A finished project to report
Folks,
This is my second large project (the first was a 6 ft tall bookcase). The console table was designed to serve as a table close to our front door. The design is my own- although obviously inspired by those who have gone before. I was trying to achieve a fairly clean look with enough strength to be functional, while maintaining a delicate feeling. The wood choice may surprise some here- it is entirely constructed from poplar from Lowe's and Home Depot. Not necessarily the most popular choice for some- but my wife found a very dramatic board and decided that she wanted me to make the most of the colors in the board. So, the finish is fairly minimal too- a Minwax tung oil mix, finished off with wax.
For those of you trying to get a feel for the scale here, the height is about 30", width a little longer than that, and depth is about 13 inches. Both the top and the shelf are edge jointed- with a lot of time spent on the top to get as good a grain match as possible- I was trying to make the natural color change in the wood flow as naturally as possible.
The drawer is quite wide, and about 5 inches deep. The entire front apron and drawer are taken from one piece, cut and reglued to try and appear as one and acting as a tonal transition between the dark top of the table and the lighter wood used in the lower portion- with the darker color at the top of the apron fading to blend with the lighter colors in the legs and the shelf. Again, I was trying to use what the wood suggested, rather than forcing it into my design.
The legs are jointed from two pieces to achieve the thickness I needed. I used my jointer to taper the legs below the shelf.
Construction is pretty much all mortise and tenon
The drawer is assembled using 1/2 blind dovetails cut on a PC jig- they would have been hand cut, but I got the jig as part of a deal on a new PC router I needed after my Craftsman router collapsed 1/2 way through the project!
I did not have a functioning planer when making this project, so all boards were finished to thickness with hand planes (I left the plane marks on the underside of the shelf and the top!). To bring out the finish as much as possible, I sanded to 320 grit before finishing.
I'd welcome comments, constructive criticism, design feedback and any questions! Thanks for reading this far- and thankyou to all of you for all the help you have unwittingly provided to this project!
regards
Mike
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