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Thread: Weird little end table made from scrap

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    San Jose, CA
    Posts
    288

    Weird little end table made from scrap

    Hey guys,
    It's not really great or fancy since it was intended to be assembled with my brother in law in one day... he came down to build a table and assumed we could find some wood locally (on a weekend... no lumber stores open). So, rather than call the project off, we just did what we could with scrap. I had some ipe lying around that we cut into 4 triangles to assemble into a 10.5"x10.5" surface, a 1/2" thick cut-off of bubinga that was about 8"x10" (we cut it down to square) that ended up being the lower shelf, some longer strips of ipe for legs, a trim piece of white oak around the ipe main surface for a little extra girth (to make it 12"x12"), and some wenge that we cut into an apron around the tops of the legs. And after all that, we decided we might as well make the whole project even weirder by using purpleheart plugs on the legs for the lower shelf. It's everything you'd imagine an overkill of random wood species would look like!

    Finish was done on the white oak by slurry-sanding danish oil into the ipe and white oak... it pore filled it with dark slurry, however, which ended up looking fine. Same technique was used on the wenge. All surfaces with the exception of the main "top" piece were finished with about 5 thin coats of shellac and rubbed with 0000 steel wool to give more of a satin finish. The top was finished with a cheap minwax tung oil "finish" for 2 coats, then given 2 top coats with arm-r-seal.

    Honestly, I like the top piece and the triangled-method of creating a surface the most out of this whole project. It was a fun learning experience that we don't always have to bookmatch or slipmatch wood to make a glue-up.

    My least favorite part is the legs, but we were too lazy to make a template with a bandsaw. Given the space constraints of where it was going, it works, though it's so-so.

    Enjoy!
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2. #2
    Interesting table, Matt. I don't use exotics, but you certainly put some to good use in this project.

  3. #3
    Nice little table!! I agree the it would look a little better with some curve to the legs, but sure beats throwing the scrap away.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    San Jose, CA
    Posts
    288
    I'm wondering if I can't just taper the legs or something still... oh well

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Snowflake, AZ
    Posts
    791
    Quote Originally Posted by Matt Armstrong View Post
    I'm wondering if I can't just taper the legs or something still... oh well
    Hey Matt, leave it alone. It's a sweet little gem of a table.
    Gene
    Gene
    Life is too short for cheap tools
    GH

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Atlanta , Ga.
    Posts
    3,970
    Looks great for a throw together of scrap Matt. And you might be able to still taper the legs if you just do the two inside faces of the legs. I don't think the existing are thich enough to get away with 4 sides tapered and leave enough to balance proprotion.

    A pure suggestion... consider a simple strecther at the top in lieu of the crown effect you have created. Sometimes simple is good IMO.

    Nice job...
    Sarge..

    Woodworkers' Guild of Georgia
    Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    LA & SC neither one is Cali
    Posts
    9,447
    Nice and interesting use of scraps!

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