birch/walnut coffee table

allen levine

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12,340
Location
new york city burbs
small birch top, 22x36 (as requested)
top has been run through drum sander, routed edge, sanded orbital to 80grit.
Have not started legs or aprons(all walnut)

I will be shutting down the shop now until the day after xmas, as Im getting my infusion in 20 minutes, tomorrow morning early(cannot work after she shoots me up with antihistamines, that's a no-no), and finally moving my daughter in Saturday.
Sunday we are outta NY for a few days.
heres the birch top

getting the drum sander out and back in the shed is becoming a real time consuming chore. Takes me twice as much time to empty shed to get it out, then set it up, then it does to run a top through it, then empty the shed again and get it back in.
wish I had more square footage.
 

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That's a beautiful piece of work, Allen! :thumb:

My daughter is moving Saturday, too. Is there something going on we don't know about?

I feel your pain with your shed. I have to get everything out to get anything done, and it's winter, so that stuff is staying in the shed. Yesterday I went to HD for sandpaper, as my sandpaper is at the back of the shed, and I wasn't going to climb over everything to get to it.
 
Im not sure what happened, Im angry with myself.
Im not rushing, not under any time restraints, the glue up of the aprons and legs came out perfect, but then I noticed, and only then I noticed after I unclamped it, I mortised the wrong sides of 2 of the tapered legs, and that was a complete disaster.
thought about how to fix it, realized I cant take it apart, and there wasn't enough wood to even attempt a hand taper, so this morning, I cut it all apart, saved some of the apron for the new aprons, and will save whatever for something spinny in the future.

I made 40 tapered legs for pieces, I never made this error.
Guess Im getting dumber as I age.

new legs are tapered and mortised correctly this morning, going out shortly to make tenons on the aprons.

heres the old base, I put the top on to show my niece I was almost home, but then, eh......huge mistake. Wood grows on trees, but walnut in 8/4 is expensive.

this is the easiest simple table Ive made, don't know where I had the brain fart to mess it up.
 

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finished the new table base.
all is good again(much easier clamping up stuff with new jet clamps, pipe clamps are ok, but don't compare to jet clamps)
 

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not sure why Im getting such headaches from this table.
went out this morning to finish sand and apply first coat of oil.
took off the clamps, gave a solid pull as always to check joints, and boom, 2 joints failed.
OK, never had a joint fail, not in the cold, not in the heat, never. ever.
Ive been using a brush for glue, trying not to get it all over myself and not slathering it on the joints anymore and then spending hours cleaning it up.
I think the glue was underused, and perhaps not the newest glue.
Reglued 2 legs, oiled down the top, left the heater on in there will shut it down shortly.
 
ready for pickup.

top-, sanded to 220,(it was a reused top and the original took a lot of abuse so I tried to get every ding and groove mark out)3 coats waterlox original, sanded between each coat(not necessary but I do it) with fine sanding pad.
One coat waterlox gloss, sanded with extra fine sanding pad.
One coat waterlox gloss cut 20% with MS to thin out so I rubbed on a coat(probably not worth it or necessary), extra fine sanding pad, then soapy water and 400 wet/dry sand paper. Waxed.
The top came out super smooth

legs and apron. 3 coats waterlox original, sanded after second and third coat. ONe coat brushed on waterlox gloss. wet sanded.
heres what it looks like, its small and simple, what she asked for, and a picture in my back room just to see how small it is.

(in the back room, that's a furniture knob I had to spin for my daughter, walnut, she couldn't find a knob that fell off, and I tried to match it up as close as possible to other 2 knobs, she keeps me busy)

tomorrow I go to her apartment to let cable guy in to set her up, then I start 2 small projects for her before my florida trip next week.
 

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