Live edge console table

[SimonStevensCanes]

This was my first foray into solid wood furniture making after tinkering with some pretty successful MDF projects.

My wife bought me a lovely piece of oak for my birthday (as you do) and I was inspired to use it as the top for a new sofa side table.

The overall design would be a classic, albeit small, shaker style console table.



Unfortunately it wasn’t quite wide enough for my purposes so I decided to add some additional material. I considered contrasting woods but I felt that may end up looking a bit busy so I settled on a solid colour, which of course lead me to resin. I can’t say I’m a fan of resign pours typically but I decided a solid strip of colour may look ok.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

This was my first time using resin, so the growbag tray was a great stress reliever. If the mold leaked, at least the workshop wouldn’t be covered in a solid layer of resin.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

After a nerve wracking night, re-entering the workshop in the morning I was greeted with.... no disaster .



Setting about demoulding, I discovered my first error in not using anything for mould release. Fortunately the epoxy was only bonded to the melamine in a few places, and other than some nervousness about breaking the piece, it didn’t take long to free it.


A quick pass through my thicknesser and an initial sanding to 240 grit revealed a half decent job .


Unfortunately this also revealed my second mistake in not vibrating the pour. Bubbles from the resin had clung to the wood resulting in thousands of pin holes where the resin meets the oak.

I also realised that I’d forgotten to fill the small voids through the the piece. Fortunately I discovered epoxy putty which was a much cleaner method.

A quick spritz with water gave me an indication of what the piece will look like after finish.





The top is done for now, time to move on to the base!

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

I’ll update this a bit later. For now, I’m going to go and make big wood into smaller wood.

 

[Lazurus]

Nice result for a first pour

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Thanks Lazarus. With no experience it’s difficult to know what a bad pour would look like (aside from a resin covered workbench ), so it’s nice to hear that I’ve somehow done well.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Over the summer I made shaker style cabinet doors using twisted poor quality pine timber from diy stores with predictable results.

I learned lessons from that unfortunate experience and this time spent some money with my local timber yard and picked up some quality oversized pine that I could be sure would be straight and true (even if I had to use the thicknesses to ensure that).

Some additional shop storage was needed in my tiny space, so 2x4s were used to add some shelving.


I also enquired about their hardwood scraps bin and after being advised that COVID restrictions meant I couldn’t enter the yard to look, I offered to buy the lot blind.


I think I got stung with some softwood judging by the weight of some of the pieces, but £50 for the lot doesn’t seem too bad. Certainly not as good a haul as I’ve had in the past though . I’m sure you’ll see some of this get put to good use in the future.

Next I rough (spoiler alert, very rough) cut my timber. To be fair, I wasn’t sure of proportions, or whether I was going to use mortise and tennons, so oversizing the rough cuts was entirely intentional.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

At this point I had to start making decisions about joinery. I decided that I wanted to experiment with loose mortises. Not being able to justify Festool money yet, I’d have to figure out dominoing with my trim router...


Some practice and trial and error with jigs showed enough promise for me to have some confidence that I could pull this off .

I do love this makita trim router btw, so capable and the plunge base is a great addition. Figuring out how to use it for loose mortices adds another string to its bow .

Now that’s decided, on to figuring out the proportions for the base...

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Evening all .

Back to making progress on the base, I clamped up my rough cut pieces to give me an idea of dimensions.


Obviously the sizing was well out, but it was valuable to give me an idea of proportions for the legs and stretchers.

I took a punt on proportions and shortened the depth of the stretchers, and slimmed and tapered the inside of the legs. I was pretty conservative, hoping to work up to the right sizing.

Again, I clamped up the base and stared at it for a while, digesting the proportion.


I decided that it mostly matched the image in my head, but the legs were still a little chunky. I increased the taper, figuring I could slim the square profile if that didn’t take sufficient weight off.


Clamping up once more showed that the proportions were bang on . I was pretty relieved as clamping up had got pretty tiresome by this point.

