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.

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.

From: Jay Talbott

Location: Gilbert, AZ

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: Top: Three coats of General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish, diluted 50/50 with mineral spirits, wiped on. The first coat sucked up a ton of finish as it soaked into all that end grain like a sponge.

Base: Three coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal (four coats for the shelf), wiped on. Final coat diluted 50/50 with Naptha. Basically followed the process in the A Simple Varnish Finish DVD, and it turned out great.

Wood Species: Top made from hard Maple and base made from Cherry

Project Description:
This is my very first real fine woodworking project. One day a few months ago my wife had put her cutting board on a bar stool so it wasn’t quite so high up like it is when it is up on the kitchen counter (she’s only 5’2″). She said her arms got to tired from lifting them up so high when the cutting board was on the countertop. Right then I instantly knew I needed to make her a butcher block table for Christmas. I looked around the Internet and found this one for inspiration.

However, due to space constraints in our kitchen, I wanted to make it a little smaller (18″x18″) and I wanted it a couple inches shorter (33-34″). And I wanted the base to be made of cherry and stained to match our kitchen cabinets (I was able to order the exact stain from the cabinet company). So then I went to town in SketchUp, and with a little help from a few folks on the WTO forum and some e-mails back and forth with Marc, I came up with my design. I included my SketchUp file with all the details.

The top is 3″ thick and was made using methods similar to those in the cutting board video (Marc’s drum sander shure would have been handy!). I used mortise and tenon joinery for the aprons and stretchers, and a solid panel for the shelf. I had to put notches in the legs to allow for wood movement. The top is attached to the base with 4 #12 screws that go through oversized holes in corner blocks on the inside of the base using fender washers, allowing for any movement of the top. Also, although not shown in the SketchUp drawing, I chamfered the outside corners of the legs.

The stain was water based, so I had to pre-raise the grain on all the parts that made up the base. I also had to pre-wet the parts again when I applied the stain, or it would soak into the wood and dry almost instantaneously, making it hard to get an even color (thanks Marc for that tip). I included a photo with the table next to a spare board left I have from the cabinet manufacturer that shows how well the base ended up matching our cabinet color.

Lastly, I installed a set of bronze colored casters that I got from Home Depot.

The last photo shows my other holiday project entry sitting on top of the table. As if I wasn’t busy enough making this table, I added the serving tray to the mix as a second woodworking gift for my wife.

This project took me a couple of months to build (I just finished it today, only a week before Christmas), and I’ve learned a ton along the way. I want to give an extra special thanks to Marc who answered every one of my numerous questions throughout the whole process (I guess it pays to be a Guild member).

I started by sketching the basic shape and including my best guesses on the angles and widths. The angle I liked the best (for the vertical pieces) turned out to be 80 degrees. The next order of business was to start “roughing in” the curves. This is something I like to do completely by eye, using my original miniature sketch for reference. I make wide pencil strokes back and forth and essentially scribble the curve in place just as a basic starting point. I will step back every few seconds and even screw up my vision to get a better feel for the flow of the piece. Not sure if anyone else does that, but sometimes, a set of curves is hard for me to judge when looking at it with absolute clear vision. So I actually go just slightly cross-eyed, intentionally, to create a blurry view. And oddly enough, I tend to see things that my clear vision doesn’t allow me to see. Is that weird? It sure sounds weird to say it.

Well anyway, once the curves are roughed in, I’ll go back with my French curves to see if I can match them up with my existing scribbles. The French curve produces beautiful asymmetric curves, so if I can get a close approximation to what I drew by hand, I will simply trace a nice clean line right over my scribble. Then I go back and remove the scribble with an eraser.

The basic structure and curves are now in place and its time for the fun/hard part. You have to decide if you like what you see, and if not, figure out how to fix it. So I tinkered with some more ornate feet, which ultimately looked too busy and bulbous. That then led me to thin out the foot for a more delicate look. Now we’re on the right track! I started to trim things back all over at this point, including the top and the vertical support. All in all, the more slender look put a smile on my face. The shape is beginning to look like something out of nature with a dash of whimsy, which is exactly what I’m going for.

