How to build a waterfall coffee table

Good day .

Welcome down in the woodworks in today's video .

I'm gonna show you how I turn this into this .

Just a quick word before we get into the BUILD video .

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I had quite a bit more of this reclaimed hardwood decking handrail left that I used for the Ed coffee table build , but it was a bit deceiving because after going through it and cutting out the good sections , I only just had enough for this table .

I put the timber through the usual milling process which starts at the joiner to get one flat surface .

It's almost impossible to see the grain direction on old timber that looks like this .

So after a first light pass , you can see me here stroking the cat to check if I was going in the right direction , which is with the grain and not against it .

I was lucky with these boards cos they're all pretty straight with no cuing or twisting .

So they didn't need many passes to get a flat face .

How good does that timber look ?

Unfortunately , I don't know what species it is .

Maybe someone can tell me in the comments .

Next , I milled a flat 90 degree edge on each board to use as a reference against the table saw fence to remove the bullnose profiles and to rip them to their final width , which was about 90 mil , then it was through the thickness .

So to clean up the opposite face and get each board to their final thickness , I took a bit of time to mix and match these boards before deciding on a final layout .

The boards were initially left much longer than they needed to be .

So it was time to trim them down very close to their final length .

Their final length will actually be determined once they're glued up into panels and have M cut on each end time to go up the top , which went pretty smoothly actually .

Mhm .

I added a few heavy duty calls to the top just to make sure it stayed nice and flat and called it a night .

The next day I took the panel out of the clamps , cleaned up the glue , squeeze out on the bench and gave the top a quick sand with 60 grip paper .

Just to remove any squeeze out .

I might have missed and get a better look at how it went together .

Very happy .

The sides or legs of the table were then glued up exactly the same way as the top .

Despite all my best efforts .

The top was still wanting to cup slightly .

So I was keeping it in those calls , but I needed something less obstructive so I could keep working on it .

I screwed on these heavy duty temporary braces to the underside of the top being on the underside .

The screw holes wouldn't be seen when the brace was removed with the three panels .

Now done , it was time to cut the miners .

I made up a quick crosscut sled just for this process because I didn't want to cut a 45 degree curve in my good sled .

This old hardwood is very prone to splintering .

So I use the back aboard on the top to minimize tear out .

And you'll see that it made quite a difference .

This old hardwood is super tough .

So I decided to cut the miners with about four or five shallow cuts rather than one full thickness cut .

This made it much easier on my saw and eliminated any burning on the cut face .

This is with the backer board in place and this was the first cut I did without one .

I recut that first and it was all good .

I can't tell you how much I wanted a panel saw when I was having to push this top across my table saw it was pretty heavy and a bit of a struggle .

The miners on this table needed a lot more strength than just a glue joint .

So I visited my mate Lewis to use his domino .

But after a bit of a discussion , I decided to use the D max system instead .

This is a great system and I was impressed enough by its functionality and super high quality that I now have my own and it's way cheaper than a domino .

Yeah .

Yeah .

Right .

Mhm .

After doing a dry fit and confirming there were no issues with the joint , it was time to commit and glue up the table .

I was surprised at how few clamps I needed to bring this joint together .

I use my reusable M clamping blocks at the ends and a single clamp in each direction in the center .

Mhm .

Once the joints had set , I trimmed the sides to final height which was 450 mil .

Again , I used a few shallow cuts rather than a single full depth cut .

The temporary braces were also removed now that the minor joints were set , the table got a final sanding first with a random orbit sander and then as always hand sanded with the grain I shamp for the outside edges of the top and sides to get rid of that sharp corner .

And it was important to read the grain on these pieces and make sure to route downhill because as I said , this old hardwood is very prone to splintering .

As you'll see here , I was able to place the router on top of the table to share it for one side .

But on the other side , I had to have the router placed on the edge to make sure I was cutting with the grain and not against it .

The final touch was to attach my logo and then it was time for finish .

Well , I gotta say I never get tired of seeing the transformation of rough looking old Aussie hardwood into a beautiful piece of furniture .

I hope you agree that the table looks amazing .

Anyway , that's it for another video .

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But in the meantime , you guys all have a great day .