Please critique this sofa table

[Yonak Hawkins]

Y'know, the legs do look like they're "hangin' out there" and the table seems prone to rack but I could use a lesson on stretchers. I know they've been used since the original table but, really, how much do they help ? It seems like the only real good they do is to add a 1/2" or, at most, a 3/4" deep tenon to each side to keep it from racking. Does that really do any good ? Now, if were a diagonal brace it would really help.

[Gene Davis]

Well, I looked at some Krenov pieces and decided to reshape the legs a little. They looked a little chunky before.

Previously, the legs were 1.75 squares at top and bottom, and a single curve was cut into the blank both ways, to give it the shape.

Now the legs are cut from the same blank size, are 1.75 square at bottom, but 1.5 square at top, and the curve is two tangent curves, meeting in tangency at the 1/3-down point as can be seen in the pic attached.

I gave the top stretchers a bit of rotation to better align to the outside faces of the legs. 2.5 degrees of rotation did it.

[Gene Davis]

So I decided I would go ahead with this, after seeing some more pics of tables with these features.

I'll get 10 bf each of 8/4 and 4/4 in whatever looks nice at the yard in the city tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll look at ash, then black walnut, then cherry. But first, I will look inside the store at the four aisles of exotics. Maybe something there will catch my eye.

Attached: a pic of something similar, and a pic of my model with the domino joinery shown.

[Gene Davis]

Went in yesterday and looked around. The yard was light in what I went to look for first, namely, cherry. I had decided to look at cherry first.

What was low in count was the 8/4 I wanted for the leg stock, but I found a billet in the selects rack inside that will do nicely, and for the rest, got some nice boards.

In Sketchup, I use a plugin called ghostscript which has an app for printing full 1X views in one of the ordinate directions of any part you choose, and you can print to any sized sheet your printer can handle, with registration marks if the part image goes past one sheet. The leg template fit on three letter sized sheets I printed with my $100 HP 4360. I align the sheets with the registration marks, tape them together, and have something I can affix to my thin template stock for cutting and shaping.

[Don Kondra]

You could have been done in a fraction of the time if you used the three nail trick

Cheers, Don

[Gene Davis]

I have done that more than once before, using a nice strip of clear white oak. This curve has multiple radii, though, and the strip does not do what I want.

[Don Kondra]

Ah, I should have been more clear.

In the article I linked to, there is a description of the method I referred to.

It is actually three nails And two straight edges.

One straight edge is placed parallel with the rise of the curve, the other is placed from the middle of the top of the curve (against the nail) to the bottom of the curve at one end (nails at both ends). Join the straight edges together with nails, staples, etc. at their intersection in the middle.

You place your pencil in the intersection of the straight edges and slide along the nails until the curve is drawn.

Clear as mud ?

Read the article, he, he...

Your method works but will not give you a true arc.

As you exert pressure on the middle to "bend" the strip and fit it on the nails, the ends of both sides remain mostly straight.

Another simple and accurate method is to attach thin wire to the ends of a strip of wood and treat it like a bow, ie., bow and arrow

By shortening the wire, the strip will bend outward in a much truer arc.

If using the bend a stick method, I like to make them about 1/4" thick by 3/4" wide.

Gives them a little meat and they don't shy away from the pencil when holding the stick down on a full size drawing and/or template material to mark the arc !

If I read your description right, your arc is not in the middle of the leg ?

If so, just make a longer template of the rise of the arc.

Or use a template of a true arc to mark whatever arc's you want.

Cheers, Don

[brian noel]

I like the design, try to use a good ratio or the golden mean in the placement of the offset stretcher on the side. I would like to see a little more curve to the front rail and it might be nice if the rail sat down about an inch from the top of the legs and the top stretchers that hold the table did as well giving a bit more space and accentuating the floating top and making the legs protrude up a bit. Black will look very modern, nice design.

[Yonak Hawkins]

This bump reminds me : are there any photos yet ?

[Gene Davis]

Unfinished. Getting a wiped-on satin clear, right now.

[Yonak Hawkins]

It's looking good, Gene, Have you decided to forego the long stretcher across the back ?

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Gene!