Kevin Holler

The Idea

This is a project that i am doing for my Leaving certificate 2008. It is still a work in progress but i am going to document the progress that has been done so far. The idea came from hours of sketching and messing with original ideas. Eventually one of the sketches caught me eye and i decided to take it on. So i got to work and drafted a working drawing with approximate measurements. Which gave me a greater overview of making this project happen.

I then ordered my wood which cost about 80 euro in total and the glass cost about 15 euro at a student rate.

The Plan

We were all given a time limit to do the project. I had about 3 months to do it, which in class time worked out at about 2 hours a week. So i had about 32 hours in total. I had until 7th to complete it.

The Construction

Leaving me with about a week so the pressure is on. The first step was to measure out the top of the table. Then cut it to size and glue the two table tops together. Once that was complete i had to mark out the rounded corners and the areas which were going to be taken out with the router. Then i proceeded to router out all the waste which took me a full month ( 8 classes). I then made the ledge where the glass would sit on and cut off the waste for the rounded corners.

The next step was to mark out the legs and figure out what design technique i was going to use. Once i decided on a style, i began to chisel off the rounded corners. Once the legs were cut to size i began to chisel off the shape i was going for. The rounded corner had to be exactly the same as that of the table so they would fit together perfectly. Then i had to drill the holes for the dowels. This bit was rather tricky a s the holes in the table top had to be positioned exactly the same as those of the legs.

The next step was to sand off the legs so as to have them flush with the table top corners. Which didn’t take long. Eventually my glass arrived and so the second problem arose.

Eventually the glass fitted in properly and the base work was complete. And on came the electronics part of the project. I had purchased 8 LED’s which would be put underneath two of the bigger pieces of glass to give a glowing effect (keeping in mind that the two bigger pieces had a frosted top). I had to build a circuit to connect all 8 LEDs to one battery and hook a small switch. All of which would be going on underneath the table as nobody wants to see cables. I hope to complete this LED feature this coming week, so expect a follow up of the project next week.

The Problems

• problem 1: Which is where my first problem cropped up. Some of the holes weren’t drilled 100% straight, which resulted in the dowels tilting off an a slight angle.
  solution: I removed one or two of the dowels from each leg and straightened them. Worked perfectly.
• problem 2: The glass had a thickness of 6mm and the ledge i had made of the glass was only of 2mm depth.
  
• solution: I left it the way it was.
• problem 3: The glass didn’t quite fit into all 4 of the areas i had designed for it.
• solution: I used the router and chisel to refine the edges and take off up to 2mm waste from some of the sides to accommodate for the width of the glass

The Pictures

to be continued…

Tags: coffee table, construction, wood work