Craftsman Style Coffee Table – Part 5

I got a bit more done on the Craftsman Style Coffee Table that I have been puttering with on and off for the past few months.

I was able to get the mortise and tenon completed for the bottom shelf. As well, I got the ‘buttons’ made and skirt mortised which will be used to secure the table top to the base.

I first made a full width tenon on the shelf and then divided it into three. The plan is to only glue the center tenon thereby allowing the others to ‘float’. This, I hope, will compensate for wood movement.

This is also the general premise for the buttons that I created. The buttons will be inserted into the skirt mortises and then secured to the table top. Since the mortises are a larger width than the buttons they will be able to move as the wood expands and contracts.

Here are some more photos:

This is an end view of the coffee table:

Here is a view of the bottom shelf and the three tenons:

Because of the size of the shelf it would have been hard to create the tenon on the table saw so created this router simple jig. It is just two pieces of MDF that is tightened against the shelf. The benefit of the jig was that when tightened both sides were an equal distance from the edge ensuring that the tenon would be the correct length on both sides.

Here is the mortise for the shelf:

Here are the buttons:

Now all that is left is the sanding and the finishing.

You can follow along with the building of the rest of this project via these links:

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Part 1

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Part 2

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Part 3

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Part 4

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Part 5

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Part 6

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Part 7

Craftsman Style Coffee Table Done!

Back to the shop…