It was really nice to get a first look at what the finished product would look like .

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Joinery time!

I learned very quickly that my experimentation with cutting mortises with the router had proven it was doable, but hadn’t addressed how to use the router with small pieces. The router guide needed enough “meat” otherwise it just wouldn’t work. I managed to throw together a jig that with various spacing blocks did the job.

Everything mortised, I could attempt a dry fit. At which point I discovered that my mortises were too tight, a nice problem to have I suppose! Lengthening each mortise allowed for a successful dry fit.


..and now we sand!


...and finally glue up. Predictably my inexperience resulted in a panicked glue up that nearly went horribly wrong, with various joints refusing to seat properly. I broke out the big boy clamps and forced everything in to place.



I was really nervous about whether I had managed to get everything square as by the end of the glue up it had well and truly gone off.



Fortunately I lucked out and the end result was as good as I could possibly hope for. Nice tight joints, square and no warping .

On to paint and finish next, prepare for Dexter’s workshop!

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Id love to get some feedback. If anybody has comments on how I can improve, or if I’ve used the wrong terms, anything. I really love learning from other people’s experience, it’s so much quicker, easier and cheaper than learning from my own .

 

[Jameshow]

Good work!

Nice use of the router as a Yorkshire man's domino machine! Must try it sometime!

Cheers James

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Good work!

Nice use of the router as a Yorkshire man's domino machine! Must try it sometime!

Cheers James

ha thanks!

It’s a bit fiddly to ensure a good mortise but I do feel like perfecting the right technique/jigs will result in relatively quick use.

Im not going to go to the lengths of some of the home made mortisers that I’ve seen on YouTube, but I have some ideas for simples jigs that may work

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Next up I turned the workshop into a scene from dexter, and then it was time to spray.


I did a Cumquats job of protecting everything unfortunately. The sliding table for my AC216TS, my block plane and various other items are now covered in a very fine layer of emulsion .

I can’t say that my efforts at spraying was much better than my efforts at protecting the workshop. The finish is ok... better than previous attempts I guess, but I had to endure an embarassing amount of sanding between coats.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

I used an oil based gloss varnish (never again!) for the oak top. It took a good number of coats to get a nice consistent finish, sanding with 800 grit between.



Fortunately the varnish mostly filled the pin holes left from the resin pour resulting in a really decent finish. It also filled a few cracks that I’d not noticed when filling voids.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

Nothing left now but the grand(?) reveal...


I’m pretty delighted by how it’s turned out. The proportions are perfect, no joinery mistakes, and it looks great!

I wouldn’t make the same choice with the resin. Strips of wood to create a stripe pattern that complements the sap wood would have been much more elegant.

Maybe I’ll change it up at some point, it I don’t look forward to the idea of refinishing it!

 

[pcb1962]

That's a piece to be proud of.
Is your wife happy with it?

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

That's a piece to be proud of.
Is your wife happy with it?

Thank you, I am pretty proud of it. It was my first attempt at solid wood furniture making, and I don’t think I could have hoped for better really.

Yeah she loves it.

 

[thetyreman]

really good for a first piece, I think the legs and aprons could be a tad less chunky but otherwise really nice, hope you don't mind me saying so.

 

[SimonStevensCanes]

really good for a first piece, I think the legs and aprons could be a tad less chunky but otherwise really nice, hope you don't mind me saying so.

I don't mind at all, I'd rather have people tear my work to shreds than hear deafening silence, and constructive criticism is the best way of learning. I'm a software engineer in my day job, and we are quite used to giving and receiving pretty brutal feedback in the workplace.

I'm really happy with the proportions of the base, but reflecting on the relationship between the base and the top... the oak needs to be thicker, or the base needs to be slimmer. I do agree.

I recall looking at it when accessing the proportions and thinking "that'll do, best not to overdo it and end up with something horribly skinny". With this experience I'll be more comfortable attempting perfection in future.