Mid-Century Coffee Table // Crazy Coffee Table Build

in this video i'm going to show you how i made this crazy coffee table this one was a little tricky i'm not going to lie so watch the video see how i did it subscribe down below go follow me over on instagram send me your bank account information maybe not that last one check out the video [Music] enjoy [Music] this story starts out like any great woodworking tale i was in my house and i was thinking about pool furniture they always have those cool curved metal bases and i was wondering could i do the same thing but with wood i had absolutely no clue this could end horribly but there was only one way to find out and that was to go out to my shop discover some old walnut that i had hidden behind some scrap ply and just start building i have to level with you i had absolutely no clue if this was gonna work or not i had zero plan i just knew the general shape i wanted to make and i just started trying to figure it out the first thing i was gonna do is figure out the top for my coffee table that was simple and easy so i thought i could bust that out pretty quick and then while it was drying up i could fiddle around with my base so the first thing i did was cut a bunch of pieces down to length then i ran through the joiner to get a straight edge then i took them over to the table saw i cut them to the right width yada yada yada ran them back through the jointer to get a flat surface and then finally i sent them through the planer to get my final thickness before long i had three beautiful pieces that would make up a nice simple walnut coffee table top so i slapped some glue in between each board i clamped them up and just like that i was ready to move on to my base now for my base i needed a piece of half inch mdf don't worry i have a plan just trust me on this one i trimmed down my mdf so that it was the exact same height that i wanted the base of my coffee table to be and then i trimmed it down to the length that i wanted the base of my coffee table to be then i cut one more piece that was the height of my base and the width of my base [Music] so basically i have two pieces one representing what you'll see if you look at the end of the base and one representing what you'll see if you look at the side of the base and with these two pieces i could begin to lay out the general shape that i wanted my coffee table to well look like i guess so like the madman i am i just started drawing lines onto my mdf template now remember i'm mimicking this after one of those retro pool lounge chair bases so i wanted it to be pretty thin like a curved metal base so i made it an inch and a quarter this might come back to bite me later that's not a lot of wood meaning that's not a lot of strength but who knows it could work we'll find out and like one of those retro lounge chairs i wanted to get rid of all my pointy corners and have it nice and curved so i just took this little can of plastic wood i had lying around and i used its profile to round over all of my corners until it got a nice curved shape just like a pool lounge chair weird but that's just what i'm going for leave me alone with the shape of my base traced onto my mdf i then started marking out manageable pieces now when i say that i'm marking out pieces that i can cut out and use as a template to cut this exact shape out of a solid piece of wood because my base is a perfect mirror image of itself on both sides i can focus in on just one of these corner pieces and cut that out to use as a template that i can use on all four of the corners of my coffee table you know some of this might not make sense right now but i promise as you watch this video it'll all make sense eventually after doing my corner pieces i mark my little upper curved piece making sure that the pieces are going to have a nice straight cut-off point if i made them angled it just would make the joinery a lot harder than it needs to be so i got my one top curved piece some straight pieces connecting and my bottom piece now the trick is just to cut out these pieces and make them out of actual hardwood in this case walnut before i did that i also mapped out the end of my table what that's going to look like it's going to have its own little curved piece and it will all connect to itself eventually and like i said this will make sense a little later on but for now i just get all my shapes in order and then i begin cutting them out to create my templates whenever i have to cut out complex shapes like this i always like to remove as much material as i can in the easiest way possible so for this it was to remove first the most amount of material i could with the chop saw and then finally i took it over and cut it out with the band saw now when i was cutting out these pieces i was getting as close to my straight lines as i possibly could but i wasn't worried too much about those tight curves i was just removing the most material i could and then i'll go back and clean those up over on the drum sander just like this man movie magic isn't it cool i did the outside i did the inside and i sanded the whole thing nice and smooth the thing you got to remember about with templates is any imperfection on the template will be transferred onto the final piece so you want to make sure they are nice smooth and perfect before you start using them once i did my upper curved pieces i did my little corner pieces and before long i had a bunch