The Side Table We're Building, and Copying a Plan You Like
module: tools, stock, and why we're doing this
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ok. so you know what tools you need, you know not to buy the cheap version twice, and you've stood at the lumberyard reading boards instead of just grabbing the first one. now let's talk about what we're actually making.
it's a side table. simple one. four legs, an apron, a top. the kind of thing that goes next to a couch or a bed and holds a lamp and whatever mail you haven't dealt with yet. i picked it because it touches almost every joint we're going to cover this course — pocket holes, dowels, maybe a mortise and tenon if people are feeling good about it by week four — without being so big that a mistake costs you a whole board.
i didn't design this table. i want to say that up front. i'm not a design guy. i build square, solid things, but if you asked me to come up with proportions that look right, i'd probably give you something that's technically fine and just a little off. legs too thick, or the top overhangs weird. i don't have the eye for it.
so what i do, and what i want you to do, is find a plan you actually like and build that. pinterest, a woodworking magazine, a photo of a table at a furniture store you can't afford — doesn't matter. find something with proportions that make you happy to look at, and then we'll build it using the joinery we're learning here. you supply the taste, i'll supply the "here's how you actually put that together without it falling apart."
finding a plan worth copying
a few things to look for before you commit to a picture:
can you see how it's actually joined? a lot of plans online show you a pretty photo and nothing else. you want one with at least a cut list, or clear enough angles that you can figure out where the apron meets the legs. if you can't tell how it goes together, you're guessing, and guessing costs you lumber.
are the proportions something you can actually cut from standard stock? a leg that's 2 inches square is easy. a leg that's 1 and 7/8 inches square because that's what the original was milled from is going to have you re-milling lumber for no reason. simplify where you can.
is the height going to work for what you actually own? measure the arm of your actual couch. measure your actual mattress height. don't build a table that's proportioned nice in a photo and comes up four inches short of your lamp reaching over.
once you've got a plan, redraw the cut list yourself, even if the plan already has one. write down every measurement in your own hand before you touch a saw. this is where i'll bring up something i believe pretty strongly: measure everything, trust nothing, including your own last cut. the board doesn't know what you meant to cut it to. it only knows what you did.
the table we're all building together
for the class version, i've picked a plan i like, plain top, tapered legs, pocket-hole apron, about 24 inches tall. cut list is on the handout. if you want to build that one exactly, great, that's what the shop stock is cut for. if you found your own plan you like better, bring it next week and we'll figure out your cut list together before you touch anything.
one caution, and i say this because it's happened to me. when you're driving pocket screws into a soft wood like pine, back the clutch on your drill off a setting or two from where you'd run it on oak or maple. i split a board clean down a joint line once because i just sent the screw in at full torque without thinking about what wood i was in. pine's soft. it'll take the screw and then the fibers around it just give up and crack right open. you'll feel it change — the screw goes from resistance to nothing, real sudden. that's your cue you went too far, and by then it's usually too late for that hole. drop the torque setting, drive it slow, and stop the second it seats.
we'll practice that exact thing on scrap before anyone drives a screw into a real leg.
before next time
find a plan for a small table you actually like the look of — doesn't have to be fancy, just something you'd want in your house — and bring a photo or printout. we'll go over cut lists together at the start of class.