# Beginner coffee table plans



## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Hey everyone. It looks like this forum gets a lot of beginner questions on, so I hope nobody's getting tired of answering them yet. 

I have no experience with woodworking, and don't own any tools, so I was thinking that I would get my feet wet with a simple project - a basic coffee table. 

Like I said I don't really have any tools, though I do have access to my father in law's very basic wood shop if I need it. He has a table saw and a miter saw,eand possibly a ban saw or jig saw (haven't been in there in a while) It's a bit of a drive though, so I'm trying to keep the tooling to a minimum. 

So I've been looking at prefabricated components that I can just finish and assemble. I will definitely be buying some pre-made legs from Lowe's since I don't t have access to a lathe, and I am considering using a pre-made table top as well. 

Does anyone have experience with the glued panels from Allwoodoutlet.com? I was considering gluing my own table top from hardwood planks, but I don't have access to any tools for planing the planks. 

Any comments on this plan or other general coffee table tips for a noobie are greatly appreciated!


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

jeremymcon said:


> Hey everyone. It looks like this forum gets a lot of beginner questions on, so I hope nobody's getting tired of answering them yet.
> 
> I have no experience with woodworking, and don't own any tools, so I was thinking that I would get my feet wet with a simple project - a basic coffee table.
> 
> ...


Welcome.

Best off if you use your father in laws tools under his supervision. Get the basics down and then tackle a coffee table. If you like it, invest in some good tools and begin the journey that never ends. Learning and doing woodworking.

Al


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Al B Thayer said:


> Welcome.
> 
> Best off if you use your father in laws tools under his supervision.
> 
> Al



Oh yea absolutely. If I use them I will be having him help me out the first few times. Don't want to break his tools or lose a finger or something.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

jeremymcon said:


> Oh yea absolutely. If I use them I will be having him help me out the first few times. Don't want to break his tools or lose a finger or something.


Well great. Hang here and we will help you with any questions...and then some.

Al


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Ok here's a question:

How much do I need to worry about expansion of a glued wood panel when I'm designing a coffee table? I'm trying to figure out how to attach the table top. I was thinking about just using small wood blocks and screwing them to the frame and the table top. Are there metal brackets I could use that would maybe have a slotted hole for the screw that would allow the wood to expand? Or should I just do the wood block idea and drill/chisel a slot for the screw that attaches to the table top? 

Wood expands perpendicular to the grain, right?


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

I have been watching video tutorials on making mortise and tennon joints by hand, and just bought a set of narex chisels and a mallet. I'm planning to practice making them by hand with some cheap lumber before I do it to the nicer pieces of pine I'll be using for the table. 

I saw two methods for making the mortise - one was to drill a bunch of holes and them square them with a chisel off to form a slot, and the other was just to use a chisel to make the slot. Has anybody used either method? Which is better? Leaning toward the drill method, since it will require less force on my part.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

My chisel set came in the mail today, so I sharpened them up on my sharpening stones, up to my 6000 grit whetstone, then stropped them on a leather strop with chromium oxide paste. I still don't have the back saw that I ordered, nor do I have the marking gauge, but I do have a square and a pencil, so I decided to try to make a couple mortise and tenon joints in a cheap board. 

The first one wasn't good at all - I couldn't get the saw that I just happened to have on hand to cut my tenon straight, so I ended up paring quite a bit of it off in an attempt to even up the sides. I pared so much off that my smallest chisel wouldn't fit in the mortise that I needed to cut! So needless to say that joint turned out a little loose and ugly:




























The second joint went a little better - this time I used a hack saw to remove the sides of the tenon, then pared them down to square with a chisel. The tenon was thick enough for me to use a chisel to remove material from the mortise, so i was able to keep the sides of the mortise closer to square on this one. The joint still has a bit of movement in it, and everything's not quite square - you can see in the one picture that the sides don't quite match up. But I think that my marking gauge should help to solve that issue.


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## MT Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

Here is a simple coffee table. One you can construct with only a screw driver or drill driver for the screws.

