The top Panels

So it comes time to look into adding the top panels. These are made out of cut to length panes of 90x12mm oak. As they are a lot thicker and oak I decided only 1 middle support was necessary.

With only 1 support though as expected these were a big wobbly but this shows off how they will look in the end.

Once the side support are on though it all looks a lot straighter.

The side mounts run the length of the top this time.

The Middle table top?

Well now it was time to start thinking about the table tops. The first one (the one in the middle) was going to be a bit of a cheat and just made out of MDF. Not my first choice but as no-one was really going to see it and it will all be covered in varnish anyway I decided this was the way

It is supported with 2 beams going across it from front to back. I decided on 2 supports as it needed it with the 6mm MDF I chose.

I also added some end supports but these were much smaller as they were not really weight bearing. The good thing was I had some spare pine to use. The screws are also self tapping which made it much easier to attach in place.

Lastly I need some supports around the corners as there was not enough there. These will be removed when the gluing process has been completed. The whole middle section will be glued in place. The supports are attached temporarily with a good quality double sided tape. This is the same tape used for all my router tracing and hangs on really well.

The top before it is glued in place later looks like this

Once it is all glued up and in place I will post more pictures.

Starting the coffee Table

Coffee Table Frame

Alright decided it was finally time to get the coffee table started now that all the wood purchasing was done. To start with the legs had to come together and this meant getting out the Kreg jig. The basic deisgn was going to be a 3 level table with 2 table tops on top of some drawers below so the sides were the first to be put together and this is how the basic look would be.

This frame will form 1 side. The coffee table itself will be about 1200 x 600 mm give or take with sliding drawers at the bottom section of this frame.

The following picture is from the other side showing it with out the Kreg holes which will be on the inside and invisible to the outside unless you are looking hard for them.

Once this was done the next step was to put in the cross beams on the front and back to make up the basic frame like this.

That was the end of another day and there will be more to follow.

Chest of Drawers

Testing a few things out first.

A few weeks back I decided to get back into making some furniture for around the house. Kreg has been a really good company to get tools from as not only my old trusty router bench but also my new pocket jig have come from Kreg.

As a test of some new tools I decided to make a little chest of drawers. Most of the framework was made with the pocket hole jig and I have attached some photos below. This was really a test for the bigger project of making a full sized oak coffee table and work on this has begun. See future posts for updates.

As you can see it has basic sliding drawers and a frame built from the Kreg pocket jig. To make it cheaper it is just pine with some MDF on the sides and the top. I wanted to test out being able to inset the sides and also having a completely flat top.

I will probably paint it up at some stage also but no rush yet.