Larch coffee table

[guineafowl21]

This was inspired by the Paul Sellers chairside table, ie arched aprons and swept-up legs.

Top attached with turnbuttons, which are essential with this air-dried timber I milled with the chainsaw a year or so ago. The design has kept a beech table I made 6 months ago reasonably stable going from 12% to 5.7% moisture, in a log burner-heated room.

I make the buttons 2mm too thin and put the screw off-centre towards the apron, giving a canted clamping action.

Knots are hard to avoid, as you can see, without discarding most of the baulk. I graded the pieces, keeping the best for the legs, then the aprons, then the worst for the top, as it has no joinery or shaping. Edge-jointing it was a pain.

It’s due its last coat of button shellac, then polish. EDIT: Sorry, it looks like there was some dust on the camera lens.

All the tenons and arches, and the main leg curves, were made with the spindle moulder that Trevanion has been advising me on.

 

[woodbloke66]

I make the buttons 2mm too thin and put the screw off-centre towards the apron, giving a canted clamping action.

That's actually how it should be done but maybe 1mm instead of 2. Making them a fraction thinner pulls the table top down hard onto the frame - Rob

 

[guineafowl21]

Thanks! In the book, it says to saw down either side of a piece and snap out two turnbuttons. Try that with larch and you end up with a pile of interestingly shaped kindling. It also says put the screws centrally.

There will be a lot of movement in this piece, hence the 2mm clearance. I might need to nip the screws up in six months’ time.