My First Piece of Furniture

[Jerry Moore]

Hello,

I have finally finished a coffee table project. This was my first piece of furniture. I worked on a project I found in WoodCraft magazine Vol. 4, No. 20 dated Dec/Jan 08. I bought the wood in March of 08 from a supplier I found here and finally finished it on November 20th.

I learned a ton of stuff here on SMC and would like to thank all the wonderful people here that have provided such great information.

This project allowed me to try many new things. I learned a lot about what to do and about what not to do. I even gave the wood gods a portion of my pinky for this project .

This was finished using the finish article in the same magazine, Homestead mission brown stain and 6 coats of waterlox. I buffed on a coat of wax as well.

Thanks for looking and please feel free to offer any thoughts or suggestions on the table.

Thank you,

Jerry Moore

[John Keeton]

A superior job, I would say!! Beautiful top, good grain match, nice style, and dovetail drawers! You deserve an "atta boy" for that one.

I am concerned, however, regarding your apparent need to offer a flesh and blood sacrifice with each piece of furniture. Won't be long until you are building furniture with nubs!! This part of the story deserves a bit more detail..... What happened??

[Matt Evans]

I like it. Just the picture angle, I am sure, but the drawers look pretty shallow from here. How deep are they?

[Von Bickley]

Great wood, great finish and great furniture. That is one of my favorite styles and you did a great job with it.

[Jerry Moore]

Thanks for all the nice replys. The drawers are 2"" deep. They are 20x15 so they do appear to be shallow.

As for the sacrifice of flesh. I was working late at night in my shop. I was running boards for the top through my jointer. I was running an edge at the time. I was using my left hand to keep the board pressed against the fence as I passed it over. I had done this numerous times. But my pinky dipped and the jointer grabbed my pinky, pealed back the flesh and ground off almost all of the top joint.

It is a strange feeling to see part of your self missing. The shock of it kept the pain at bay long enough for me to wake my wife and let her know that I was heading to the hospital. I went back to my shop to make sure everthing was unpluged. You know, you have be to save. So When all was said and done, they were able to pull the lump of flesh back togeather, I still have most of my nail and, I can finally start to feel the end of it.

Leason learned was that not only do I use a push block and/or push stick with my tablesaw, I now use it with my jointer as well. I did not give it the same respect I give my tablesaw, now I do. I got back on the tool two weeks later and kept going from there.

Thanks again,

Jerry Moore

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jerry,

Excellent first piece of furniture!

Glad you weren't more seriously injured!

[Michael Schwartz]

very very nice work, start working on a second

[gary Zimmel]

Nice work on the table Jerry.

Dovetailed drawers, and some very nice looking grain.
Doesn't get any better than that.

[Jerome Hanby]

Sweet!

Great job, you should be proud!

[Ben Martin]

Beautiful table, great job! Sure doesn't look like you first project!

[John Thompson]

Very nice job Jerry. I like the mission brown from Homestead you used. I come up with a similar colar using Bartley honey. I also like the twist you added by not following the straight and narrow on Mission with that arched bottom stretcher on each end. I personally like taking chances and go off the beaten path and this one turned out well IMO.

Well done and I can tell you for fact that your piece doesn't look like a 'first time" attempt. My first time (end tables) in 1972 looks like the results from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in comparison and that's a fact!

[keith ouellette]

great job. Love the finish and the shallow drawers. good clean look.