Computer Table – Viewer Project
This week’s project is submitted by Dustin. Let’s see what he has to say:
“OK, so the story is I scored two great deals from two different guys and was able to stock a good amount of Maple and lots of other various wood. I put it aside and dreamed of lots of fun projects. We are expecting a baby, so this is the perfect opportunity to re-arrange everything. My wife decides we need the computer in the bedroom, not the living room, so the Ikea table won’t work anymore. She wants to get a desk from Target, and now that I have delved into the world of woodworking, badly connected particleboard is no longer a value for $120. So I say “I’ll build you a table” – she agrees. I begin to mill the stock and while I am admiring the beautiful grain (which was clearly visible only after planing and jointing the rough surface) my wife declares she wants the table to be painted black! I understand matching the other furniture, but to paint something so beautiful. Well, I allowed her to let me finish, and then see.”
“On to the actual construction details. I started by cutting the legs. They are double tapered, cut on the bandsaw, and then jointed and sanded. In hindsight, I’ll skip the jointer and tackle the tapers with just the sander. I did use my belt sander to finish the shaping. The construction of the frame is basic mortise and tenon for the aprons. One of the apron pieces had an interesting effect where a bug had bored a few holes, making what I thought was a beautiful accent. I decided to use this piece on the front, I figured that it added to the individuality. I cut the mortises first with a drill press followed by bench chisels. Then I cut the tenons with a dado blade on the table saw. I glued up the frame, sanded to 220, and started on the top. I had a rather large, wide (11.5″) piece of Walnut. Jointed the edges and glued it up. Used a scraper to clean up the glue line, and cut the top to size. I rounded the edge over with the router and a 1/4″ roundover bit. I sanded the top and then attached it to the frame with figure 8’s.
“The finish is two coats of tung oil followed by two coats of clear poly, all with steel wool sanding in between. Once I was done, the wife did not demand a black paint job. In fact she is now on my case about starting a matching dresser.”
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Great table! I totally agree about “defects” like your bug-holes being fun, individual character.
Beautiful table! I am thinking of building one for my office to use as a writing desk.
That’s a really nice table. Good use of the wide board. I can’t imagine how painful the thought of maybe putting paint on it must have been.
By the way, do you have another shot of the table saw contraption you have in the background? I am thinking of getting rid of my mobile base in favor of a roll-around box like that.
Nice computer. I like the table too.
Beautiful work Dustin. Don’t know that I’d get much work done sitting at that table though… the wood on that top would be awfully distracting. Nice clean, simple line.
Excellent work, Dustin. And congratulations on converting your wife the beauty of wood!! Paint has it’s places and purposes, but on top of maple and walnut is NOT the place.
Yes … in my biased opinion, painting should only be reserved for low grade pine, construction lumber, shed and any type of house siding and outdoor stuff that we do not want to maintain.
after all, the best way, unfortunately, to protect a piece of wood outdoors is to prime and paint it. That’s what I have been doing to my outdoor shed project.
other than that, I would consider painting wood a sin.
Tim
Nothing beats the combo of maple and walnut. Nice choice and an excellent look! I have a design question, why did you choose to taper the outside edges of the table legs?
Thanks for all the comments, and of course to Marc for putting the project up.
Mattias – I probably have another photo of the tablesaw / router table storage combo thing. It is really a rolling chest with 2 drawers and dust collection for the tablesaw. I ditched the base and made this so everything is more mobile.
Marty – The photos are deceiving, and the tapers are on the insides (the outside parts of the legs are square). I had to look at the pictures again to see that. I am sitting at the table now and had to look down to see if I put it together wrong.
Dustin, Cool – that’s the reason I want to do the same thing. Maybe you can send some photos to our favorite Wood Whisperer (that’s you, Marc), and he can update the post? Or if I can impose on him to forward them to me. Or you can send directly to me at thewoodwhisperer at (nospam!) ett-idesystem.se, but then everyone else won’t benefit.
That’s funny about the tapers, it is really impossible to see which side they are on in the photos.
Tim, you’re going to hate the latest issue of Woodworking Magazine… they have a painted dry sink on the cover.