The womenfolk on Facebook love them. So does my sweetie and my step daughter.

I bought the crates at Walmart once and Home Depot another time. Make a base for it if you like. Casters make it easy to move about.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Yea I've seen similar ideas online. I'd prefer a more traditional table though. After trying some mortise and tenon joints, I think I might actually go with dowel joints instead! I was reading that they're about as strong as mortise and tenon joints, and I think they would be simpler. 

I like the looks of this table:









The only thing I might skip is the vertical slats - looks complicated. Especially since I will be putting the support for the bottom shelf underneath it, unlike in the picture.


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## Masterjer (Nov 6, 2012)

One thing you should look at is the Beadlock floating tenon system. It's a very fast and easy way to make strong floating tenon joints. 

It includes a drill guide and you use your drill to drill overlapping holes to create the mortise and they sell scalloped tennons that fit perfectly into the mortise. The basic system is about $30 and I've really liked using it the few times I've used it.


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

You've got the right idea with your m&t joints. I always drill mine and clean them up with chisels. I have a cheap drill press but it does ok. Cutting the tenons by hand is harder but doable. Practice makes perfect. The floating tenons mentioned are a good idea too, drill your holes in each piece, insert the tenons and clamp it up. 
To answer an earlier question, slots and little wood blocks or metal Z fasteners will hold a top and let it move with the seasons. They also sell metal figure 8 fasteners that fit on top of the apron and screw into apron and top.


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## VIFmike (Jul 21, 2012)

Go to Etsy.com and do a search for "coffee table" "wood coffee table" "reclaimed wood coffee table" etc. That will give you some ideas.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

Well I finally made it to my father in law's wood shop. I made a jig to cut the tapered legs out of some scrap and a wood screw, and the legs came out looking great! They were no problem and really nice looking. The thing that didn't go well for me was the joinery. I cheaped out and didn't buy a nice doweling jig, deciding to use a wooden jig I made and dowel center pins instead. It... Didn't go well. After a come hours of drilling I got holes that kind up ok, but weren't square! So now the rails of the table are all crooked. My other mistake was cutting the tapered legs before drilling the dowel holes. It would. Have been better to have had square legs to work with while drilling the holes rather than tapered ones. So, I think I am going to chalk this whole project up as a learning experience and rebuild the legs and frame of the table after I purchase a doweling jig. The tabletop I bought from allwoodoutlet.com is pretty nice,so I'll definitely keep it to use on the new frame.


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## jeremymcon (Oct 16, 2014)

*Update 1-24-15*

Well I ended up buying a nice doweling jig to finish my table. I did look at the beadlock system based on your suggestions, and nearly purchased it, but I decided that a doweling jig could be more versatile in the future. Also, dowels are easy to find. Those pre-cut tennons are a special order if I ever need any more.

Anyway, I ended up leaving my ugly doweled joints in the short rails of the table, and re-doing the joints on the long rails with a nice self-centering dowel jig made by Eagle America. That jig is freakin' awesome! It makes me want to build more furniture, honestly. I wish I had just bought it to begin with.

I also bought a black and decker 1 1/2 HP single speed router, mostly by accident, on eBay for $40 shipped. I bid low, thinking I'd lose, and didn't! Oops. So I got some bits too, and routed the edge of the spruce table top that I purchased from Allwoodoutlet.com. 

So now my table is all cut, glued, and sanded. All that's left is to stain and polyurethane it, and then attach the table top and shelf. 

Here's what it looks like so far:









It's not perfect - I had to make exposed dowel joints before I got the dowel jig so that the holes would line up properly, and some of them are a little rough. Also, the frame isn't perfectly square - you can tell because the shelf doesn't line up quite right on either side. Also, if you look closely, you can see some exposed dowels on the one leg where there shouldn't be. That's from me drilling in the wrong side of the leg! I compensated by doing that to all 4 legs. If anyone asks, I made doweled mortise and tenon joints for those four joints... ;-)


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