Now the next step was to begin thinking about how this form would come to be from actual square pieces of wood. I will most likely use 8/4 stock for the top and bottom supports, with 6/4 stock on the vertical pieces. So my goal is to not only blend the vertical pieces to the top and bottom with respect to the curves, I also want to blend them in terms of thickness. The Sketchup image below gives you an idea of what the rough pieces might look like before blending. Also, I should note that the joinery connecting everything together will be a mortise and tenon. I may even use the Domino to make my life easier. You’ll notice in the final picture below that I quickly sketched in the potential locations for the two cross-members. I’ll worry about those tomorrow.

I can’t even begin to describe to you how subjective this part of the process is. As woodworkers, there are some things that we will almost universally agree look “off”. And there are surely things that we will all agree look “just right”. But everything else fits into that gray area, where its simply an expression of our personal taste. So don’t be too hard on yourself at this point. Its not easy going from a blank sheet of paper to an actual project. And don’t worry so much about making mistakes, that’s what erasers are for. I stared at the sketch for hours today, trying different curves, different feet, different thicknesses, and it was pretty clear that there would never be one right answer. I have a few more ideas and I really want to let this particular design “rest” overnight. Tomorrow I’ll look at it again with a fresh set of eyes and perhaps I’ll see something that wasn’t evident the day before. The next step will be to cut out my templates and make a prototype. I need to see this bad boy in 3D before going any further. And at some point here, I need to break out the video camera and start filming this episode. Wish me luck!

Recently I mentioned that this project might be a good candidate for a “design by committee” experiment. Well, once I started getting into the details with all the curves, I realized its actually a terrible candidate. If we attempt something like that in the future, its going to be on a project that’s a little more straight forward, not only in design but also function. I think I confused some people by calling it a gaming desk, when what I had in mind the whole time was a trestle table with no fancy storage. So we’ll do something like that soon, just not on this project.

Here’s a table that didn’t like the weather. It was a quick build to fill a pressing need. My daughter and her husband had moved to Phoenix and did not have a dining table of any sort. On our first trip to visit them, I went to Home Depot, bought a Ryobi $100 table saw, router and drill. Then a laminated sheet of pine, a few two by fours and some four by fours.

It took a few hours to build, then stain and brush on poly. A couple days later it was in their kitchen and was ready for use. For about a year it served it purpose. When they moved to a different house, they had acquired a dining room set and the table was put out on the patio where it looked quite nice by the way.

However, the sun and the heat of Arizona summers took their toll. A year and a half later, the table was unrecognizable and had surrendered it’s stability to the forces of nature. First the finish yellowed and cracked and finally the wood just had to move. And move it did. The top was warped and twisted beyond reason and the poor table died a horrible disfiguring death. It now stands as a testament to the slow but sure supremacy of nature.

After seeing your video on cutting boards, it sparked an interest. We’ve made all kinds from straight grain to end grain, we have even made curved wood boards (where we bend and glue into that shape). All of these boards and my need for a table lead us here. The table is 40” across and has about 200 pcs of wood mostly made of dunnage from South America. We pick up the dunnage (pallet material) from a local lumber supply store for free. Beautiful wood that’s just thrown away. Some of the varieties include guanacaste, purple heart and peroba rosa. We also purchased blood wood for this project. I haven’t been able to identify the rest. The glue ups were done in 12” sections-after planing and jointing biscuits were used to join the sections. All of the knot holes are filled with clear epoxy to showcase the holes. The legs are composed of 15 pcs each. The strips are planed thin enough so that no steaming was necessary. We finished it off with some good old antique oil.

Here’s a little background on my project. My friend, Karen, had a friend of hers designed a table and mirror to install behind the built-in bar in her basement. Based on her design, I came up with the dimensions and prepared a cut list.

