Terrible Twins

By now i figured that I had learnt my lessons from my original table and thought Id have a crack at making a couple more little ones to practise my skills a little. I came up with the design for an end table that was square and called the design "Cafe Cuadrado" (Coffee Squared).



As you can see I ended up making two of them as I felt that they would sell well as a pair, little did I realize that it wasn't possible to make them exactly the same as my wood supplier didn't have the wood in the same width! As a result one of the tables is 3cm smaller than the other, but who's counting, right?

I am overall pretty happy with these two pieces. Since my last table I have spent about 200 Euros on clamps which produced the desired effect and gave my some very tight joints all around the tables. I used 3 times as many wood plugs on these tables as the other one. In other words, these ones are NOT coming apart for love nor money (well, depends how much money we are taking about!)

I am particularly happy with the grain and finish of the table tops. They feel completely smooth and have a glass like feel. This is in no small part down to the new electric sander(s) I invested in. The first one was a Skil branded one and wouldn't sand down the tough skin on my feet. The one that did the trick was a Bosch one (Funnily enough, they are the same company!). I also routed all exposed edges on these tables which gives them a nice rounded look. This was surprisingly easy to do and the final finish is very pleasing. As you can see I made sure to match up the grains on these tables to give a more even appearance. It still isn't perfect but I think they are pretty sweet myself. The finish once again is Linseed Oil which is fast becoming one of my favourite finishes because it darkens the wood to rather than varnish which tends to make the wood go a little yellow. I did actually try and varnish the tables which brings me nicely on to............

Mistakes/Lessons

1) Don't use fast drying varnish (which contains nitroglycerin) on top of linseed oil! They react together and leave a surface that is about as smooth as acne scared face (Not very smooth)

2) Make sure you rub off the Linseed oil every couple of hours! (Didn't learn that lesson)

3) Stop buying cheap tools, they are cheap for a reason you idiot!

4)By careful with the orbital sander, it leaves marks which can be difficult to get out.