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| Whimsy |
I started with a small table top made for a rejected project. I added in a couple of 36" long 3/8" diameter dowel rods I've had for a couple decades or more. I cut them in half to be the legs. Then I made 4 wood balls. I mixed in some 3/8" diameter magnets left over from a previous project, and this is the result.
I drilled holes for the dowel legs in the bottom of the table top using my CNC. I wanted the dowels to angle out rather than stand straight up, so the CNC jig was tilted 5.8 degrees down from horizontal.
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| On my Compound Angle Clamping Jig |
Rather than glue the dowels in, I embedded magnets into the bottom of the CNC drilled holes. Since wood won't stick to a magnet, I inserted metal screws into the ends of the dowels. The biggest challenge was centering the screw heads on the dowel ends. A bit of filing might have happened to make them slip easily into the holes.  |
| Embedded Magnet |
The holes in the top were limited in depth by the screws that held the magnets in place. Any deeper and the screws would have poked out the top. An ideal design would have deeper holes to better brace the inserted dowels.
For feet I made wood balls, 1.5" in diameter. They need a 3/8" diameter hole in them. They will get magnets in the bottom of the holes and as such also stick to the screws in the ends of the dowels. For whimsy I'll painted one of them red. Experience tells me the one red shoe will make the table more memorable.
I gave my CNC rotary axis a chance to prove it could make wood balls.  |
| Five Maple Balls on my Rotary Axis |
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| Five 3/8" Diameter Holes |
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| One Ball, ready to trim. |
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| Four wood ball feet. Ready for magnets and a finish. |
Rare earth magnets hold all the parts of this table together. You could replace the wood dowels with steel rods and skip having to add screw heads to the end of the dowels. That would add considerable weight, sterilize the composition, and require paint to prevent the metal from rusting. The wood dowels are just enough. No more than needed to hold up the top. When whimsy strikes you can pop off the ball feet and replace them with perhaps a seasonal color alternative. How about 3D printed shoes to slip over and magnetically stick to the dowel ends?
All projects survive longest if the parts have some finish on them. I set about first applying clear finish to the wood balls. No problem with the first three, but the 4th ball protested. It tried to escape by rolling off the bench, but I caught it. It got so angry at the thought of joining the clear finish crowd that it turned red in the face. In the end it got its way. Meet the angry red shoe. I may have to rename this post as "A Table with One Angry Red Shoe.
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| One angry red foot. |
The ball feet balance the composition. An echo of the thick top. They recognize the thin dowels as official table legs. Although this little table stands up proudly, the thin dowel legs happily flex a bit, and a bump against the table top will reward you with a quick wobble dance. Not a table you'll want to sit on. Not a table for anything like a small TV. Park the TV remote and maybe a coaster with a drink on the top. A frail little table such as this one needs a place out-of-the-way. Where no one might accidently bump it. Not in the open where predatory beasts in the house might find it. A more stout version with thicker and stiffer legs would eliminate the wobble, but also remove the joy the table elicits when it does dance a bit. 😉
Comments welcomed and appreciated.
4D
