Coffee Table

I'm pretty much finished with my new coffee table. Given that it will take a lot of abuse, I want to put several more layers of polyurethane on it before calling it "officially done", but it's pretty close. Since the shop (garage) is so dusty, I've been applying the finish up on the dining table, so I had to put off the finishing project, what with Thanksgiving and the whole "needing the dinner table for dinner" thing. Women!

I used cherry for the legs and aprons, and imbuya veneer over MDF for the table surface. The more observant of you will remember that these are the same woods I used in the speakers I made several months ago. What can I say -- I really like the way they look together. Plus I was relatively certain that I wasn't allergic to either of them, which was a big deal for a "first forray back into woodworking." Sawdust, in general, is an itchy thing which tends to dry out skin, so naturally my mind went into paranoid mode as I was cutting the parts, but fortunately I didn't break out or anything.

The legs are made from 2 glued up pieces of cherry, totalling about 2.75" square. The outside edge is rounded over, and the inside faces are tapered to some degree that I found pleasing to the eye. I was intending on making them as close to 2" square as I could, but once I got done planing the 8/4 stock, they just seemed a little bit too narrow, especially when I considered how they'd look with the taper. I think I made the right choice -- the thicker legs add a nice visual balance. The aprons are inset about a quarter of an inch, which I also think add a nice look.

One of the legs came out a little crooked during the glue-up (I need more clamps!), but not enough for a casual glance to notice. Overall, I'm pretty pleased. We may have to turn into a "coaster-using" household, though, which would pretty much be impossible to enforce with 50% of our friends and 66% of the household members.