Entry table of ambrosia maple and walnut

I made this Entry Table of Walnut and wormy Maple for a friend who wanted something simple and clean. I found a nice 8/4 wormy maple board that was 13 inches wide and had to use it. If it was any wider I wouldn’t have been able to get it through my planer.

It is 34” tall, 54” long and 12.75” wide. I think the proportions came out well. The lower shelf is not glued in place…it is completely floating. I wanted the lower shelf to be able to expand and contract with the seasons without tearing it apart over time. I lap joined / notched the shelf and the walnut legs and put in a 3/8” dowel to join both parts together. The dowel was the key to having 3 planes of support. I left 1/8” of clearance, on a relatively warm humid day, for the shelf to float between while riding on the dowel for alignment. All the structural racking support comes from the joinery in this area so it had to be spot on, while allowing clearance for expansion and contraction. Structurally, it turned out much sturdier than expected, but as solid and rigid as I hoped it would be. After leaving it in the air conditioned house for a week, everything was still perfectly tight and rigid.

To create the stability, I took a sample of my leg and turned it into a perfectly precise drilling jig. I used this to drill a 3/8” wide hole 3/4” deep into the edge of the shelf…then I inserted a 3/8” dowel marker in the shelf, and then registered each individual leg to its respective shelf notch. After dowel location was marked on each leg, I used my drill press to drill 1/2 half inch deep into each leg with a 3/8” forschner bit…. simple as that…all done after inserting a 1.125inch long 3/8” dry floating dowel that was lightly sanded for smooth action with no glue.

The first two pictures below are of the walnut drilling jig registered so I can drill into the shelf, after that I am working directly with the actual legs and not the drilling jig. Fun and simple!

-- "The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides!" --Artur Schnabel