The Console Table is Done!
Wednesday, May 5th, 2004Well, here it is! I spent 30 hours or so building a console table for the entry area. Erin had seen a few at Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. They were overpriced and underbeautiful and I decided I could make one myself. First off, I had to design the thing, and 4 hours later I had a pretty good design mocked up in a CAD program. I had thought about it a lot and already knew what it was going to look like, but this just made me think about overall proportions. It also gave me something to estimate how much material I needed to buy. I ended up getting almost exactly the right amount.
I decided to build in mahogany and hard maple. I was going to go the maple/cherry route, but the cherry at the lumberyard was plainsawn and the grain didn’t look very good. In retrospect I’m very glad that I went with mahogany. It’s a wonderful wood with beautiful grain and the pieces I got look more quartersawn than plainsawn. Mahogany machines nicely and finishes like a dream. Here’s the raw lumber (you can click any of these pictures for a closeup view):
And here’s the mahogany after it was rough cut into leg pieces:
My friend Mark let me use his planer and jointer to get the stock to final rough dimension:
At this point I was quite concerned as the mahogany top did not color match the mahogany legs. The legs have a beautiful reddish-brown color and the top (which came from a separate board) had a sort of salmon-pink color. Ultimately I was able to match the colors with some work.
Once the stock was cut to length I machined the blanks for the apron from the hard maple, cut the tenons, cut the curved corner details, and sanded the curve with a sanding drum in my drill press. Here are the finished apron pieces:
At this point most of the apron work was completed. I still had to knock off the sharp edges and sand it up to 220 in preparation for finishing. Very little was done to the hard maple as I wanted a nice contrast with the dark mahogany.
Next I turned my attention to the top. After jointing the edges of the top boards I glued them together, then I ripped a 2″ wide strip from the oversized top, cut a mortise in this strip with my (wonderful!) new router table, cut a corresponding tenon on the ends of the top, and glued these breadboard ends onto the top:
that grain is sure beautiful…
After this was done I again used my router table and a tiny 1/4″ straight-cutting bit to run a very tiny dado where the breadboard ends met the field of the top. I bought some inlay from woodcraft and glued it into the dado. Since the wood in the field of the top (everything but the breadboard ends) expands across the width of the table, and since the breadboard ends do NOT expand in that dimension (they exist to keep the top from warping as it expands), I had to glue the 1/4″ wide inlay JUST to the part of the groove on the breadboard end side… which means that I only had a 1/8″ glue surface to attach the inlay. I had to carefully apply the glue with a toothpick all along the 16″ width of the table!
Once the top was all sanded down the inlay was perfectly flush and, since the groove is so accurate, there is no gap in the joint-even though the joint will “slide” by up to 1/16″ or so as the field flexes throughout the year- neat!
The Finish:
Since I was staining the mahogany, but not the maple, I decided to stain the pieces separately. I started by putting a coat of grain filler on all the mahogany. Since it was my first time using grain filler, I didn’t realize that you should work in small segments. I coated the whole top of the table at once and let it dry for a few minutes. When I went to wipe it off with a squeegee and it was as hard as rock. Whoops. Spent a few hours scrubbing it off with lots of elbow grease. In the end, I had a nice grain-filled top and legs. Waited a day and then sanded the small bit of grain-filler haze that was still on the surfaces. Next, I sanded (and sanded, and sanded, and sanded) the whole thing up to 220 grit. I wetted the top with distilled water, let dry, and sanded the grain that was raised. Did this three times and got a beautiful smooth surface. Then I broke out the stain.
I tested some light brown mahogany Solar-Lux Dye Stain on the underside of the table first, but it ended up way too red and blotchy-looking:
However, using the dye I got a very nice, very slightly red color on the legs, so I went ahead and dyed these. I built a small jig that allowed me to finish all four sides and the top at the same time. Incidentally, there is a very slight chamfer at the top of each leg (cut on the tablesaw), and each leg was also slightly tapered on the tablesaw with a homemade jig:
As the legs were drying, I tested a small bit of mahogany gel-stain on the top and got a nice deep brown. This color very closely matched the dye-stained legs so I decided to use several coats of gel-stain on the top to achieve a consistent color. Here’s the top after three coats:
Next came the assembly. First I glued up the short ends:
Then I glued up the whole piece (forgot to take a picture here).
After the whole assembly had dried for a day or so I gave the whole thing a coat of Tried and True varnish. This stuff is great: wipe on/let sit for an hour/wipe off. Repeat. It doesn’t smell and, best of all, is completely non-toxic. It’s a bit expensive at $18/pint, but it goes a long way. Over the next five days I put four coats of varnish on and didn’t even use half a pint!
Here’s the finished table in place under the G. Harvey next to the front door:
Here’s a leg detail view:
Here’s a detail of the inlay and breadboard end:
And here’s a nice shot of the table at night with the moon coming through the window:
I had a great time building this. It was my first attempt at an original design, my first time to work with mahogany, my first use of grain filler, first time using inlay, and first time making breadboard ends. Heck, just about everything involved in building the table was a first-time attempt. I’m very happy with the way it turned out, I learned a lot during its construction, and I’m looking forward to the next piece!