arm-R-Seal wiped on

Project Description:
David Marks inspired the design and process, Norm inspired the finish, but that had to be modified. Norm also inspired the “nested” idea. But that came later after botching a beveled edge and having to trim the original table top back beyond the inlay. Having wanted to build the Nest of Tables, this became an opportunity to do that.

The layout followed David Marks. Using the top as a template, I did a full layout of the base. Placement of legs (which are rotated 45 to front of table, square to the walls), reveal of the aprons, etc. These layout marks were later used to mark cut lines on the aprons. Simply lay the apron stock on the template, mark where it meets the legs, cut. No measuring, no worries about exact angles. If the angles are drawn right on the template, the layout can be transferred easily and accurately.

Joinery was mortise and tenon, except for the front apron, which was loose tenons, as I didn’t think I could cut the 45 degree tenons at my skill level.

Assem-buh-ly was done with a band clamp to pull the 45′s together, bar clamps to pull the 90′s together. Care – and 2-3 dry fits – must be taken to be certain the bar clamps are square or they pull the 45′s out.

The nested corner tables fit nicely in the entry hall allowing for the front door to open without hitting them.

Location: Idaho Falls, ID

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Wood Species: Pine

Finish Used: Stain and Polyurethane

Project Description:
I am a physician who grew up with a wonderful father, bless his heart, who had a great fear of tools. Therefore, I didn’t understand the curiosity I felt toward tools. I had always wanted to work with wood but career pursuits prevented that early on. After settling into a new community after residency, I started to acquire some tools (made the mistake of getting “starter tools”) that I outgrew very quickly. I have also always wanted a pool table which we got and one cannot have a pool table without a good pub table.

I collect chess sets and love to play, so I thought I would try my hand at building a pub table with an inlaid chessboard cut from stone. Lofty first project attempted with inadequate tools but I got it done and learned some valuable principles, largely what the heck is a “jig,” and patience is an invaluable attribute in woodworking.

The top is a round disk purchased from home depot which I hollowed out by hand with chisels (I remind my patients that I am a Doctor, but I never claimed to be smart). The top is supported by crossing profiled supports which are tenoned into the base. The base is a cedar post, wrapped in pine. Why?, not quite sure! The legs are corbels. There is actually no hardware, it is surprisingly light and very sturdy. I tiled in travertine for the chessboard. It actually goes great, similar design angles, with my pool table and it has served as a nice conversational piece.

I have since learned a whole lot, thanks in no small part to Marc, and am building a shop I can be proud of. I am also happy to report that I have a waiting list backed up 8 months on orders for furniture, cabinets, toys and those annoying little things like surgery.

Happy cutting everyone!!!!

Location: Fayetteville, NC

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: 8 Lacquer coats on top and shelves. Hand rub finish with pumice stone 2F/4F and Rotten stone.

Wood Species: Brazilian Cherry and Maple

Project Description:
My inspiration was blending 2 different types of wood. The original design was suppose to have dovetails joining the end grains together but since I could not get them right, a spline was used. Then I placed butterflies for the dovetails.

Website: WoodworkingByScott

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Project Name: Kitchen Table

Wood Species: Walnut and Poplar

Finish Used: Thanks to Marc I used General Finishes Arm-R-Seal on the table top and just ordinary Rustoleum Black Satin Spray paint.

Project Description:
My wife really wanted a new table. We purchased our old one just after we were married and it was used then. We shopped all over and didn’t really find anything that fit us or that was in our price range. So I took some ideas from several other tables and got on Sketch-up and in my basic way got to work designing what I thought might look good. And this is what I came up with.

Location: Independence, MO

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Finish Used: Minwax pre-stain Sealer, Minwax Oil Based wood stain (Early American),
Polyurethane Clear High Gloss

Wood Species: Red Oak

Project Description:
My wife and I shopped for a coffee table to fit our space and couldn’t seem to find anything that was functional and matched our decor. One day she asked me “Do you think you could build me one”? I had never built any furniture or anything out of wood before, so I turned our dining room table over looked at the joinery and said…”I can try.”

So I ran down to my nearest hardwood dealer bought some stock and with nothing more than a mental picture, started building. Thank the wood gods for Kreg, Rockler and the internet. Miter and Circular Saw, fixed base Router, and a Kreg pocket hole jig.

The table fit perfectly into our living room and my family enjoys many asian style meals and board games on it.