I had to match the finish to the rest of the paneling and the bar in the basement. I tried several types of wood but the best match was with birch. The top ended up being 85″ long and 16.25″ wide and a full 1.5″ thick. After gluing up the top, I ran it through my drum sander to flatten and achieve final thickness. Next came the legs, 3″ square 36″ long. I had to then engineer how to fit the two shelves around the legs. I remembered how to utilize sticks to wrap around the legs and then using a flush trim bit cut a pattern out of 1/2″ plywood. After cutting the corners of my pattern square with a flush cut saw, I tried a fit around the legs…perfect tight fit. I then set the legs on the top to determine their placement. After that, I transferred marks to 3/4″ birch plywood and using the pattern, I used a jig-saw and rough cut the leg openings. I left the plywood long on both ends to hold the legs in place while I measured for the aprons. The plan called for 1.5″ thick shelves. After I cut the shelves to length and cutting the 45 degree angle at the left end, I used 3/4″ thick stock and cut a rabbet in which the plywood shelves could rest. I wrapped the plywood giving it the appearance of being 1.5″ thick and it also gave the shelves a lot of rigidity. Next came cutting the aprons which I would attach with loose tenons cut with my Festool Domino. I also had to fit in a piece of wood between the bottom of the aprons at the right side for the chrome wire glass holders. With the frame, I needed to fit a 60″ x 30″ mirror in the opening and below the mirror was a 60″ x 12″ section of 1″x2″ colored glass tile. I attached a 1/4″ piece of cement board on a 1/2″ piece of plywood, applied the tile and then grouted with sand free grout. After seeing how thick the tile was, I had to change plans and use 1.25″ thick stock for the frame. I cut a 1″ x 1/2″ deep rabbet on the back of the frame to fit 1/2″ plywood which I attached with 1″ screws. I cut a double rabbet on the bottom piece of the frame for the tile so I could snug up the frame piece to the tile. All connections were reinforced with 8mm dominos. That sure makes it easy. Next step was a dry fit to ensure that everything fit properly. Then I glued up the frame but due to the size of the table, I decided to assemble the table in Karen’s basement. I never would have gotten the assembled table up my basement steps. After staining everything to match a sample that I made early in the process to match the existing stain in Karen’s basement, I sealed with a coat of shellac and then 3 coats of General Finishes semi-gloss top coat. It was a fun and challenging project to build and the best thing is that Karen loves it. Here are some pictures of the in process and final installed table and mirror.

I receive quite a few emails from viewers/readers asking if I teach classes. Although I no longer offer classes out of my own shop, I do occasionally teach on the road. This January, I’ll be teaching two classes at the William Ng School in Anaheim, CA. You may remember this is where TreeFrog and I attended the Darrell Peart Aurora Table class. William has an incredible facility and I can’t wait to get back! So here are the details with class descriptions:

Modern Hall Table (Jan. 18th – Jan. 22nd, 2010)
This modern hall table was designed with two goals in mind: to capture attention and to teach you numerous key woodworking techniques. The jatoba legs feature compound curves that are cut on the bandsaw and finished with various hand tools and rasps. The legs are attached to the aprons via traditional mortise and tenon joints. The drawer and front apron are all cut from a single piece of wood and the custom drawer pull is attached via stainless steel dowels. The drawer joinery also features stainless steel dowels in a creative reinforced rabbet joint. The frame of the top features splined miters and the raised center panel is wrapped with a decorative wenge strip. This unique project will challenge your woodworking skills, as well as your creativity. Sign up here!

Greene & Greene Inspired Frame (Jan. 23rd – Jan 24th, 2010)
This unique picture/mirror frame is my personal take on the Greene & Greene style. It incorporates numerous details inculding cloud lifts, subtle curves, ebony treatments, and a unique inlayed half-lap joint. This joint requires you to use some of the same skills required for decorative router inlay (a handy skill to have in your back pocket!). The class will also cover the use of various jigs and templates. Sign up here!

On a side note, I actually taught a small class on the modern hall table a few years ago. Its a pretty intense 5-day project but its a lot of fun! I threw in some pictures below so you can see what a class might be like.

I hope to see some of your smiling faces at the William Ng School in January!

I’m a South African living in Britain watching your American show – interesting how the world works huh? I’d like to enter a Viewer Project: my “ORIGINS” table. I really want to share this project with woodworkers because it has proven that I have to, like you say, think out of the box. Our schooling and everyday life causes the thought process to become rather closed and problem-oriented, rather than free-flowing and conceptual. It is like nothing I have tried before. Even after three months of making I still wonder how it all came to be.

It began about a year ago with an idea I had for a cabinet. My wife was pregnant and the whole process of birth become a fascination. The idea of male/female, yin-yang, parent and child etc, which I hope is evident in the design grew into the idea of using not only opposing woods, but opposing shapes, textures, types of board/timber. And then the cabinet wanted to become a table that supported a “child” if you will – the bowl in the middle.

Now what I have to keep reminding myself here is that I was trying my UTMOST best to NOT think about how I was going to make it. I’m sure us woodies are all cursed with this, but it has become so important (like with David Marks’ and furnitology’s) to concentrate on design and the “mindset” of the piece first, then problem-solve the issue of “how?” I made 2 HUGE mistakes and almost gave up but decided to go on. I was already on a tight budget for it (the veneers for the top alone cost something like $150!!) but I decided that once you pop, you can’t stop.

