Six Simple Doors

I finally cut the six doors. These are the doors that will conceal the bottom shelf storage area. They are just solid wood pieces. I decided making six frame and panel doors would drive me nuts (and probably be overkill). Yeah, they look a little plain. But part of my design is to use fancy external hinges to help bump up the cosmetic appeal a little.


I cut each set of three from the same plank so the grain would line up and make a continuous pattern. Those were the last cuts I'll have to make for this project. I almost feel sad.

Attaching the Top

Drilling pocket holes below the table will not be possible because the second shelf is in the way. I decided, instead, to use counter-sunk screws covered with flush-cut plugs. Each breadboard end is attached to the glued panel top with only two screws, two inches apart, in the center. Anything else would prohibit the top panel movement.

Each breadboard end will have four screws holding it down to the carcase's top rails. This, right here, is the beauty of Brek's table-top design. If these breadboard ends were simply attached to the glued panels, the breadboard ends would be much weaker. Especially with my crumby tongue and groove job. But with Brek's method, they are solid. If someone tries to move the coffee table by lifting up on them, they won't break off (hopefully).

Center Table Top Support

The ends of the top will be attached via breadboards. The long sides of the top can't really be attached to the carcase due to seasonal wood movement. That would fine until someone tries to lift the table using the top or if warping begins. It would also be nice to have a little support in the center.


I'm using my brother's technique. I made a center brace with a walnut scrap I had left over. I ran it through the jointer to square it up and cut it to length. Then I attached it via pocket holes. I also drilled and added some figure eight screws. These can screw the top down without prohibiting movement.

The trick with be drilling the pilot holes in the underside of the table top. My drill won't fit between the top and the second shelf so I'll have to carefully mark and pre-drill the holes.

Breadboard Ends

Look around. Most table tops you see today are plywood or laminate. Rarely do you see solid wood tops. Apart from being cheaper, non-solid wood tops are easy to construct because they're stable. You could just screw the top to the carcase and it would be fine.

But solid wood tops are more beautiful and interesting. They also require some fancy planning to last. This is my first attempt at a solid wood top. I decided early on I wanted to use breadboard ends to keep the top panels flat over time, to cover the end grain of the glued-up panels, and to allow the solid wood panels to expand and contract with the seasons.

It seemed the simplest way to attach the breadboards was tongue and groove, one of the few joints I can cut (with my router). It was more difficult than I imagined. The main problem was my table top was not perfectly flat (see previous post). That means, when I ran my router base over the table top, it moved up and down in waves, with the panels. Cutting the tongue involved some frustration and lots of router passes with slight adjustments. In the end, I got something I can deal with.

Coffee Table Top

I ran the glueable edges of each plank through the jointer, and glued them the same way I glued the second shelf. These pieces turned out to be more warped and uneven than the pieces I selected for the second shelf. That was the trade-off for clean looking, prettier pieces.

This time, instead of sanding the hell out of it, I decided to get out my hand plane. Of course, this also meant I had to get out the Japanese water stones my brother had given me; the water stones I pretty much destroyed by not understanding how to use. I read up on sharpening planer blades and got the best edge I could get with the stones.

I don't really understand hand planing, but after playing around with the settings on the plane, I found myself kind of liking it. Cutting the wood with a sharp blade is much more gratifying than scratching the hell out of it with a power sander. Each smooth pass with the hand plane leaves a beautiful glass-like surface trail. Now I understand why my brother said he never uses sand paper.


I spent the day rotating between planing and sharpening. In the end, I think I got a suitable top for my coffee table. Next, I'll have to cut the tongues and grooves to attach the glued planks to the breadboard ends.

Second Shelf Attachment

Yes, the second shelf appears to be attached just fine, resting on two rails and a tongue and groove. However, the shelf was a tad warped and needed to be pulled down in the center of its long spans. Also the tongues and center could use extra support.

I glued two new side rails under the tongues for support, being careful not to glue the shelf, itself, because it needed freedom to expand/contract. The center support would be tricky because I can't use glue and I need to pull the shelf centers down without prohibiting movement. I decided to use figure eight screw mounts. A forester bit made a quick slot for the figure eight...

...which must be countersunk below the bottom of the shelf.

Using pocket holes to attach the center rail, the figure eight screw mechinisms allowed me to pull the warpped areas down onto their supporting long rails, without prohibitting movement. We'll see!

Bottom Shelf

The bottom shelf will be hidden by the cabinet doors so it was a good place to save time and money. I went to Lowes and fished through all the 2' by 4' 1/2" pieces of birch plywood until I found the prettiest piece.

Then I glued new rails on the inside of the walnut rails to support the bottom shelf, using the brad nailer instead of clamping. These new rails are lower than the walnut rails, so the plywood top will be flush with the walnut rail tops.


Next, I flipped the carcase on its side and drilled pocket holes to attached the bottom shelf with. Then I cut the plywood with my circular saw, applied some glue, and screwed it down from the bottom.


All came out well except the gap between the plywood bottom shelf and the bottom walnut rails. I knew about this before attaching the plywood shelf but there was nothing I could do.

The 2' plywood was about 1/8" shy of spanning the rails, but I was not about to buy a full 4' by 8' sheet just for the 1/8". My plan is to fill the gap (1/16" on each side) with homemade wood filler.

Creative Clamping

Do you think all those clamps in the previous post's picture are mine? Ha! Yeah, right. Those ridiculous Bessy clamps are $50 a piece.

My longest clamps are 30"; the inexpensive, but adequate orange Jorgensen clamps. For the final carcase coffee table glue-up I needed at least six clamps that could clamp 45" each. My plan was to buy a bunch of 50" Bessy clamps from Lowes and return them afterwards. Come on, I spend so much money at Lowes, it's the least they can do. Besides, they'll be good as new after one use.

Unfortunatly, Lowes only had two in stock. Thus, I had to get creative for the other four joints. I just linked my shorter clamps together. It worked great. And my two Bessy clamps are happily back on the shelf at Lowes.

The Big Glue-Up!

After talking to my brother, Brek, at our Christmas visit, I decided to shorten the six long rails. In theory, this would eliminate the gap between the second shelf and its slotted rail, as described in my previous post. Before doing so, I slapped the slot bit on my router and tried to clean up the long tongue. Apparently, my homemade router guide has become unreliable and warped because groves above/below the long tongue got cut too deep. Of course, I didn't discover this until after my final glue-up, when it was too late to fix it. Oh well. After all that work, I've got the damn grove back (gap between the second shelf and its slotted rail).

Okay, so time for the big glue-up. I hate this part. I stood staring at all the pieces, trying to figure out how I could pull it off by myself. Six rails with twelve mortises and the second shelf would all have to be inserted simultaneously. That would almost be possible, if it weren't for the glue. All these pieces must be put together before the glue dries. Impossible. At least for me. I called for help. Melissa assisted with glue spreading and inserting floating tenons. We put one side of the carcase on its side, so the long rails and second shelf could rest on one side vertically. After several panic attics, we got through it.