# Latest and probably my best proejct



## Anonymous (9 May 2008)

Just finished my latest project

An American Cherry coffee table. The fielded drawer picture (last one) is the closest to real colours of the wood which contains blues, greens and browns in an awesome grain pattern  

Mrs T wanted me to go for a chunky feel with 4 drawers, and we played with a couple of Solid Edge drawings to get the right balance.

Thought I'd try a few new techniques, so the drawers have slips to avoid slots in drawer sides and fielded panel bottoms.

Of course, all of the DTs are handcut. Again, a new technique in that I bandsawed the drawer fronts in half and cut through DTs before re-gluing. I think this is going to be my preferred method rather than cutting half blind DTs which take me 6 times a as long.
The drawers are individually fitted to their holes and took as long as the rest of the table to make but they slide in and out absolutely beautifully  

There is a lot of hidden joinery in this one such as all the drawer supports are fitted using sliding dovetails.

The legs are built up from cherry planks with a 5mm thick veneer all round

Some piccys (they don't really do the wood justice)


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## Oryxdesign (9 May 2008)

Really nice work Tony.


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## halken (9 May 2008)

What a fantastic table Tony i love the style and the colour is perfect its something i can only aspire to WELL DONE!!!!!!


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## Lord Nibbo (9 May 2008)

Very nice, I do like chunky. =D>


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## TheDudester (9 May 2008)

Very nice, Tony. Congratulations on building it.

D


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## mr (9 May 2008)

Very nice - are those legs solid ??? 

Cheers Mike


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## Anonymous (9 May 2008)

mr":34firgw5 said:


> Very nice - are those legs solid ???
> 
> Cheers Mike



Two 2" thick pieces of cherry glued together with a bandsaw cut veneer on two sides to hide joins. The chamfer onthe leg completely hides the poit where veneer meets the 2" thick wood


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## Pete W (9 May 2008)

Thing of beauty, Tony - I like it a lot.

A nice blending of modern and traditional, and very pleasing proportions all round.

Could you explain the joinery of the shelf/legs connections?


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## BradNaylor (9 May 2008)

Very nice Tony.

You're getting quite good at this woodworking lark, aren't you?

:lol: 

Cheers
Dan


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## motownmartin (9 May 2008)

This is a great peice of furniture Tony and the way you have disguised the join on the leg is brill, I could have sworn it was on peice =D>


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## Smudger (9 May 2008)

Luvverly. :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## seaco (9 May 2008)

Loverly work, I really like that! nice colour too...


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## neilc (9 May 2008)

Very nice Tony well done.
Neil


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## bobscarle (10 May 2008)

Lovely table, Tony. I really do like cherry.

Bob


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## OPJ (10 May 2008)

Very nice work Tony - it possibly is your best to date!  

Could you go in to a little more detail on how you dovetailed those drawers? I'm not entirely sure of what you mean when you say you bandsawed the fronts in half before re-gluing?

Can you also tell me how the lower shelf is fixed? I'm thinking of making a small table with a shelf like this but I know there are several ways to do it.


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## Woodmagnet (10 May 2008)

Very, very, nice Tony :wink:


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## Anonymous (11 May 2008)

Pete W":2ql5xa1w said:


> Thing of beauty, Tony - I like it a lot.
> 
> A nice blending of modern and traditional, and very pleasing proportions all round.
> 
> Could you explain the joinery of the shelf/legs connections?



I looked at many ways of doing this (tenons that allow movement, rails to support it, biscuits, sliding dowles) and in the end decided that if I left the wood in the final environment for 2 months it was unliekly ot move much in a lounge, so I did this and then simply attached the shelf uising pocket hole screws :lol: 
(never used them on furniture before, so i'll wait and see how it works)


Cherry does not move much over seasons, it is quite stable, and I reckon the shelf will extend over its width by a couple of mm worst case which will not harm the M&T of at the top as it is 300mm away from the point of expansion


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## Anonymous (11 May 2008)

OPJ":1wn3ly4d said:


> Very nice work Tony - it possibly is your best to date!
> 
> Could you go in to a little more detail on how you dovetailed those drawers? I'm not entirely sure of what you mean when you say you bandsawed the fronts in half before re-gluing?
> 
> Can you also tell me how the lower shelf is fixed? I'm thinking of making a small table with a shelf like this but I know there are several ways to do it.




For the drawer fronts, I planed a piece of cherry to around 24mm thick and sized it to the final drawer front dimension.

I then ripped this on the bansdsaw, giving two 10mm pieces with identical grain pattern.

I took one of these pieces and cut it to exactly fit the hole for the drawer by removing around 10mm from each edge. This formed the rear piece.

I cut drawer sides and rear from Poplar, and hand-cut through dovetails on the smaller cheery (rear) front piece to make the drawer body. When the glue was dry, I hand planed the drawer to fit the opening smoothly.

