Final Project Update- Aaron Johnson

Yesterday I began construction on my hallway table. Overall I was happy with how the day went. However, there were a few issues. First was just pure waste. Even though I had all the wood I needed, I ripped more wood than I actually needed, not taking into account the length of my 2x’s.  As seen, the wood in the back was what I used, and the wood in the forefront was waste. Not good.

Another issue was with the legs of my table. My initial thought was to just rip 2x4’s in half. However, I didn’t take into consideration that the blade was needed to be taken into consideration. I was from there that I learned that making symmetrical 1 ½ square legs would insure that all the legs were exact. It took more time but made the table look better in the end. The legs on the left are vastly better than the asymmetrical legs on the right.

       

After the mess of cutting (and wasting) the wood, the actual screwing together of the legs and skirt went fairly well. As my skirt sits in the middle of the leg rather than on an edge, it became a little more difficult to screw in the pocket screws. I decided to clamp the leg of the wood so it wouldn’t move. I then took some spare sheets of lauan and stuck those under my plywood skirt so that its height was correct. This worked surprisingly well, and gave me two pairs of stable legs for my table.

      

 At the end of the five hours, I had completed the base of the table. The legs, skirt, and bottom brace for the lower shelf were all put together, and to my pleasant surprise, it wasn’t wobbly at all.