Welcome back to the past commissions series.

You can see the earlier parts here:
#1 Batman Plaque
#2 Oak French Armoire
#3 Painted Alcove Cabinets
#4 Oak Kitchen Nook

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Today's post is #5 Oak Office Coffee Table.

This was a nice project to work on.

The client asked for a 5 foot round coffee table for there business office.

It was to be used for meetings rather than the more traditional board room table.

They also wanted the table to be a centre piece.

The rest was up to me and I like it when this happens.

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The Design.

I like using natural oak because it combines the strength and ageless beauty of oak with the more contemporary light finish.

The table top was to be made in solid quarter sawn oak with central birds eye maple veneered circle.

The birds eye maple and the border of the table had a black stringing.

The base was to be made from two cross sections separated by four turned columns.

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Making the Oak Office Coffee Table.

I started with the base.

I made the two cross shapes from 5" x 1 3/4" section and cut a halving joint in the middle.

There was a chamfer detail on the edge so the halving joint was basically a mason's mitre.

I glued these together and sanded them.

I then turned the columns which were out of 4" square oak, they were fairly plain and had a subtle taper toward the top.

When I turned them I left spigots either end so that they could be dowelled into the cross shaped frames.

I also turned bun feet so that the table had a slight floating effect.

The base was assembled and I started the table top.

I choose the boards for the top very carefully.

I actually bought about 50% extra for this, and it always surprises me how much timber is required to make five foot circle.

I then marked out for the biscuit joints making sure I would not expose any when I cut the final diameter.

The top was glued up and flattened with 80 grit on the belt sander.

I determined the centre, I drilled a 2mm hole all the way through the top and scored the outer diameter on the underneath.

On the under side of the top was a 1 1/8" thick border, which I marked out.

I then screwed and glued in place pieces of oversize oak to cover the desired area, making sure the grain direction matched the top.

Next I setup the router and cut the inside edge of the border and then the outside .

The top was now turned the right way up and using the 2mm centre hole drilled earlier I cut the outside diameter.

Then the 2.5mm groove for the outside stringing was cut.

The centre inlay caused some head scratching!

My solution was to make a ply open circle which I could use as a template to relieve the surface by 1mm to accept the maple veneer.

I veneered the centre, but I had cut a small diamond shape from the very middle.

I used this space to cut the stringing around the veneer.

After that I replaced the diamond , put a small chamfer around the edge and gave the top a final sand.

The top was held in place with rebated blocks so that it could slide with shrinkage and expansion.

This piece had a 40% sheen lacquered applied with the spray gun.

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If you have any questions about woodwork, furniture or being self employed as a craftsperson let me know.

I know my wood and I have spent years teaching myself furniture making , furniture history as well as living it as a self employed cabinet maker .

I am also in the process of writing a

'How to series: Setting up a Woodworking Business'

Which you can read here;
Part 1: Workshop
Part 2: Tools and machinery
Part 3: Finding a good timber yard
Part 4: Deciding what type of woodwork you are going to do.
Part 5: Advertising and getting Customers.
Still I am learning every day and the journey is the point.

Many thanks for reading,
Until next time,
@jist