Location: Rochester, NY

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Finish Used: I coated the piece with a nice amount of Tung oil and let it sit and cure for about a week. Then I used a water based poly, sanding with 320 grade in between applications (4).

Wood Species: Spalted Maple and Walnut

Project Description:
This project is a gift for a friend who is a contractor who has come to the rescue of our house a few times. I wanted something different for his family as a thank you. He recently redid his basement and put in a nice cork floor, so the spalted maple is a nice compliment to it.

The design is something I have been thinking about for a while. I wanted it to be simple, yet have the look of some through tenon joints. The bottom shelf is overlapped with the legs, which are cut out to allow the shelf corners to be seen. For the top I cut off a 2″ edge and joined those underneath to become an apron where the grain was somewhat bookended. Because of the joint technique I used, I had to do a walnut inlay along the joint edge. The top legs are overlapped in 2 different depths to help hold it together. Because of the manner in which I put this together, I couldn’t dryfit some of the pieces, which created some interesting issues.

This is completely glued up with no screws or nails holding any of the pieces together. I had originally planned on routing all the edges to soften the corners, but I decided that I liked the sort-of industrial look, so I didn’t do that.

Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Finish Used: Sanded to 320 then applied 2 coats of 50% tung oil diluted with mineral spirits. Wiped excess and waited 24 hours between each coat. Then 5 coats of 100% tung oil with the same process. Finally, lightly burnished with 0000 steel wool.

Wood Species: Cocobolo, Zebra wood and Mahogany

Project Description:
Digging through the spider-filled corners of my hardwood supplier yielded a great piece of 12/4 cocobolo with beautiful grain and highly contrasting heartwood. The heartwood formed a graceful arc on the front edge of the plank that I wanted to feature so I found a piece of zebra wood with a similar feature and used that to repeat the pattern in the trestle (I had to do a 3-ply glue up to get the 12/4 thickness in the zebra wood).

I spent a while in Asia and it influences my design but I also made use of the golden ratio as a bit of a self-check. The original design was done on Sketchup (download here) but just as a rough plan then I templated everything on 1/2″ MDF.

Location: Missouri

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: As requested by the customer, I sanded to 220 grit followed by 3 coats of minwax satin polyurethane. Smooth and rustic end result.

Wood Species: Red Oak

Project Description:
A former high school classmate contacted me after seeing some projects I posted online. She requested to have a coffee table made for her father out of an old front door from his childhood home. She asked to maintain as much of, if not the entire art work and scroll work on the door. She also asked to have the door cut down so that the two remaining halves could be created into two separate tables. I cut the door down to size as requested, but due to dry rot and the age of the door, it began to separate at its joints. I had to repair these first. I then created two “shadow” boxes that would wrap completely around the two doors halves in order to protect them from any further damage and to create a beautiful inlay. I finished the tops with 1/4” beveled/polished glass recessed into a 1/4” by 3/8” groove. Now came the challenging part. I debated how to complete the bottom of the biggest table which would eventually be the blanket chest/coffee table. I decided to make 6 panels from 1×4 stock boards with the biscuit jointer to join the pieces. Thanks to you, Marc, I tried my best to match pieces appropriately, but there are a few sections of panels that didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted. But I am learning. After the glue up was complete, I turned my attention to the legs that were receiving the panels. I created 3×4” dados into the legs. I then took my time to create the “tenons” on the panels in order to get a good tight but not too tight joint. Since I live in the St. Louis area, I thought what is more fitting than an arched bottom on all 4 sides of the box. So with thin strips of wood, I made an arch on a scrap piece of wood. Then I used a flush trim bit to actually create the arch on the finished lumber. The arches are quite subtle but turned out great. Lastly, for the blanket chest, I decided a cedar bottom would not only look great but it would be functional as well. No bugs here! After much staining and finishing, the lid was attached with a 42” brass piano hinge. The second, smaller table was completed with a weave pattern second shelf. This was created from 5x1x2” boards running each direction and 50 dados equally spaced in order to create the look. This part of the project was an 8 hour setup and completion. But it was worth it in the end. The table was finished the same as the blanket chest and they matched perfectly. This project was certainly challenging and difficult, but it was a great project with a great ending. The customers were extremely happy with the finished product.

As for the joinery on this project, I have already mentioned dados on some parts. There are also many biscuits throughout the project as well as pocket holes. The pocket holes were completed with plugs and stain so as to almost completely blend in with little distraction. Oh yeah, did I mention a lot of glue in strategic places? Enjoy!