Our friend Travis from Exercise Therapy of Kansas City https://exercisetherapykc.com/ wanted to add a custom piece of furniture to his wellness studio that would both be functional (provide additional storage and a standing-height writing surface to use while helping clients) as well as decorative (add a touch of flair to his working environment).
In working with Travis, we came up with a design that would meet his needs and also follow sustainable practices which is our goal whenever possible. Together we chose some locally foraged red oak that would match the existing interior of his studio. This particular batch of red oak came from a home near Kirkside, Missouri that experienced some storm damage on May 19th 2013.
The critical path item in this project was going to be the metal legs due to time it would take to have them powder coated so we began by cutting the rough stock from some sticks of 1″ x 3″ rectangular tubing. We also pre-drilled the holes we will need later for mounting the shelving.
While the metal was being cut by the metal band-saw we began to lay out the boards for the top of the unit. The final piece will have a thick top with a set of storage cubes underneath. The first step after we selected the boards was to cut them to rough length and then use the wood band-saw to get to the approximate width.
With the pieces cut to the approximate dimensions, the next step is to get them to uniform thickness using a planer and then with the help of a jointer create a straight edge for further trimming and glue-up.
Around the same time we began construction of the bottom of the piece selecting the appropriate boards and gluing them together once they were planed and jointed. Once the glue had cured, the piece was freed from the clamps and passed through the wide-belt sander.
Once the pieces for the top of the table where planed smooth and cut to width, they were then glued together using large floating tenons in holes fashioned using my favorite tool, the Festool Domino.
While the glue cured, it was time to get back to welding the legs. Besides the usual 45 degree miter welds, weld-nuts needed to be added to attach the top as well as 4 levelers to the bottom. Now they are off to be powder coated.
Once the glue was set, the top was released from the clamps and the process of filling the knots and cracks with epoxy was ready to begin. The opposite side of the boards are covered with duct tape to prevent leakage and epoxy is added in several passes (in this case 5) to completely fill all the imperfections.
This has been a rough project on the shop… not only did the triunnions on my band-saw break while I was trimming the rough boards for the top, but while I was planing the boards for the lower shelf, the drive belt for my planer gave out and it was off to the interwebs to find replacement parts.
The planer is back in business and the epoxy cured so we were back in business. First step was to construct the sides of the lower shelf and trim them to size. With that we are ready for assembly and waiting on the legs to return from powder coating.
While we waited, we began construction of the second piece in the order, a large storage box to sit adjacent to the shelving unit. We started with two boards from the same storm-downed red oak tree and cut them to size, used the jointer to create on flat reference surface and then planed the boards to uniform thickness with our newly repaired planer.
The boards were then trimmed to uniform width and glued together to form the sides of the box. Once the glue had cured, the boards were then epoxied to fill the knots and cracks.
Once the epoxy had dried we it was sanded smooth and it was time to assemble the box. We decided to use finger joints (sometimes called box joints) to give a little flare to the piece. To do this we constructed a simple jig for the table saw that when used in conjunction with a dado blade produced high-quality and visually pleasing joints.
Once the joints were set in place, the next step as to round over the top edge of the box using a 1/4″ round bit in the router. This gave the box a more polished look.
Then a handle needed to be added to the side.
Lastly an insert for the bottom needed to be cut using a rabbiting bit on the router. This was done by taking several passes, each slightly deeper than the previous pass until we reached the required depth.
The next step was to assemble the lower cubbyholes. Since all the sides will be visible, we decide to use floating tenons which will provide stability and not be visible. Once the piece was assembled, it was clamped and the excess glue was removed with a damp rag.
So it was finally time for the scariest part of the project… routing the channel for the legs that the top will appear to hover under. One mistake would have meant starting over on the top. To make the channels we used a jig that we had previously built and things went super smooth. We then test fit a scrap piece and then the actually legs newly returned from the powder coating shop.
Once we had a good fit, we used a forstner bit to create space for the weld-nuts on the underside of the legs. We then drilled a whole all the way through the top to allow us to bolt the top to the legs from the underside.
After a ton of sanding, we applied the first coat of finish. This is always our favorite part of any project as you get to see all of the hard work you put into joining, grain selection, epoxying and sanding come to life in the form of a beautiful piece of wood.
Here are the pieces in their new home at Exercise Therapy of Kansas City
