|
|
 |
|
|
| |
 |
|
|
by
Dave Boulton
photos by Donna Griffith
illustration by Len Churchill |
MISSION COFFEE TABLE |
This
coffee table combines contemporary design with
the classic materials and dimensions of Mission furniture |
Whether it
stands out as the centrepiece of a room or blends in as part
of a mix of styles throughout your home, this sturdy yet stately
Mission coffee table is sure to be an enduring part of your
furniture collection.
I built mine with quartersawn white oak—the traditional
choice for Mission furniture—but you could substitute
any type of wood that suits your tastes. The top and other visual
elements are 7/8" thick, although you could also use the
more common 3/4" thickness. Quartersawn oak is ideal because
of a grain feature called ray fleck.
Develop a Plan
Start by spreading out your lumber. Mark out each part with
chalk. If your quartersawn wood is rough (and most comes this
way), you’ll need to take a light pass with a thickness
planer or hand plane to get a good sense of the grain on each
board. Right now, remove just enough of the surface wood to
expose the grain. You’ll do final planing later. As you
work, keep your best boards for the tabletop since it will be
the most visible part of the project. When laying out the drawer
fronts for each level, use the same board, keeping the original
left-to-right orientation. Using this technique, the grain will
flow continuously from drawer to drawer.
 |
| Paying
attention to important details, such as the arrangement
of grain flow on the drawer fronts, elevates this
project’s craftsmanship. |
|
Rough-cut all of the stock a couple of inches longer than listed.
Note that the lengths in the materials list include tenons where
they’re needed. Further prepare your stock by jointing
and planing it; use the same machine settings for all components
to ensure consistent thickness. Mill some extra pieces in scrap
stock for each part so you have wood to use for critical machine
set-ups later.
Laminate the Legs
I made each leg from three pieces of wood to get the required
thickness without paying for extra-thick lumber. Shop-cut quartersawn
veneer glued on afterward hides the lamination lines. Using
veneer also lets you show the gorgeous ray fleck grain pattern
on all four sides of each leg.
Prepare your leg stock to the listed thickness, then glue the
leg pieces together. Make them a little more than the finished
width. It’s also a good idea to leave the blanks a little
long. With all four legs in hand, use a planer on the exact
same settings for each to bring them to the thickness listed.
Glue on 1/8"-thick shop-cut veneer strips last. I made
these a little wider than the final dimensions, just in case
something shifts a little while tightening the clamps. Be sure
to use cauls under the clamp heads to spread the pressure evenly.
When the legs are dry, trim and plane them to size. Trim one
end of your legs square, then cut them all to length using a
compound mitre saw equipped with a stop block.
Frames and Panels
All of the panels that make up the coffee table are 1/4"
thick, but, like me, you may not have wide enough stock. The
good news in this case is you can create something called bookmatched
grain pattern. This means that the wood grain fans out in a
mirror image from the central glue line. It’s a classic
Mission detail that is often overlooked in modern woodwork.
Saw your boards to a rough thickness of 3/8", marking bookmatched
pairs with chalk so you can reunite them later. Joint the mating
edges of the panels without gaps, then glue your panels. They
should be at least 1/2" longer and wider than the final
dimensions at this stage.
|
1. Develop a plan |
2. Frames and panels
3. Finishing up |
4. Drawer construction |
|
|
|
|
| FREE
NEWSLETTER |
Subscribe to our newsletter. Every few weeks, you'll get a behind-the-scenes
peek at the magazine, the web site and the folks who put it all together.
CLICK HERE |
|
|
PROJECTS
