O Christmas Table

Well, after our carved alien fruit, we spent the rest of the semester designing and creating a table. We were limited in size (our teacher didn't want us going much beyond 3 feet in any direction) so I wound up making an end table. I would have loved to have made a retro kitchen table, a coffee table that could display things, or carve a carousel table, but I wound up making this one. Having wood and metals in the same semester was a challenge- both are time consuming and so I opted to do a table I could finish more easily without living in the wood classroom.

Even so, I got rushed at the end. I would always see wood students racing to finish their projects at the end of the semester and would say "that won't be me". Ha! It was me! I missed a couple days of school due to snow and that threw me off. It was also a major pain to fight to use the equipment, everyone seemed to need the table saw. Everything takes twice as long as you think it will.

In all, I liked the process, just wish I could have enjoyed it a bit better without being so rushed. I also didn't like the nasty rash I got from dealing with wood- I was so itchy I wanted to claw my arms off! I don't know if I was allergic to poplar or to sawdust or possibly walnut- I read recently that people can have allergic reactions to it. I didn't use walnut, but other people did and I was exposed to everyone's dust.

You had to have at least one mortise and tenon joint (which are a pain to cut) and mine had eight to attach the rails to the legs, so it fit the bill. I cut the rail shapes on a bandsaw and then had to file and sand those curves- also a pain! Sanding thru like 4 grits of sandpaper was a pain too- my hands went numb from the electric sander!

I had decided from the beginning to paint my table, so I opted to make it out of inexpensive poplar rather then maple or cherry or something. It doesn't look too bad here after I sanded the heck out of it, but it has a yellow or green cast to it and there's streaks of reddish purple in it too. Other woods are prettier!

Here you can see a purple streak:

I routed the table top and shaped the legs, too:

Thought I'd show what other people did in my class, you had a good deal of freedom:

My friend Angie did this, a lot of joinery on each end. There's at least 32 mortise and tenon joints in this!

This was a well made table but it's not for clutsy people like me- I'd smack into the pointy tabletop!

There was also the option of making a bench- it's pretty much like making a table but your table legs stick up to form the armrests.

One girl painted this top:

One guy did these three table that share a leg- you draw at the tallest one (the top lifts up) and can set your supplies next to you on the smaller table. It takes up a good chunk of space, though.

Someone from the other class did an armadillo table:

 One girl did this cat desk (cat heads on the bottom, fat tail at the top):

One girl did this table complete with "legs"...does it need to go to the bathroom?

 A girl from the other class did this mustache table. I liked it but wasn't crazy about the irregular tabletop.



My table isn't complete, you just had to have one coat of something on it for crit so all it has on it now is black milk paint. It needs another coat or two and then a coat of satin finish sealer. But that's not happening til after Christmas!

You know what I really want to make? Shaped cutting boards! I know how to glue up boards and clamp them and shape them with a bandsaw and a router...now I need all that equipment in my dream art studio!