of beautiful half inch mdf templates my plan was to use these templates to transfer these identical shapes onto solid pieces of walnut for that of course i needed some solid pieces of walnut so i quickly milled down some six quarter walnut until it was perfectly an inch and a quarter thick because you know that's how thick my pieces are going to be this was the first point in the project that i got a little concerned that long piece is going to be running with the grain so it'd be nice and strong but these curved pieces are going to have to cross the grain and i was a little worried that those short grain sections were going to be really brittle and break easily so i cut a little test piece across the grain and i decided to see if i could break it i was very pleased to find out that no matter how hard i tried and i'm a very very strong individual i could not break that short grain piece and with this i thought yeah this might actually work so using my mdf templates i traced each shape out onto a piece of solid stock trying to fit as many pieces onto one piece of stock as i could you know to save wood and trees and all that jazz once i had all my pieces traced onto the solid stock i cut each one of them out making sure not to cut right on that line that's what we'll use the router for i left about a sixteenth of an inch off of that line you want to have enough room for your template to sit on top of the piece but not so much that you have to eat away a ton of material with your router double-sided tape is a great way to hook your templates onto your pieces but i didn't have any double-sided tape and i was lazy and didn't want to go to the store so i just stuck some blue tape onto my stock piece and some blue tape onto my template piece and then i hooked the two pieces together with some super glue and adhesive spray this is a great method it holds very strong and well you don't have to run to the store if you don't have double sided tape then i probably didn't need to but i trimmed off all the excess tape with a razor blade just so it wouldn't gum up my router bit this is where i made my second mistake i didn't have a great router bit to cut these out i thought maybe i could use this beefy bad boy over on the router table i stuck it in i turned it on and that's when i thought this is stupid these templates are tiny i can't fit paddles on them and it made me very uncomfortable so i decided to walk away from that idea and try and do it by hand just with the little trim router this is when i made my third mistake i didn't have a bit big enough to cut through an inch and a quarter that i could insert in my trim router but because i'm lazy and i didn't want to go to the store again i found a solution i found this little quarter inch spiral down cut bit it wasn't quite long enough to go all the way through my material and ride on the template so what i did was using that little quarter inch spiral down cut bit i used the shank of the bit as a bearing to land on that template the bit is a quarter of an inch the shank is a quarter of an inch so essentially the shank is a bearing now this still only cut about an inch into my material leaving a quarter of an inch little lip at the top but then i could take another bit with a bottom mounted bearing and now using my actual stock piece as a template simply remove that little quarter of an inch tab so with this plan in mind i got to work cutting out all of my pieces this was much safer than doing it on the router table because i had much more control over the router and wasn't trying to remove so much material at once if you are ever uncomfortable doing a cut in your wood shop it is best to just walk away and find another solution rather than you know losing a finger and becoming that guy and even though this solution wasn't ideal in no time at all i was able to accurately cut out all of my pieces using that template then after using the template to cut out each piece like i mentioned i just grabbed this other spiral down cut bit with a bottom mounted bearing and using the actual stock as my template now i just quickly trimmed off that little quarter of an inch tab left behind by my other router bit and before long all of my pieces were cut out and it was time to start thinking about joining this whole thing together now i realize up until this point you might be very confused as to what this base is actually going to look like so using my cutout pieces i thought i'd throw them together real quick and just give you a general idea it's kind of going to look like this but bigger because this is before i add those stretcher pieces to make it taller and wider so now that i have all my curved pieces cut out i need to cut those connecting pieces as well as all my joinery to hook everything together now like i might have mentioned i honestly don't remember i'm gonna be hooking everything together with half laps so i made this little marking block that will allow me to accurately mark in an inch and a half onto each one of my pieces an inch and a half because i will be adding an inch and a half half lap to connect my little stretcher pieces to my curved pieces so i just quickly mark out each curved piece next i needed to cut my pieces that will connect all my curved pieces together but in order to do this i had to determine how long each one of those pieces needed to be so i cut another piece of scrap ply that was the exact length and height that