How to build a waterfall coffee table

G'day, welcome to Downunder Woodworks. In today's  video i'm going to show you how I turned this   into this. Just a quick word before we get into  the build video; if you're watching along as a non-subscriber then please consider becoming  a subscriber and helping me out with that. I had quite a bit more of this reclaimed  hardwood decking handrail left that I used   for the mitred coffee table build but it was  a bit deceiving because after going through   it and cutting out the good sections,  I only just had enough for this table.   I put the timber through the  usual milling process which   starts at the jointer to get one flat surface. It's almost impossible to see the grain  direction on old timber that looks like this   so after a first light pass you  can see me here 'stroking the cat'   to check if I was going in the right direction  which is with the grain and not against it. I was lucky with these boards because  they're all pretty straight with no   cupping or twisting so they didn't  need many passes to get a flat face. How good does that timber look! Unfortunately  I don't know what species it is,   maybe someone can tell me in the comments. Next, I milled a flat 90 degree edge on each  board to use as a reference against the table saw   fence to remove the bullnose profiles and to rip  them to their final width which was about 90mm. Then it was through the thicknesser to clean up   the opposite face and get each  board to their final thickness.   I took a bit of time to mix and match these  boards before deciding on a final layout. The boards were initially left much longer  than they needed to be so it was time to   trim them down very close to their final  length. Their final length will actually   be determined once they're glued up into  panels and have mitres cut on each end. Time to glue up the top which  went pretty smoothly actually. I added a few heavy duty cauls to the top just to   make sure it stayed nice and  flat and called it a night. The next day I took the panel out of the clamps,  cleaned up the glue squeeze out on the bench   and gave the top a quick sand with 60 grit paper   just to remove any squeeze out I might have missed  and get a better look at how it went together. Very happy. The sides or legs of the table were then  glued up exactly the same way as the top. Despite all my best efforts, the top was still  wanting to cup slightly so I was keeping it   in those cauls but I needed something less  obstructive so I could keep working on it.   I screwed on these heavy duty temporary  braces to the underside of the top.   Being on the underside the screw holes  wouldn't be seen when the brace was removed. With the three panels now done it was time  to cut the mitres. I made up a quick cross   cut sled just for this process because I didn't  want to cut a 45 degree kerf in my good sled.   This old hardwood is very prone  to splintering so I used a backer   board on the top to minimise tear out and  you'll see that it made quite a difference. This old hardwood is super tough so I  decided to cut the mitres with about   four or five shallow cuts rather than one  full thickness cut. This made it much easier   on my saw and eliminated  any burning on the cut face. This is with the backer board in place and this was the first cut I did without one. I re-cut that first mitre and it was all good. I can't tell you how much I wanted a panel saw when I was having to push this top across my table saw, it was pretty heavy and a bit of a struggle. The mitres on this table needed a lot  more strength than just a glue joint   so I visited my mate Luis to use his domino but  after a bit of a discussion I decided to use the   Dowelmax system instead. This is a great system  and I was impressed enough by its functionality   and super high quality that I now have my  own and it's way cheaper than a domino. After doing a dry fit and confirming  there were no issues with the joint,   it was time to commit and glue up the table. I was surprised at how few clamps I needed  to bring this joint together. I used my   reusable mitre clamping blocks at the ends and  a single clamp in each direction in the centre. Once the joints had set I trimmed the  sides to final height which was 450mm.   Again I used a few shallow cuts  rather than a single full depth cut.   The temporary braces were also  removed now the mitre joints were set. The table got a final sanding first with   the random orbit sander and then as  always hand sanded with the grain. I chamfered the outside edges of the top  and sides to get rid of that sharp corner   and it was important to read the grain on these  pieces and make sure to route downhill because   as I said this old hardwood  is very prone to splintering.   As you'll see here I was able to place the  router on top of the table to chamfer one side   but on the other side I had to have the router  placed on the edge to make sure I was cutting with   the grain and not against it. The final touch was  to attach my logo and then it was time for finish. Well I gotta say I never get tired of seeing  the transformation of rough looking old Aussie   hardwood into a beautiful piece of furniture. I  hope you agree that the table looks amazing. Anyway   that's it for another video, if you want to  see what i'm up to inbetween videos, as always   make sure you follow me on instagram but in  the meantime you guys all have a great day.

Channel: DownUnderWoodWorks

Views: 44,633

Keywords: downunder, DIY, woodwork, woodworking, aussie, australia, australian, maker, how to, make, build, project, sydney, weekend, workshop, woodshop, wood, timber, waterfall, coffee table, reclaimed

Id: yvsdHxZnrM8

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 25 2020