PB Inspired Benchwright Coffee Table

PB Inspired Benchwright Coffee Table




This is a rather old project but I've been lazy about doing a write-up! I was previously using a borrowed coffee table and had to return it. I had just finished building the Chesapeake Sectional and Coffee Table and was happy with the results so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Plans came from The Design Confidential for the PB Inspired Benchwright Coffee Table. I did a write up over there that can be found here.

Estimated Cost:
I just used no. 2 pine for the top, FSC certified premium pine for the bottom shelf and frame pieces, and pine 4x4's for the legs. Since the lumber wasn't anything special, it totaled right to $100. After hardware, stain, etc. I'd put the total cost to a little over $200.

Build Details
Since I have a write up over at TDC, I won't go into all the detail I did there but rather talk about various build pictures:

Laying out all the pieces. You can see the pocket holes have already been drilled and of particular note is that the aprons (large pieces laying towards the back of the pile) already have pocket holes drilled that will face up and provide an anchor for the top once it is set on the frame.

Beginning assembly of the frame with the aprons attached. You can see the aforementioned vertical pocket holes a bit better now.

Also to note, the plans on this project originally call for a 1x3 and 2x3 to be sandwiched together. To avoid a seam, I chose to use 4x4's but had to trim them down to be the correct dimensions. This was done first by slicing off the bulk in a band saw and then running the legs through a surface planer.

Frame is complete! The openings for the drawers are visible now and we have a mounting surface for the bottom shelf.

At this point, the piece is already very solid, which is a testament to the strength of pocket screws. However, once the bottom shelf was added, the piece became very rigid.

Bottom shelf has been added and cross supports for the top to secured have also been added.

The bottom shelf was a bit of a bear to put in, and it may have been easier to assemble the entire bottom portion from back to front in retrospect. One more note about the bottom shelf: it's made of joined 1x6's and 1x4's. I assembled and sanded the entire bottom shelf before placing inside the frame to avoid tight corners.

Here the top is seen being assembled with pocket screws on the bottom side. I worked from one side to the other using glue, clamps, and 2" pocket screws to attach each board.

Here's the "pre-finished-finished" product! The top is actually not attached in this picture, but rather just resting on the frame. The only reason for this was to promote ease of staining later on.









Finishing:

I could talk a lot about this section because frankly it was a huge struggle, but the basics are that we used a five step process consisting of lacquer based stain, sanding sealer, brown glaze, more sealer, lacquer top coat.

Here the frame has been stained, sealed, and glazed already and is ready for the final sealer and lacquer.

The final product without the drawers in.

We struggled a lot with humidity levels and adhesion of the multiple layers of the finish.











Final product minus the hardware on the drawers. Had to use this picture since my friends' sleepy pup is giving the table a final inspection.

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