This is part 4 of building an Arts & Crafts/Greene and Greene inspired, White Oak coffee table for our oldest son. The rest of the build is in previous posts.
With most of the build complete, I only have a couple things left to do, or so I thought!
Here’s a picture of a “hidden” drawer through the top rail of the side of the table. Yes, it would have been much easier to incorporate drawer guides/runners etc. earlier in the build, but this was a late addition to the build (that’s what I get for opening my mouth “Hey big boy, do you want a hidden drawer?”).
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The other late addition was a request from to add an inlaid, compass rose to the tabletop. A couple years ago I build a small chest for him with one of these inlaid in the top with his name, and I am really surprised how much he likes it.
Here’s an image from the Internet I enlarged to the appropriate size. He didn’t want me to include the cardinal directions and I unilaterally vetoed the outer circle – which made things a little simpler.
I approached this with trepidation; I am ready to be finished with this project, I’m not good at inlay and I don’t really enjoy it. On top of that, I was able to glue up the tabletop from a single board and I was happy with the planed surface prior to finishing.
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Finishing is my least favorite part of the project. I have a couple “go to” finishes that I’ve done a few times and they usually turn out okay. The finish schedule for this project, which I believe is based on some kind of Stickley finish, is way more complex than what I usually do; dye (TranTint in alcohol), followed by a seal coat, followed by a wipe on gel stain, followed by surface coats of varnish.
I’m pretty much a BOLO and shellac guy. This spells trouble for me on several counts; I’m colorblind, impatient and not artistic in the least. I should’ve known two colored steps was way out of my league. On top of that, I was trying to avoid unintentionally coloring the lighter colored inlay woods – you’re probably beginning to see the sweat pouring off my face.
I don’t really enjoy inlay, but the compass rose is pretty simple because it’s all straight lines – I have no idea how people do this with curved/rounded images.
I glued two sheets of commercial veneer together, attached the image with double-sided tape and chopped out the individual pieces with a sharp chisel. In retrospect, using thicker, shop sawn veneer would have saved me a lot of trouble, but I don’t really have the ability to do that with my cheesy bandsaw.
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Having done this design before, I was conscious of trying to avoid my previous mistakes by getting nice sharp corners in the inlay recess. For an old guy like me that means sharpened X-Acto knife, my sharpest chisels and magnifiers.
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It turned out okay. I am in absolutely no position to offer advice about inlay. FWIW, I suggest starting with a large triangles, leave the inlay pieces a little long towards the center of the design, and after their in, trim them to the intended shape, before putting in the smaller triangles. Finally, if you know a way to get a symmetrical design with identically sized triangles that really helps. The design I printed off based on my less than rudimentary Internet skills was not symmetrical – yikes! Makes for a lot of trial and error.
With most of the build complete, I only have a couple things left to do, or so I thought!
Here’s a picture of a “hidden” drawer through the top rail of the side of the table. Yes, it would have been much easier to incorporate drawer guides/runners etc. earlier in the build, but this was a late addition to the build (that’s what I get for opening my mouth “Hey big boy, do you want a hidden drawer?”).
1.jpg2.jpg
The other late addition was a request from to add an inlaid, compass rose to the tabletop. A couple years ago I build a small chest for him with one of these inlaid in the top with his name, and I am really surprised how much he likes it.
Here’s an image from the Internet I enlarged to the appropriate size. He didn’t want me to include the cardinal directions and I unilaterally vetoed the outer circle – which made things a little simpler.
I approached this with trepidation; I am ready to be finished with this project, I’m not good at inlay and I don’t really enjoy it. On top of that, I was able to glue up the tabletop from a single board and I was happy with the planed surface prior to finishing.
3.jpg5.jpg4.jpg
Finishing is my least favorite part of the project. I have a couple “go to” finishes that I’ve done a few times and they usually turn out okay. The finish schedule for this project, which I believe is based on some kind of Stickley finish, is way more complex than what I usually do; dye (TranTint in alcohol), followed by a seal coat, followed by a wipe on gel stain, followed by surface coats of varnish.
I’m pretty much a BOLO and shellac guy. This spells trouble for me on several counts; I’m colorblind, impatient and not artistic in the least. I should’ve known two colored steps was way out of my league. On top of that, I was trying to avoid unintentionally coloring the lighter colored inlay woods – you’re probably beginning to see the sweat pouring off my face.
I don’t really enjoy inlay, but the compass rose is pretty simple because it’s all straight lines – I have no idea how people do this with curved/rounded images.
I glued two sheets of commercial veneer together, attached the image with double-sided tape and chopped out the individual pieces with a sharp chisel. In retrospect, using thicker, shop sawn veneer would have saved me a lot of trouble, but I don’t really have the ability to do that with my cheesy bandsaw.
7.jpg8.jpg
Having done this design before, I was conscious of trying to avoid my previous mistakes by getting nice sharp corners in the inlay recess. For an old guy like me that means sharpened X-Acto knife, my sharpest chisels and magnifiers.
6.jpg
It turned out okay. I am in absolutely no position to offer advice about inlay. FWIW, I suggest starting with a large triangles, leave the inlay pieces a little long towards the center of the design, and after their in, trim them to the intended shape, before putting in the smaller triangles. Finally, if you know a way to get a symmetrical design with identically sized triangles that really helps. The design I printed off based on my less than rudimentary Internet skills was not symmetrical – yikes! Makes for a lot of trial and error.
A&C Coffee-Table Build Pics – Part 4-finishing disaster!
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