I then planed a chamfer on the front piece before gluing and clamping it to the drawer assembly. The finished article looks like half-blind dovetails (all the front comes from a single piece of wood), but the work is around 1/4 of actually cutting them and fitting the drawer to the hole is so much easier this way 

the shelf is held with pocket hole screws. Cherry doesn't move a great deal and I am sure there will be no issues as upper the M&T is so far away from the shelf that the apparent deflection will be less than a degree, and only a tiny bending moment will appear there.


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## woodbloke (11 May 2008)

I've PM Tony the other day and asked if I could do a critique on this piece and he's happy for me to talk about it a little, so here's my *personal* view on the table.
The overall proportions of the table are good and there is no question that the timber used (American Cherry) is outstanding. I like the chunky legs and the way that they've been constructed. However, I feel that a 'solid' look as in Tony's table needs to have a much _cleaner_ line to it to look effective.
What do I mean be cleaner? The top rails in my view should be flush with the leg surface and not set back, similarly the drawer fronts ought to have been made flush with the rail so that the overall 'stepped' effect (leg to rail to drawer front) is no longer there.
The drawers have been well made but I question the use of handles on a piece like this. I think I would have made them with a simple spring operated 'push to open' thingie :? (don't know the correct terminology but I know Hafle sell them) I would have also made the rail and fronts from one piece of timber so that the grain flowed from rail to drawer front. 
The top looks good but I think it should have been made slightly thicker in keeping with the legs, but the thing that looks strange to me is the shelf, which in a piece like this ought not to have been included, or at least made much thicker if it had to be.
At the end of the jour, this is a personal view of Tony's table and as I have said many times on the forum, I am _more_ than happy for anyone to offer a constructive critique of anything that I produce.
The overriding outcome tho' is excellent as I understand, 'cos Tony has now accumulated a shed full of Brownie points from SWIMBO and can buy as much AC as he wants...can't be bad (better leave some for Waka tho' :lol: ) - Rob


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## Corset (11 May 2008)

Very nice table that. I think cherry is very difficult to photograph to give it justice so that the fact yours looks so good must mean its about 5x better in the flesh.
I think that the table is a nice clean modern design and would suit a lot of houses.
Owen


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## Anonymous (11 May 2008)

Thanks for the critique Rob, interesting points



woodbloke":3v1l0heq said:


> What do I mean be cleaner? The top rails in my view should be flush with the leg surface and not set back,



To be honest, i did consider this in the 3D CAD model (and varying the end overhangs), but the dining table I made a while ago has the top set in ths way, and as one can see both at the same time (dining room leads off from the lounge through double doors), I went for overhang so they were not too similar.




> similarly the drawer fronts ought to have been made flush with the rail so that the overall 'stepped' effect (leg to rail to drawer front) is no longer there.



I was in a quandry about this for ages. Most furniture I have made has flush drawer fronts - in the end, I left it to my wife to decide which type of drawer she wanted and was quite pleased that she went for this type as it gave me a chance to try new techniques :lol: 



> The drawers have been well made but I question the use of handles on a piece like this.



Interesting thought.
Again, struggled for ages and even asked a few opinios on type of handles to make. In the end, I decided ot buy some rather than making them. I didn't really consider having no handles as I don't like the look of drawers without handles on most pieces I have seen - no handles always reminds me of cheap B&Q/ikea kitchens/furniture for some reason. Not to my taste



> I would have also made the rail and fronts from one piece of timber so that the grain flowed from rail to drawer front.



Now this is something I would have always done with flush drawers (essential for that style in my opiniopn), but difficult with the type of drawer I made, and most of the rail is hidden too. I took the most figured and interesting wood and used that for the drawer fronts and when seen in real life, it actually works pretty well with the eye drawn to the figured drawer fornts and the rail sinking inot the background.

Also, the drawer fronts were made forom a single board on each side and the grain flows really nicely from drawer to drawer across the table.




> The top looks good but I think it should have been made slightly thicker in keeping with the legs,



Now that's below the belt :wink: :lol: :lol: 

I agree 100 %. The planks I could buy were 1 1/4" except for a single 2" plank. Should have shopped around  




> Tony has now accumulated a shed full of Brownie points from SWIMBO and can buy as much AC as he wants...can't be bad (better leave some for Waka tho' :lol: ) - Rob



Waka has so much cherry, that last time I was over, he gave me his offcuts :wink: :lol: 


Thanks for the input Rob, very much appreciated.


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## OPJ (11 May 2008)

Thanks for replying Tony. That's a very interesting way to tackle a lap dovetail joint. I can see what you mean about the time it must save, where you can easily remove the waste between pins with a coping saw and don't have to spend an hour chiseling it out! I suppose someone's reading this and thinking "you could use a router" - yes, but one slip and it's gone wrong!  

