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Drinks table - Part I |
This project is ideally suited for a woodworker who likes to sit
outside during the summer, soaking up the sun with a good cold drink....well,
think that counts most of us in.
The project is made very cheaply, I managed to squeese mine from a
softwood 2x4, and a few scraps of mahogany. End result is a good looking,
solidly built table!
This project was inspired by Charley Fell from UKW. Big thankyou to
him as he came up with the original design with this great little table.
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So here is the original table, made by my mate Charley Fell.
He made his a while ago, the table was built from mahogany and
was designed to sit beside a garden bench or deck chair to place
drinks, a radio or whatever takes your fancy!
I really like this design, it looks great on the patio, although
with all of these mortise and tenon joints to cut, i'd better
get busy!
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So I started off by working out the best height for my table,
bearing in mind where it was going to sit. I suggest you get
a tape measure and work this out before you put metal to wood.
Exact measurements are not always important when your building
a piece of furniture, i'd much rather make my own piece than
copy somebodys plan exactly. However if you look at the plans
section, a PDF plan might soon become available for this project.
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As you can see, I plan to get much of this project from this
single 1.8m 2x4. This may look like pretty rough wood, but it
will be sawn and planed into perfectly workable timber.
A load of this was given to me shortly after a neighbour had
finished having an extension built. Being me, I couldnt reject
it, just incase it would be useful some day!
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I am cutting this timber in half exactly. This will
make it much more easy to handle when i'm inside the workshop. |
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The bulk of this project is made from fairly thin wood, about
35mm thick, by 50mm wide. I am on the tablesaw, ripping the
wood to thickness.
I will be able to draw 3 parts from each half of my 2x4.
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And as if by magic, here are the 4 parts which will form my
leg assemblys, all the vertical and horizontal pieces.
It is still in a rough state, and I will fix this by taking
it over to the planer. This will help true the wood to 90 degrees,
and also smooth and clean the surface.
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After planing the wood, I can cut my parts to length, here
I am cutting the 4 stretchers. 2 will rest on the floor (the
feet), and 2 will support the top. They will be seperated with
4 vertical legs aswell.
Sounds confusing, but it will become clear later.
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This is one of the feet. I have shaded an area of the wood
I am going to remove.
This will allow water to pass under the timber. Ideally I would
use a hardwood to make this table from, however that is not
currently possible.
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On the top of the feet, I am marking out for 2 mortises. The
feet will be pretty much mirrored by the 2 top supports, by
the fact that they will have identical mortises to accept the
2 legs.
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I am using a marking gauge here to complete the mortise marking
out.
The marking gauge is a fantastic traditionaltool, it can be
easily adjusted to suit the mark you are making. They have been
around for years, and still have an important use in the modern
workshop.
I would advise you buy a decent quality one, Marples is probably
a good make to buy.
Click here to goto next page (Part
II) >>>
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