small project-end table from scraps

Ive been down with a lousy head cold, so I haven't been doing much the past few weeks.
We had a lot of company thanksgiving week, but each morning I snuck out into the garage for an hour or so and worked on bandsaw reindeer and an end table to put a small lamp on.
Then I had to get yelled at by my wife and cousin for going into the damp cold garage while I was sick, but my wifes cousin was enough for me to risk going out and getting sicker, I needed a break from her. I needed it everyday. Im thinking of having her visit Brent, figuring hed get that table together during her visit.

although nothing exciting about an end table, I decided to use all my shorts and strips that I have no other use for other than a cutting board or into the fire pit.
gave me something to think about.
I had some chunks of walnut, originally purchased by a contractor to cut up for flooring, but the 2 pieces I had were totally ratty, knots, chewed up, voids, but I cut them up and shaped them into legs. (they were only 20 inches so I had to make the legs 19 and 1/4 inch long)
I filled in some voids with epoxy, some I left open since I didn't think it would effect the integrity of the piece.(only holding a lamp)
I would have loved to make the entire piece out of walnut, but I don't have any real walnut scraps or leftovers.
I had some small pieces, under 12 inches, so I glued them all up for aprons.
Then I had some strips, glued them all up into a cutting board.
When I finished recutting the cutting board top, I realized I didn't have enough because I didn't take into account the kerf of the blade for recutting, so I had to add a small piece of sapele onto each side so I could make close to an 18 inch circle for the top. I was short all around, so it ended up 17 and 1/2 approx.

still need to put a few more coats of oil than then poly the top, but that's going to take many days of drying.

you can see the punky wood I used, Ill call it distressed. (the top is not attached yet, just put on for pic)

Nice project, that and the bandsaw reindeer kept me busy while I fought the head cold.

Love the table. That's quite a herd of reindeer you have there. I may have to try my hand at them this year. What size of blade did you use in the bandsaw?

1/4 inch, there were6 more, they were taken.(I had all that junk ribboned sapele, it cut real nice, so Ill be making a lot of bandsaw reindeer out of it next year)

So do you tape the side cut-offs back on? I was thinking I would just tack them with the air nailer through the part that gets cut off.

Cool little table, Allen. I also like the reindeer as well.

Very nice table Allen.

Nice job Allen.
Can't beat when some scraps turn into a table....

nice table allen,, great use of some left overs

Cool idea Allen! That really came out nice.

allen levine said:

Then I had to get yelled at by my wife and cousin for going into the damp cold garage while I was sick, but my wifes cousin was enough for me to risk going out and getting sicker, I needed a break from her. I needed it everyday. Im thinking of having her visit Brent, figuring hed get that table together during her visit.

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Send her my way, I have a project I need to get done.

pretty snazzy

You have been a busy man. Nice table. Norma would love how the knots look. She doesn't see them as a defect but as something that adds to the beauty of the project.

Darren Wright said:

So do you tape the side cut-offs back on? I was thinking I would just tack them with the air nailer through the part that gets cut off.

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I actually use some of the 100,000 nails I have in bins stashed away.
Its also the only time I remember using a hammer.

Nicely done on both table and reindeer.

the only thing I think I should have done differently, is when I glued up all the smalls to make those 8.25 inch curved aprons, I should have cut the curve into the edges, instead of the face grains. Seems where the curves hit the next piece, if the wood wasn't the exact color, which none of it was ofcourse, theres sort of a straight vertical line do to shading difference. Horizontal lines would have matched the top a bit more, in my opinion.

allen next time you want curved aprons use the laminated approach, slice your wood in 1/8" thick slices and then glue and bend around a form to get a smooth curve and do your joinery after it has dried.. allow for spring back though

that was my first option, but my challenge here was that I was using bits and pieces, scraps, of walnut that were destined to be firewood.
I didn't have a piece over 10 inches, and I needed 8.5 inch aprons, and I needed longer pieces than 10 inches to trim up and bend/laminate.
I had enough short pieces from ends of boards, or checked ends where I could cut out 2 or so inch wide pieces, up to 9 or so inches long.
I glued them all up, ran them over the jointer, then the planer to get nice square blocks.
I made a plywood template, traced it over the blocks, cut close to the outline on the bandsaw, then screwed the template back onto the precut blocks, used a 2 inch trim bit in the router, screwed the template with block to a larger flat piece of ply so it would be stable, screwed some more strips of ply onto that stable board the same height as the router and template so the router wouldn't tip while I was cutting out the curve.
I didn't have enough wood to make a tenon, so it was either biscuit or pocket screws, so I went with pocket screws. The back of the aprons are flat.

this entire build was planned around not using any boards I could hold for a future larger project.

down here, walnut is 6.80 a bf, for 4 inch width, goes up to 8 bucks a bf for 6 inch or wider here.
Add on 9 % tax, Id rather not waste walnut on pieces like this that are shoved in a corner.

Now Ill start a chair, Im thinking of using ash for the legs, save around 35 dollars on the legs alone.

its not that I cant afford to buy walnut, afterall, I jumped into this hobby head first and used all my mahogany I purchased for under5 bucks a bf not realizing its true value.
Im trying to limit my spending, as I think Ive spent enough on lumber to last me another year or so, just have to use what I got.

afterall, walnut and mahogany doesn't grow on trees......oh wait, yeah, but not around here.

Looks great Allen...maybe a trip to MI is in order this spring/summer to load up on some walnut??

funny you said that, Ive been discussing with my wife, since Im so bored lately, I might, might, if my eyes stay ok, take a road trip in late may across the country by myself, spend a few weeks on the road enjoying the sights, maybe visiting a few relatives. But I wouldn't be taking the truck. My wife said go for it.
My daughters college roommate's father retired last summer, and one day after he retired, he got on his motorcycle and drove cross country visiting friends and relatives. He planned on doing that his entire life, and he did it, with his wifes blessings.
Ive always wanted to take a long roadtrip, I just expected to do it with my wife, but she wont get the time and isn't ready to retire for many years.

Nice little table, Allen! You've given me an idea about using small pieces I've kept stashed for years. Also, I like your use of "flawed" wood as an accent.

larry merlau said:

allen next time you want curved aprons use the laminated approach, slice your wood in 1/8" thick slices and then glue and bend around a form to get a smooth curve and do your joinery after it has dried.. allow for spring back though

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Using plastic resin glue for a lamination helps eliminate spring-back. In fact, I don't recall any spring-back on anything I've done with it, unlike using yellow or white glue.