I found myself using tools I never had before: a round-bottomed spokeshave to finesse the curves, soil and dirt to tarnish the copper, sawdust and cyanoacrylate glue as wood-filler, a round-bottomed surform to finish the base. I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like, but it was make-it-up-as-you-go-along all the time and that was such a refreshing (though often frustrating) change. I strongly believe now that it’s not what you know, but rather what you want to learn that counts, and as long as woodworking is respective of the beauty that lies in wood, it will always be good :) It’s the ultimate material and unlike other things, it grows on trees!

Here are some construction details: “Female” consists of 27 layers of 19mm birch plywood – each piece individually routed round and then glued and pressed together. The final shape was eventually achieved after much use of a surform, belt sander, chisels and LOADS of 80 grit sandpaper wrapped around a 1.5 inch dowel.

Male consists of two halves. Each is two layers of 5mm bendyply veneered with walnut using contact adhesive (I was worried this would throw the shape out but the 2 layers of bendyply seemed to work well :) Making this was the most difficult part as the two halves had to be joined in a straight line, down a shape that curves in two directions and not only in the middle but where it joins the female too !! It took days of trial and error with a block plane to get that edge down the middle ! It’s still not perfect but hey we all have our limits :) I first made the structure then veneered one side at a time. The compound mitre on the base of the male proved to be challenging too since it does not lie flat on one surface but on an edge.

The cherry piece joining the two was made from a single length for continuity and just cut into smaller angled pieces to achieve the curve. The “foot” that joins the base of the male was done by hand with some chisels and a belt sander. The bowl also came to be using bendyply. Veneers are Maple, Walnut and I think Burr elm.

Once I got the male and female to join nicely with the cherry, and the bowl all fitted, I started on the top. I routed a 3foot diameter piece of 19mm ply and edged it with a 4mm cherry strip. I achieved this using strap-clamps and very straight-grained quarter sawn cherry to avoid it splitting/snapping (Yikes!). Initially it was to be more of a yin-yang shape on top but the waterdrop shape of the bowl called for a more refined curve. I first laid the burr walnut veneer, then the burr cluster maple (quite pink isn’t it?) then I routed the groove for the cherry inlay.

The cherry inlay isn’t conventionally liad. Rather than a thin slice of veneer it consists of about 10 layers of cherry veneer laid on edge within the groove! That proved to be a rather testing time :) After some hand-planing with a SHARP edge, it was flush to the veneer surfaces. I recessed the glass supports into the top and made the template for the glass by tracing on a piece of paper with a pencil (similar to the copper method). I sent it off to the glass-makers and they did a swell job. The glass lid is lifted out using the inch hole.

Now the copper came by accident due to the fact that I had to cover ugly screws sticking out of the female where I had screwed the ply pieces together. I tried to remove them neatly but it turned ugly after a while :) So I decided – as a friend once told me – rather make a display of your mistakes than try to hide them. I think I have realized now how helpful that can be. So I drilled the three 65mm holes 3mm deep around the screws, got hold of some 3mm copper plate and after making a rough paper template I ground them out and shaped them using a belt-sander on edge with 40 grit paper. I then tarnished them by leaving them outside on the lawn for a few nights and beat and scraped them in any way possible to create the aged look. I glued them in with PU glue and sanded them with 600 grit.

The finish: After much debate and much research (including the help of The Wood Whisperer) I finally came to a conclusion. Danish Oil is one of the easiest finishes you could ever apply (I hope Marc agrees here) I have done lots of spraying and used varnishes and oils of all shapes and sizes, but since I had been laid off at work, I had no access to the spray-shop and thus needed a really easy no fuss finish. And I must say – it does take a good 4 coats over 4 days to do the job but it is ever so easy to wipe on. A rub down with steel wool between coats and then some good-old-fashioned beeswax (2 coats) and some elbow-grease to bring out a bit of a shine and I am really very pleased with the finish. I did want to use a polyurethane spray but I think it actually worked out better this way since I can rest assured it is easily re-finished or restored.

Lastly I must say that it really has been an amazing learning experience and I would not have been able to do it without the advice and general positivity of online shows like TWW – so thanks Marc and friends!