This coffee table will complement a new sectional in my son, Kyle’s living room. We collaborated with a few rounds of emails until the design below was settled on. It features a 6/4 white ash top with breadboard ends and heavy duty steel hairpin legs. The top will receive a light brown stain and the legs will be primed and painted black. The overall dimensions are 17 1/2 H x 22 W x 36 L. The top approximates a Golden Rectangle, respecting the Golden Ratio of 1.618 : 1, which also can be observed in the way trees grow, in the proportions of both human and animal bodies, and in the frequency of rabbit births.
After preparing and sending eight varnished stain samples (actually seven stains and one no stain) on white ash, Kyle chose Minwax Puritan Pine to go with his existing wood furniture and floors. The coffee table top will be sealed with several coats of Minwax spar urethane in a satin gloss level.
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- Shop drawings – cover page
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- Shop drawings – exploded view
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- Shop drawings – details
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- Shop drawings – details
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- Been saving this 12″ wide by almost 10′ long 6/4 white ash board for a special project. Today’s the day!
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- Passes preliminary coffee table testing with flying colors!
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- The heavy duty 16″ tall hairpin legs are in the shop.
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- From hairpinlegs.com, these raw steel legs will be primed and painted black.
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- Cutting the ash board to rough lengths … glad I measured twice!
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- Project materials ready
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- Approximate layout of boards to form the coffee table top.
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- Jointing one face flat and one edge at 90 degrees.
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- Pencil marks to tell when the entire face has been planed.
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- Planing to clean up faces and make all boards a uniform thickness.
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- Jointed and planed, white ash cleans up beautifully.
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- Dry clamp up of jointed middle and end boards.
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- Generous application of Titebond III for edge gluing.
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- Since PVA glue is slippery until it cures, the small clamps keep the boards aligned at their interfaces.
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- A spring steel card scraper was used to clean up and level the glue joints.
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- The trickiest thing about using a card scraper is rolling over a proper cutting burr with a burnishing tool. I’m still perfecting this skill.
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- Glued up field is ready for squaring up and forming a centered 3/8 tenon on each end.
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- Trimming one end square with the track saw
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- Trimming square and to length on the table saw
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- Forming the end tenons with a dado blade on the table saw
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- Cleaning up the tenons with a block plane
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- Trimming the tenon sides with a back saw to allow for wood movement
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- Half-inch holes to allow for dropping the breadboard ends over the router bit to form the mortises in the breadboard ends
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- Router setup using a quarter inch solid carbide spiral upcutting bit (which is “upside down” in the router table so it will pull chips out of the mortise
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- Forming the mortises with shallow passes on both sides to assure it is centered
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- Final position of router bit for cutting 1 1/4 inch deep mortises in the breadboard ends
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- Dry fit showing the (way bigger than needed) clearance to allow for wood movement of the top inside the breadboard end
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- Transferring pilot holes from the breadboard ends to the main field of the top
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- Drilling the quarter inch clearance hole in the center of the half inch counter bores
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- Drill press setup for drilling the breadboard ends in multiple steps
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- Breadboard ends are only glued in the center three or four inches, and the holes for the outer two screws are elongated to allow for wood movement
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- Driving the 3 1/2 long center screw through the breadboard end into the edge of the top
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- Red oak dowels to plug the counterbores in the breadboard ends
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- The very porous exposed end grain of the red oak dowels will pick up more stain and be darker than the surrounding wood
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- White ash coupons for stain samples
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- Drilling pilot holes for hairpin leg positions on the bottom of the top
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- A Vix self-centering bit accurately transfers the hole centers from the leg plates to the underside of the top
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- Wiping the raw steel hairpin legs with denatured alcohol
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- Satin Dark Walnut for the steel hairpin legs
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- First step in painting the hairpin legs is mounting surface
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- Three Minwax stains and Pre-Stain Conditioner to make six stain samples
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- R to L: Special Walnut, Puritan Pine, and Natural
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- Special Walnut, conditioned in the front
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- Puritan Pine, conditioned in the front
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- Natural, conditioned in the front
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- Hairpin legs ready for paint
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- Hairpin legs with three coats of Rustoleum Dark Walnut (Satin)
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- Filling a small instance of insect damage in the top surface of the table
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- Added a darker heartwood sample of Special Walnut (left, closest to can)
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- Sanding white ash plaques from the project board for stain samples
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- Four plaques, eight sides, ready for sample stains
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- Lighter Minwax stains
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- No stain, and darker Minwax stains
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- Hairpin legs temporarily attached to top
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- Final sanding of top with 120, 150, 220 and 320 grit
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- Marietta Wood Works brand on bottom of top, with white ash test piece
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- Brand after final sanding
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- Puritan Pine stain being applied to bottom
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- Bottom stained, wiped and dry
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- Two applications of Minwax Puritan Pine stain on top and sides (still wet here)
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- Top stained, wiped and dry
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- Bottom ready for first coat of Minwax spar urethane, satin gloss level
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- First coat of spar urethane, (still wet here)
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- Packed up and ready for shipping
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- Coffee table Looking great in Kyle’s living room, alongside the beautiful handmade quilt from Linda!
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- Beautiful living room, Kyle!