my base was going to be and then i laid out all my curved pieces on top of this scrap piece so that i could determine the length in between each one of my you know pieces gosh how many times is this guy gonna say pieces in one youtube video get over yourself so in order to determine the length of our stretchers i measure the distance in between my two curved connecting pieces and then i add three inches because of that inch and a half half lap on each side this gives me a distance of 13 inches that i need to cut that connecting piece i then do the same thing on my end piece figuring out that distance which was 5 and 13 16 i add 3 inches for my connecting half laps and this gives me a distance of 8 and 13 16. then all i need to do is cut those pieces cut my joinery and slap this whole thing together if only it was that simple after cutting each one of my connectors i take them back over to my little plywood template layout thing and i just set them on top of those curved pieces just to double check that they're the right length make sure my math is right it's not a lot of the time so this is a good thing to do just to make sure they fit nicely from top to bottom and connecting those end corner pieces as well and with that i was ready to start cutting my half laps here's where i might have made my sixth or tenth mistake i don't know it's really not a mistake it worked but i did debate back and forth on the best way to cut these half laps i didn't like the table saw because the curved pieces weren't going to sit on my router sled very well and i didn't want to have to make a bunch of jigs i thought about using the router but i thought that might be a little squirrely so in the end i just decided to cut all my half flaps on the chop saw using the trenching feature it was definitely not the most efficient way to do it but i was able to fine tune all my half flaps and cut the different angles fairly easily and before you know it i had all my pieces cut and ready to hook together just like this nice inch and a half overlay connecting piece to piece there he goes sand pieces again speaking of pieces before i actually started gluing this whole thing together i had this crazy idea that maybe it would look cool to float the top of the table off of the base using some three-quarter inch brass round stock so knowing that it would be a pain to drill the holes for those pins after the fact i pre-drilled in the top of my base a three-quarter inch hole that i could insert a piece of brass kind of like this and with that i was ready to glue up this puzzle piece of a coffee table at this point i was pretty nervous i really didn't know a if this is going to work b if these half laps are going to be strong enough and see if this thing was going to be the ugliest coffee table of all time but i forged ahead with hope in my heart and a twinkle in my eye and i just started gluing things together what else can you do but at the very least it was going together exactly how i planned pretty soon i had one leg done and i was starting to feel a little full of myself jason you're good you can do this thing you're amazing you're a great woodworker no one can do the things you can do and just when i was feeling full of myself the foreman stopped by to check on my work but he was pretty cute and really nice and excited about the whole thing but he did tell me to get over myself and get back to work so after he left i continued gluing and pretty soon i had both side pieces and clamps and all i had to do was wait so i ate a ham sandwich and then came back out to the shop and started removing clamps man this thing is actually starting to look like a piece of pool furniture i don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing but i'm going with it before i finished working on my base i decided to get my top all situated and done so that i could set it aside and just focus full steam ahead on the base construction so the first thing i had to do was cut the top down to the appropriate length and then just using one of the templates from my little corner piece i clamped it onto the bottom of my table top and just used it as a template because to be honest that's what it is and i rounded over the corners of my tabletop just to give it a nice round profile that would blend nicely with the pool base below then i gave the top and bottom of the table top thorough sanding and added a very small quarter inch round over to the top and bottom just to soften the edges and make it match the what will soon be rounded over table base with my top done i set it aside and started sanding down my table legs now we're still gonna have to obviously connect these legs together but we haven't really got that far yet and there's a few things i wanted to do first like rounding them over to make them look more like a metal pool base for this i was just using a half inch round over bit and i just went crazy rounding over every single edge i possibly could however it is important to note that i did not round over any place that there was going to be a connecting joint as you can see here i should also mention that at some point throughout this whole thing i decided to add a little cross brace in between the two legs that's that little half lap you see in the middle i just forgot to film it because i was busy after rounding over my two side pieces i rounded over all my connecting pieces and then sanded everything by hand to remove any