Round Modern Coffee Table
This project is a custom build so I sort of have certain criteria. The design of the table was based on a picture from the customer with the popular “can you make this?”. So I did.
Materials Needed:
(20) 2x4x8 Yellow Pine (construction grade lumber is fine)
(2) Bottles of Wood Glue
(3) Boxes or Jars of #20 Wood Biscuits
(1) Box of 1 3/4″ Wood Screws
(1) 12″ Stick of 3/8″ Wooden Dowel (I used pine)
(1) 2’x4′ MDF (for making templates)
Tools I Used:
The table needed to match that design and be roughly 18 inches tall and 36 inches in diameter. The color/appearance of the table needed to be rustic. In efforts to keep the appearance rustic, I would use stain, so the wood selection of this project could be yellow pine. Pine is both cheap and durable, and doesn’t need a fancy grain or curled figure as the stain would hide the delicacies of hardwoods anyway.
Let’s get to work.
I used standard 2x4s from my local home center and began cutting off the rounded edges on them. I did this on the table saw and the result was an actual dimension of 1 1/2” x 3”. I cut the boards to length of the miter saw to be 39 inches long. The extra 3 inches gave me so wiggle room when cutting the circle. I also used 13 boards joined together so that made 39 inches as well for a perfect square. I repeated this milling process for another 13 boards that would make the bottom portion of the table.
In order to join all of the 2x4s together at the edges, I opted for biscuit joints. I first laid all boards on my bench and scribed a line across the top surface of all boards with a 4 foot square, about every 4 inches or so. This would become my reference line for the biscuits.
Next I spent quite some time with the biscuit jointer making those recesses.
After the recesses were made I started installing wood glue and #20 wood biscuits into each joint. Once all biscuits were installed and glue was in place, I put the entire assembly into my long 50” parallel clamps and began tightening. I then used 2 clamping calls on each of the assembly’s sides and clamped those in place to ensure that the sides would not warp and would remain co-planer. I again repeated this entire process to make the assembly for the bottom portion of the table.
After the glue dried I removed the top and bottom table assemblies from the clamps and found the center of the assembly. I made a router jig that allowed for a pivot hole at one end and the center of the router bit to be at exactly 18 inches from the pivot hole.
I temporarily installed a nail in the center of the table assembly to allow for my router to pivot across the assembly, making a perfect circle. I started with a 1/2 inch groove cutting bit in my router. I was only able to make a pass of the circle that was roughly 3/4 inch deep.
So, after the circle was defined and the 3/4 inch deep pass was established, I rough cut the circle shape out with my jigsaw, ensuring the jigsaw blade fell within the original cut.
I then installed a flush-trim bit into my router and finished the circle cutting from the bottom side of the assembly to make crisp, clean, and defined edges. Once I repeated this process for the other table assembly, my circles for the top and bottom of the table were complete.
The table legs were the next order of business. Based on the “can you make this” picture the customer sent me, the legs were rounded and tapered at both the top and bottom to appear they were a continuous piece of wood from the top and bottom circles of the table. So, I decided to make the majority “main” portion of the leg 3 inches wide so that I could use a standard 2×4 that I had milled earlier on the table saw. To fabricate the rounded tapers on the ends, I edge glued some other 3 inch wide 2×4 blocks on both sides of the 2×4 leg, and on both the tops and bottoms.
While the glue was drying I made an MDF template of the shape of the legs.
After the glue had dried I traced the design of the legs onto the 2x4s using my MDF template. I then cut out the leg shape/design on the bandsaw and used my sander to slowly sneak up on my line.
I made another MDF template that represented the outer circle curve of the table top/bottom. This allowed me to trace the exact curve onto the tops and bottoms of my completed table legs so that I could round those over to match the curved profile of the completed table assembly. I rounded those over on my belt sander, and finished it off with my palm sander.
At this stage of the project all of the parts and pieces were complete. It was time for sanding and assembly. I sanded both sides of each of the circle pieces up to 220-grit.
This also allowed me to remove any and all glue squeeze out. I also sanded through the grits on the table legs. The assembly method I used was simply wood screws and glue. The bottom of the table legs were screwed from underneath the table, through the bottom circle, and into the table legs. For the top of the table legs, I drilled 3/8 inch holes about 1/4 inch deep into the tapers. This allowed for my wood screws to be secured through the legs and into the table top, but also allowed for the entire screw head to be recessed within that 3/8 inch hole. I then plugged those holes and sanded them smooth.
I did not stain or varnish this project as the customer was unsure what color they wanted it to be. So, I delivered the project to the customer as raw wood, yet sanded and ready for finish, so that they can stain it whatever color they would like.
This project was complete and the customer was extremely happy!
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