6 Tables

[Paul Chapman]

Nice work, Ed.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Mattty]

Lovely job Ed.
You really have an eye for the balance and proportion of a piece of furniture and the use of recycled timber makes it even better. Well done and thanks for posting the pictures.

 

[Doug B]

Excellent all round Ed, well done.

 

[p111dom]

Very nice but why 6? Was it for a shop or cafe or something?

 

[Mr Ed]

Very nice but why 6? Was it for a shop or cafe or something?

No, 3 for my living room, 2 for my family room/study and 1 for the friend who gave me the timber.

Cheers, Ed

 

[Mr Ed]

Best of all, recycled wood

Here's what I started with. 300mm wide, 2 out of about 20 or so were full width boards, the rest made up of about 2 or 3 pieces. I ripped them all back to the consituent parts, removing the plywood spline and then rejoined them as necessary. I passed them through my thicknesser removing about 1mm either side to get the finish off. As they were QS they were pretty flat anyway.

I used the same stuff in the panels of the oak chest I posted a few weeks ago. The rails and tops came out of this, the legs are from some 2" I had from elsewhere.

Quite a bit of work to make useable timber, but worth it for free wood.
If you ever get offered old library shelves my advice is to say yes.

Cheers, Ed

 

[woodchip]

I am green with envy, both with your skill and your wood supply!

Lovely proportions and great design.

 

[Mr Ed]

I am green with envy, both with your skill and your wood supply!

They're quite simple really. Small tables are amongst the first projects I ever made and are good projects to develop skills on. I've now made loads of them in various forms and figured out what works and what doesn't.

As for the wood supply, its nearly all gone. Unless of course I can persuade Richard to part with some more when I hand over his table...

Cheers, Ed

 

[Karl]

Ed - I think you got a good deal - all that timber for one of those tables.

Certainly beats having to pay for the stuff :lol:

Cheers

Karl

 

[Mr Ed]

Ed - I think you got a good deal - all that timber for one of those tables.

Definitely and he's got more...what broke my heart when I collected it is that he's used some to replace floorboards (under carpet) in his house and I suspect burned a fair bit (he was a bit coy about that part as he knew it was a 'bad thing').

Its not that nice to work with having had 40+ years in a heated environment - its over dry so a bit splintery and brittle. Mind you, what do you expect for nothing?

Cheers, Ed

 

[Tierney]

Lovely work, perfect proportions and the bead looks good.

DT

 

[DavidE]

Hi Ed,

These look fantastic – I like how the edges are very crisp too. I am always reluctant to leave edges that “sharp” as I think they are easier to damage and chip bits off. I’m I being overly cautious/soft?

Cheers
David

 

[woodbloke]

Hi Ed,

These look fantastic – I like how the edges are very crisp too. I am always reluctant to leave edges that “sharp” as I think they are easier to damage and chip bits off. I’m I being overly cautious/soft?

Cheers
David

Edges left sharp don't chip but they can get more easily dented. I once worked for a maker that insisted that all sharp edges were softened with one pass of a bit of very worn 320g paper - Rob

 

[PaulO]

I have some oak that my dad gave me, it had been lying in his barn for years, and looked pretty scrappy.

I cut the end of one piece to make a stake to hold our front gate open. I was horrified when I realised it was QS brown oak. It got worse when I looked closer at the parts and noticed the face marks, and a date March 1962, written in my Grandfather's handwriting. He was a keen amateur furniture maker.

I didn't know my Grandfather when I was old enough to be interested in woodworking, which is a shame, if only because it meant all his old tools disappeared on his death. I have kept the remaining components and am waiting for the right project to use them on and do them justice. But I still feel a bit sad that I chopped one bit up for a stake. :?

 

[Mr Ed]

Hi Ed,

These look fantastic – I like how the edges are very crisp too. I am always reluctant to leave edges that “sharp” as I think they are easier to damage and chip bits off. I’m I being overly cautious/soft?

Cheers
David

In hardwoods they are not really vulnerable to damage, although they are more likely to cause damage (to small boys etc...) I very lightly break the sharp arrises with either worn Aluminium Oxide paper as Rob says, or sometimes with a small block planed chamfer depending on the look I want.

If you go down the Norm route of putting a 1/4" roundover on everything your furniture starts to get a very woolly and imprecise look about it.

Cheers, Ed

 

[Karl]

Interesting point Ed. I'm working on the design of a coffee table/DVD storage unit at the moment. The top will be joined to the sides with through dovetails, but with 4 young kids in the house i've been a little worried about the corners and edges. A small block plane chamfer was the only thing I could think of, but I doubt that'd soften the blow too much if one were to fall on a corner/edge.

Cheers

Karl

 

[Mr Ed]

Yes, although if I think about it the greatest damage incurred to date to my son George was on the corner of the Ikea (sorry rude word) dining table, which has a round-over on all edges. He would have got the same black eye from running into the corner of any dining table, regardless of edge treatment.

The world is full of sharp edges and hard points so they'll come into contact with them sooner or later.

Cheers, Ed

 

[Karl]

The world is full of sharp edges and hard points so they'll come into contact with them sooner or later.

Cheers, Ed

True. We were on holiday in Mallorca when the boys were 2. James pushed Ben, who fell face first onto the edge of a raised concrete patio. Hit his forehead on the corner - 1" wide cut straight through to his skull. That wasn't a pretty sight...... blood everywhere. Followed by a trip to Manacor hospital for stitches.

Don't think an Oak coffee table would have the same impact :lol:

Cheers

Karl

 

[motownmartin]

These tables are truly excellent Ed, a couple are on my list of jobs for her indoors

 

[DavidE]

Hi Rob and Ed,

Thanks for your replies - I will try something a bit more crisp next time. I usually put a 3mm radius on or use the paper trick. I was never worrried about injuring people :wink: more the loss of wood!

Cheers, David

Hi Ed,

These look fantastic – I like how the edges are very crisp too. I am always reluctant to leave edges that “sharp” as I think they are easier to damage and chip bits off. I’m I being overly cautious/soft?

Cheers
David

In hardwoods they are not really vulnerable to damage, although they are more likely to cause damage (to small boys etc...) I very lightly break the sharp arrises with either worn Aluminium Oxide paper as Rob says, or sometimes with a small block planed chamfer depending on the look I want.

If you go down the Norm route of putting a 1/4" roundover on everything your furniture starts to get a very woolly and imprecise look about it.

Cheers, Ed