Next project: draped glass coffee table.

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This is my next project to start, so far it is only a sketch on a paper, but the idea is to use glass for the top and carve the cloth as if it was half retired from the top. Main concern is stability (yes, no legs on one side)I'll have to work on that, a first idea is to put a heavy counterweight below the wood part so that it won't be seen and dis`place the center of gravity to one side and play with the cloth to provide enough support. After all it is a low coffee table so no heavy things ( or feet) should be put on it .We shall see...

Larry is going to be happy that I am retaking/rethinking this project as I never finished my initial one.

Sugestions welcome!

draped table.jpg
 
:thumb: This will be fun!

I'd bring a flat thin base back from under the "cloth" (or maybe two leg runners..) past the 3/4 point better to the 7/8 point. I think you could get it to look like a display base. Alternatively (which adds a fair bit of of carving but keeps the more unified design) would be to make it look like the cloth is folded under the piece and laying on the floor, you could probably make it look bunched up and run it up to a single point in the middle of the front of the piece.

Since the dimensions are known you can get the weight of everything pretty easily and then mock it up with a piece of 3/4" plywood, 3-4 2x4s (or equivalent scrap), and a few bags of sand for weight - that will tell you pretty quickly what the stability is like and where and how much weight you'd need for a quick feasibility check. The front ends and rear left corner (from the drawing view) of the cloth are essentially the main contact points (the right rear could be but isn't as critical because the other three make a triangle).

The method of affixing the glass in place will be interesting.
 
My suggestion is get hold of a huge log offcut like I saw this week up the road from me. The guys cut an ash tree down and base section was huge size of coffee table on its own.

Then cut log in such a manner as to have a slot for wood to cantilever in such that the cantilever slot is hidden under the cloth. Cloth will be the log coming down over glass.

Only issue is see is grain would be wrong orientation unless you get a log lying on its side. But that would need a huge piece of wood to carve for a single piece solution.

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It's an interesting project but I am having a hard time getting my arms around it demmensionaly. The normal height for a coffee table is around 16 inches so in my mind I see something fairly small like around 20" deep by 30" . It look a little odd some how.
 
It's an interesting project but I am having a hard time getting my arms around it demmensionaly. The normal height for a coffee table is around 16 inches so in my mind I see something fairly small like around 20" deep by 30" . It look a little odd some how.

Hi Don.
Its measures are going to be aproximately 100cm x 55cm x40cm which in inches are about 40 x 22 x 15 inches

My suggestion is get hold of a huge log offcut like I saw this week up the road from me. The guys cut an ash tree down and base section was huge size of coffee table on its own.

Then cut log in such a manner as to have a slot for wood to cantilever in such that the cantilever slot is hidden under the cloth. Cloth will be the log coming down over glass.

Only issue is see is grain would be wrong orientation unless you get a log lying on its side. But that would need a huge piece of wood to carve for a single piece solution.

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That would a lot of work to do Rob, besides emptying the inside would be really tiresome, even with some chainsaw discs like Lancelot. My idea is as I show in the sketches below. I need to have enough thickness to carve the folds and wrinkles of the cloth, and I need to have enough wood thickness as well to attach the glass.

main problem is that in order to make the cloth look real it there must be a continuity of the glass edge on the wood part, which I cannot make that thin. Otherwise it would look as if the cloth had one inch thickness. But I have that figured out already, wait for my nex update.

I need to make miter joints on the three sides so that when carving the shapes only a thin line will show and not an abrupt grain direction change as in a box joint.

BTW these sketches are made with a digital drawing software I'm just learning to use, so excuse their bad quality, it feels like I have to learn to draw again from zero.

taula3.jpg
 
When I visited, you showed me some issues with wear from vacuum and cleaning on pieces with a large base. Perhaps if the carved "cloth" only touched the floor at a few points you would have sufficient support while avoiding some of the abuse issues of the "cloth" going to the floor 3/4 of the way around the table. Essentially drape the cloth so that it became 3-5 small legs where it touched the floor.
 
When I visited, you showed me some issues with wear from vacuum and cleaning on pieces with a large base. Perhaps if the carved "cloth" only touched the floor at a few points you would have sufficient support while avoiding some of the abuse issues of the "cloth" going to the floor 3/4 of the way around the table. Essentially drape the cloth so that it became 3-5 small legs where it touched the floor.

Thanks for the tip Charlie, that is what I had in mind, it will depend on how much strength I need on the so called cloth legs. If I used hard maple it would not be a problem, but a nightmare to carve. Do not take that sketch as the final idea, but just a way of nailing down the concept prior to work and fine tune on it. There are so many things to take into account that depending on how I make the whole thing it can come out great or a complete fiasco.:dunno:
 
So glass weight would be about .30 kg or 67 lbs approximately. I assume you'd need to counter weight the base somehow or anchor it given the offset shown in the drawing. Thought about carving wax and making a bronze cast? ;) I'm sure you could find somewhere in the base section to include some weight though.
 
So glass weight would be about .30 kg or 67 lbs approximately. I assume you'd need to counter weight the base somehow or anchor it given the offset shown in the drawing. Thought about carving wax and making a bronze cast? ;) I'm sure you could find somewhere in the base section to include some weight though.


Thanks Darren.

Although according to my calculations aided by the weight calculator from http://www.dullesglassandmirror.com/ it would be 40,40lbs, assuming that the glass would be the total surface of the table wich will not. I based the calculus in a 39x23x0.5" glass.

Yes I did think about a bronze cast, but that would nee to be modelled either in clay or wax as you suggest, and the cost of casting it plus the finishing patina is too much. On top of that each time I see some bronce cast of a cloth it gives me the perception of being folded sheet metal not cloth.

The counterweight is no problem as it will be hidden beneath the right end on the drawing. However, this is only a concept sketch, don't take it literally. A lost of tweaking and problem solving as well as work planning is needed that will affect the final look for sure.
 
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