Sunday, November 01, 2015

Sofa Table

With the bath wall cabinet hung it is on to the next build. MsBubba wants a sofa table to hold her morning tea. There are a few constraints such as it shouldn't be more than about 200mm (8" for Bob) wide and needs to be somewhere longer than 2300mm (7.5') and 750mm (just under 30") tall.

The 200mm makes it tough to fit four legs and a apron and attaching the slab with turn buttons could be interesting as well. I thought about using "waterfall" legs for about 2 seconds and quickly decided there ain't no way no how. After some more butt scratching I decided to scale up one of my foot stools. It meets all the requirements: Strong, stable, an easy build, and not butt ugly.

Here is a bad sketch, the journal is on the slab I will use for the top. It's a nice hunk of Sapele, a beautiful wood when finished but a bear to plane. I will leave the slab as thick as I can, it should end up over 40mm thick.  Wood for the legs it is yet to be determined, I've some very pretty Honey Locus or I could use some of the leftover Beech from the last bench build.

Other than it being big and heavy to work it will be an easy build. Four, maybe five, dovetails on each end, two through mortises and a tenon on each end of the stretcher. A little shaping on the legs and it's done.  


We went to a friends house last night and there was a "white elephant" drawing. I ended up with a couple of new shop Mascots. 


It doesn't get much tackier.

As always, click 'em to big 'em.

ken


7 comments:

  1. Cool it is a sofa slash saw bench table :-)
    Thanks for thinking of me with your inches measurements LOL
    I really like those tacky shop ornaments, gave me some ideas...hummm

    Bob, who says tacky is in the eye of the beholder

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  2. Anonymous2:12 AM

    A 40mm slab will not sag under the weight of a thee cup. But there is the slab own weight and one day it might serve for a buffet with stack of plates. Or somebody might use it as a stool. What about a vertical board under the middle of the slab?
    Sylvain

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  3. Hi Ken,
    Does it make sense to have such a thick table top? As Sylvain already wrote, what's about about a board or batten below the slab? Along the length. And have you considered to do some staked legs without any aprons? Just an idea.
    Cheers,
    Stefan

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  4. Anonymous1:18 AM

    I was of course not suggesting a panel going down to the ground but something with a height around 100 mm. To be most efficient against saging, it must be glued under the slab. But maybe it is a false problem. So make some test with the slab onto two saw horses or simply onto two chairs.
    Please read tea instead of thee in my previous comment.
    Sylvain

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  5. Sylvan,

    The slab is Sapele, heavy, dense, and stiff. I've had it supported on each end with no sag. Something a little less stiff there would be no question for the need of a 'spine" to stiffen the top. I must say I haven't tried setting on it but I may before doing the joinery.

    ken

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  6. Stefan,

    The thickness is mostly a design decision though structure came into play once I decided to not use an apron. Staked legs could be unstable with as narrow a footprint as the table needs. I must say when I said the fatal words "Yes dear", I had not thought through the problems of a table this long and narrow. I'm sure the answer would have been the same if I had thought it through because she is SWMBO but.....

    ken

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  7. Bob,

    I'm here to please :-).

    ken

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