I hope to get a piece of slab lumber approx. 4' x 2' x 1 1/2" - 2" thick in either walnut, sugar maple or beech for a coffee table top.

Has anyone built a similar table or have access to plans for the same? The critical part of this project is making/installing the legs to make them stable.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken

Hey Ken, I hope you get to work with Walnut, to me its a beautiful wood that one day I will have the chance to build something with.

As for plans, no but I did have some "Live Edge" Eastern Red Cedar that I made a small table out of and went with the look and shape of the slab. I to was concerned about the legs and getting them to Not" wobble. I made sure the bottom of the table was flat and when I cut the lengths of the legs I cut them all at the same time since they were so thin. I would have loved to have more wood for thicker legs but didn't have any so used what I had. For joinery I used pocket holes for the tops of the legs and stretchers and dowels on the bottom shelf.

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Hi Ken, you might look at this article: AW Extra 2/28/13 - Natural Bench - Woodworking Projects - American Woodworker

Hi.

This is a coffee table that is in my to do project list. I won´t use any lumber for the top since I have a piece of granite laying around.

Hope this can help.

Attached Files

File Type: pdf

Mission-Coffee-Table-Exploded-Diagram.pdf (298.7 KB, 139 views)

Nice project - please post pics back here when you've built it. Is it really necessary to veneer the legs?

JC

That's a classic arts-and-crafts method to get quarter-sawn grain figure on all sides. It's purely aesthetic.

Hi and thanks to All who responded,

I have made a small foot stool of sorts based on the "Foyer Bench" published in the February 2012 issue of Woodworker's Journal starting on page 40. Unfortunately the foot stool is at our property Up North so I can't send a photo. I had to add a brace under the top going lenthwise between the 2 legs attached with pocket hole screws to make it sturdy enough (unlike the one in the article). This is a more simple method than the American Woodworker mentioned earlier.

I guess I will try to find another method that will be compatible with my proposed coffee table.

Stay tuned,
Ken

Ken - I've just re-read your original post and thought about the size of your slab. I use beech a fair bit, and I can tell you that a slab that size is going to be heavy - very heavy. You might just want to keep that in mind, in case you haven't already realised it.

That is a beautiful piece of wood Marco!

Check out the Walnut Coffee Table I built. I drew a set of plans up in sketchup which I also posted.