of the chatter or marks left by the bearing on the roundover bit and with that i was ready to glue this whole monster together i was a little nervous but i was also kind of excited because i had no clue what was gonna happen so with the glue bottle in hand i just started squeezing glue on all the places that needed glue squeezed on it and adding clamps to all the places that clamps needed to be added to sorry i'm kind of at a loss for words i don't really know how to describe a glue up to make it exciting um i raced through each joint the speed of the gazelle does that make it more exciting there was a snake biting at my heels as i applied each drop of no this is pointless anyways i got the whole thing glued up with my connecting little stretchers and my end pieces and voila my base was no it's not done i still have a lot of flipping work to do i wanted the glue to be good and dry so i let it sit overnight nope that's not the reason i just was tired and i wanted to go to bed anyways the next morning i came out and removed the clamps and it was time to finish all of my round overs on all those joints that i didn't round over because well obviously i didn't want my joints to get all screwed up so i once again grabbed the trim router with that half inch roundover bit and i just rounded over all the little nooks and crannies that needed to be rounded over this is a little awkward getting in various different angles but it wasn't too bad i just made sure to keep my router plate perfectly flush on the top of my piece as best as i could i mean it was really round at this point but it got the job done and this is when i really started hating myself because i realized what a monster i had created as far as sanding was concerned grain going in every which direction nooks and crannies galore so i sanded and sanded and sanded some more and only three hours later it was ready to clean off with a little mineral spirits and almost ready for finish before i finished it i needed to cut my three-quarter inch brass pegs to insert into my pre-drilled three-quarter inch holes on the top of the base so just using this little metal chop saw i cut down my brass pegs to size and then using a little epoxy don't use it a lot but it's great for gluing metal into wood i inserted some epoxy with a q-tip into each hole making sure to have just enough epoxy to hold the rod in place without causing a bunch of nasty squeeze out next i flipped the base upside down onto the bottom of the top man that was a confusing sentence and i traced each one of those brass pegs onto the bottom of the table top and then just eyeballing it with a forstner bit i drilled a half inch hole into the bottom of the top it's easy to drill a half inch hole with a forstner bit because the forstner bit head is exactly a half inch so you just drill down until it's flush with your surface so that's what i did and then i inserted the base back into the top and i rolled it over to get my first look at what the table was going to look like and wouldn't you know it it looks like a walnut table floating off the top of a walnut pool lounge chair base and of course my final step was to finish the piece for this i used rubio monocoats pure which is basically just a linseed oil mixture and it really made all that grain just pop out i especially liked all the shaped joinery this might just be the nicest walnut coffee table inspired out of a metal pool lounge chair that i've ever seen but i don't know i might be biased after finishing the base i finished the bottom of the top and then i inserted the base into those pre-drilled holes on the bottom now i was gonna glue these in with epoxy but they had such a nice friction fit i didn't think the top was gonna go anywhere once it was just sitting in place so i decided just to hook them in with the friction fit and forgo the glued epoxy i could always glue it in later if that becomes a problem then i flipped the whole thing over and last but not least i finished the entire top i'm not gonna lie i was pretty nervous about this project from the beginning because like i said i had zero plan and i did not know if this was even gonna work but as it started to take shape i got pretty excited this is a completely new technique of building for me with all the curved joinery and templates and it's always fun when a plan that you have in your head somehow comes to fruition so i hope you enjoyed this video and i hope you go try a crazy idea yourself [Music] well three days later we have a coffee table that was a process kind of experiment for me and it worked out so if you liked that video hit that subscribe button hit that little bell which will notify you when i do new videos go follow me on instagram and check out some of these other videos hope you have a great my day in your frozen

Channel: Bourbon Moth Woodworking

Views: 555,723

Keywords: mid century, coffee table, mid century modern, modern furniture, mid century modern furniture, wood working, how to, hand made, do it yourself, minimalist furniture, modern coffee table, how to build a coffee table, mid century modern coffee table, wood work, mid century modern diy, mid century modern decor, mid century modern apartment, mid century modern living room, furniture design, mid century modern home, mid century modern interior design, modern furniture diy

Id: xZmSYqgYA3A

Length: 25min 44sec (1544 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 23 2020