I made a rendering of the concept I had created on my computer to reference for the end product.
The features of the stool design translated over to the coffee table but I needed to add additional support since the overall design was growing in size. You can see the cross supports under the table top.
The overall size of the coffee table went up to 20 inch. by 40 inch. and I made it a little taller than the stool design.
I used two pieces of 2ft by 4ft plywood (oak and birch) and another 2ftx2ft of birch.
I had to laminate three pieces of 1/2 inch plywood together to make the correct thickness I needed for the leg supports. I made the pieces larger than I needed and then cut them down on my table saw to make sure they were all square. The final cut was the angle cut which I set up on my table saw.
This is the cross support I talked about in the rendering picture earlier. I needed strong vertical cross pieces as well as a piece that would be parallel to the table top which I could secure this piece to.
This is the second level cross support. It is similar to the one above but it needed a few changes as well. I was very pleased with how tightly these pieces fit together.
This shows the support pieces as they had been originally designed on my computer. I realized that the runner pieces were not supporting the lower plane surface as well as they could be so I came up with a shop solution.
Here you can see that I took two cross supports and cut them down in the center so I could secure them to both the piece below but also the pieces perpendicular for better support and structure. I also went back and added this feature to the computer model.
Here is the finished product assembled in my shop. The legs took some work to make level only because I had not perfected the compound cut process which I used for my Maple stool. Refine as you go.
The structure of the coffee table was able to easily hold over 200 lbs with very little effort. I attribute this to the cross supports that I put in to make the table more stable and strong.
The amount of screw hardware for this was more than the stool but it definitely was needed. Every screw was needed as I did not want to take away from the overall aesthetic of the table with too much hardware.
I would like to make a future version of this design out of a solid wood, probably Cherry, as I think it would really be beautiful. For this finished plywood version I may stain, paint, or a combination of both to give it a little more pop but it works and the concept is proven to be a sound design.
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Shoemaker Coffee Table
I recreated my Great grandfather's stool design and I decided to take the principles of the concept and make something new with them. I wanted to make something a little bigger than a step stool but no less functional so I came up with a coffee table design.
