Creative variation opportunities.
Design students usually strive to be and are encouraged to be unique. Making the same exact thing as your classmates, just to learn a bit of woodworking, is potentially boring. With permission to make this final beginning workshop project an expression of their own creativity, a few requirements have to be set so they don't get carried away and miss what they should be learning.
Tiny Table 2 is simply an aesthetic alternative to Tiny Table 1. Another example for the final beginning workshop project. All parts differ, but both tables use the same joinery connections between legs and stretchers. Table 2 won't have leg top tenons piercing the top, but instead use one of two standard hardware strategies to attach table tops. Students are also encouraged to "sign" their work, and the 4DT initials (below) shows one way/place to sign it. Fill the engraved initials with tinted resin then sand flat to the table top. Any scratches that appear in the resin from sanding will disappear once a finish is applied to the top.
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| Top Profile |
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| Underside 3D Shape |
The stretchers in Table 2 run around from leg to leg rather than cross in the middle. They attach near the top of the legs, but then have stretchers attached in their middle that cross (half lap) under the table top. This is where connections to the top are made. These middle stretchers may French dovetail into the side stretchers. When connected to the top they transfer load to the side stretchers. The legs take the load from the side stretchers to the floor.
This table is another example of detail continuity throughout the design. The leg profiles visually extend the corner shape of the top down to the floor. More specific details can be realized and added after the table parts are rough assembled. How the feet meet the floor is one area for consideration.
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| Leg cross section. |
The outer stretchers have a shallow cove that matches the inward curve of the table top sides. Bottom and top edges of the outer stretchers are rounded like the underside edge of the top.
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| Bottom and Top Edge Curves |
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| Face Contour Matches Top Edge |
Even though the assembled dimensions of all tables will be the same, and all will include mortise and tenon joinery, half lap joinery, and potentially more depending on their design, the range of solutions is practically infinite. Both also demonstrate how to glue up material for their tops, and process the glued up blank down to a finished table top. The final step for all tables is to sand parts smooth and apply a durable finish. This is best done before assembly but requires taping off any area that is part of the joints between parts. Then comes glue-up/assembly. It is the continuity of details that adds to the story you can tell about this table. That story is what makes the design memorable and desirable.
Some related educational projects:
Making Samples vs Making Projects
The Joinery Box. Not About a Box.
Determining Actual Project Costs
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