You also said in reply to Pete's post that you would expect the shelf to perhaps expand by as much as 2mm over time. It's not easy to tell from the photo', but did you make the notches a tight fit around the legs? I normally end up with a 1mm gap on mine - although it's never something I have planned for! :wink: 

Rob (or Tony), I really like the idea of cutting the drawer fronts and rail from the same length of timber. I've seen Norm do something similar with a small plunge saw, but how would you tackle it? I imagine a router would leave rounded corners and the kerf of a biscuit jointer would be too wide? Jigsaws aren't always that reliable either... Just interested to hear your thoughts.


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## motownmartin (11 May 2008)

OPJ":3kndssiu said:


> . I suppose someone's reading this and thinking "you could use a router".


Blimey, you must have special powers :lol:


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## woodbloke (11 May 2008)

Olly wrote:


> I really like the idea of cutting the drawer fronts and rail from the same length of timber



The technique is as follows. Select the piece to be the rail and make longer and wider than needed. Bandsaw off a top and lower piece all the way along the length, leaving the section in the middle slightly larger than the height of the drawer. Mark out and cut the drawer front from this piece leaving two pieces from the centre left over, then shoot in the remaining bits (a long top and lower piece and the two bits from the middle) and glue up again to form a single board with a rectangular hole in the middle which ought to be a fraction smaller than the last bit remaining which is the drawer front...if the cutting and planing has been done with care then there ought to be a good match with the timber grain pattern - Rob


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## OPJ (12 May 2008)

Thanks for the explanation Rob, really appreciate it.

Sounds a lot easier than trying to do the job with a plunge saw as well!


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## woodbloke (12 May 2008)

OPJ wrote:


> Sounds a lot easier than trying to do the job with a plunge saw as well!


The problem with using a plunge saw is the removal of the kerf material from the board. This will always mean that the drawer front is a lot smaller than the opening which is not what's needed...by slicing and re-gluing you obtain a drawer front that ought :roll: :wink: to be bigger than the opening and so can be shot in for a good fit. If you aren't careful enough tho' what will happen is that a mismatch in the grain will occur, 'specially in something with a very pronounced figure - Rob


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## BradNaylor (12 May 2008)

woodbloke":21v76isz said:


> The top rails in my view should be flush with the leg surface and not set back



I agree that aesthetically this can look good; however uneven shrinkage between the thick leg and the thinner rail will make it almost inevitable that a tiny 'step' will appear in time. Better in my view to design in a step in the first place.



woodbloke":21v76isz said:


> similarly the drawer fronts ought to have been made flush with the rail



I agree.



woodbloke":21v76isz said:


> The drawers have been well made but I question the use of handles on a piece like this. I think I would have made them with a simple spring operated 'push to open' thingie :? (don't know the correct terminology but I know Hafle sell them)



I use these http://www.omlfittings.co.uk/product.php?prodId=861
They work well and look great but it really is a matter of personal taste. I don't like the handles Tony has chosen, but it's not my table!

Cheers
Dan


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## woodbloke (12 May 2008)

Dan - interesting analysis, hadn't thought about the shrinkage angle...you may be right, depends on the MC of the timber and the environment that the piece sits in.
Handles are always a personal issue and had I decided to fit them I like you wouldn't have fitted this type - Rob


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## Anonymous (12 May 2008)

OPJ":20hsnkef said:


> You also said in reply to Pete's post that you would expect the shelf to perhaps expand by as much as 2mm over time. It's not easy to tell from the photo', but did you make the notches a tight fit around the legs? I normally end up with a 1mm gap on mine - although it's never something I have planned for! :wink:



The shelf is flush against the legs all round. Took a while but I cut it slightly oversized, then scribed it around the legs and finally planed the wood to size using a block rabbett plane


The handles were chosen by my wife really as they match a sort of sideboard thingy we have in the dining room. I made this table for my wife after promising for around 3 years  

At the end of the day, the handles look great when seen in life, but photos do not do it justice


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## lucky9cat (13 May 2008)

Tony, A great piece of furniture and a great thread! Thanks for sharing it with us. Any questions I had have been covered  It's funny, handles are such a personal thing and one has got to look at them in conjunction with the other furniture in the room as it can be the link between them. The next time I make drawers I hope to try a few of the techniques you've used there.

Cheers, Ted


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## motownmartin (13 May 2008)

I don't usually criticize peoples work or design as its all down to that persons personal taste, or the customers, in this case maybe Mrs Tony  . Having seen this piece in the flesh my eye was drawn to the striking character of the Cherry, also the drawer fronts looked superb with the heavy chamfer around the edge, personally I would have liked the same chamfer on the legs but like I said its personal.
If we all followed rules and guidelines then we wouldn't come up with anything unique and original.


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## DaveL (13 May 2008)

Well I was with Tony when he bought the timber for this, I bought a bit of purple heart.

Tony has made a very nice looking table, I love cherry and it has come out very well.

I on the other hand have made a small box and 2 and a half pairs of purple heart cuff links.  

Note to self, get out in the shop more. :roll:


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## woodyone (26 May 2008)

very nice, i like in particular the dovetails in the drawer they really stand out

well done


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