instructables

Parsons Style Coffee Table

by darbinorvar

Modern, clean lines and solid hardwood is what makes up this Parsons style coffee table. It features a pretty
simple design, and I'm using mortise and tenon joinery for the construction. I wanted to create a real heirloom
piece that I could keep in my home for years to come! Make sure to watch the video where I go over all the parts of
the build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppFKdJTI_pI&lc=

Step 1: Rough Sawn Lumber

For the wood I"m using some rough sawn white oak I had to finish the cut with the jig saw because the
boards. I don't have any fancy milling equipment, no wood was just a little thick. Then I could cut further
joiner, not a big planer, so the majority of the work will separate these with the cross cut sled, and I'm going
be done by hand, using some hand planes. to be working and milling up each of these three
sections - so the piece for the legs, the rails and the
I began with cutting this big and heavy piece into top.
more manageable sections with the circular saw, and

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Once I had smaller sections to work with, the first and flat so that I can cut it up into smaller pieces on
goal was to flattening the pieces. Obviously these the table saw.
pieces are quite out of level, just like all rough sawn
wood is when you first start working with it. I'm using In addition to a flat board, I also need a flat side, so I
a jointing plane to start with, then a smoothing plane can run it against the fence.
for other sections and my goal is to flatten the piece
enough, where there is no rocking at all, and it's nice

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Once the boards were flattened I cut them into sections using the table saw first.

For this build, I need 3x3 inch legs, and rails, as well as a top (22x22 inches).

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Because the wood was about 2 1/4 inches, and I wanted 3x3 inch legs, I had to do a glue up to accomplish the
right size. So after cutting up the legs, I glued them up, and then trimmed to size on the table saw, and then
sanded each leg.

Step 5: Railings & Top Piece

Once the legs were done, I repeated the first milling steps with two more pieces of oak for the railings and the top.
This time I also used a power planer to remove more material, once I had gotten the board to a flat side. To
achieve the table top, I cut two pieces together and glued together.

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To create the tenons of the rails I used a dado stack to get them nice and crisp. I also chamfered the ends of the
tenons with a block plane to make sure the edges weren't too sharp.

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Once the top was glued up, I marked out the final size (22 inches). I had one good side so I cut a sliver first off with
the table saw. Then I cut the perpendicular side with a circular saw. At this point I could do the final cut with the
table saw. Once it was cut to size, I did a lot of sanding to get it nice and smooth.

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To create the mortises, I built a jig for each leg to fit tenons on the edges a little bit instead, which was
into that set the borders for where the router could much faster, plus that way the tenons fit in any
cut. When using the router, I carved it out in stages, a mortise, and nothing is too precise . I'm also using a
little bit at a time, and just made sure I removed the shoulder plane here to thin out the tenon just a touch,
dust periodically, so it didn't get in the way of the to make it fit perfectly. And this kind of plane is really
routing. nice to have when doing this type of fitting, because
you want a tight fit, but not a super tight fit, you know
I used an eight inch spiral up cut bit, and when doing just right, and it took me a couple of back and forths
it this way, you're left with roundish mortises on the to get them perfect.
corner. First I was going to square them all up using a
chisel, but then I figured I could simply round the

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And then finally, gluing the legs and the rails together, and this is the most fun moment I think, because all the
work you've done, everything is coming together. Once I had everything together I added some clamps to let it set
up while drying.

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So for this design, the legs stick up through the top and becomes part of the top. In order to do this, I needed to
create some holes for the legs inside the top. I didn't quite trust myself when it came to cutting the corners with the
jigsaw so I set up a stop block, because I figured just one 16th of an inch too much, and it won't look that great.

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I didn't want to glue the top down, but I figured if I added some screws from underneath the rails, then it would
account for any expansion and contraction over time.

Step 12: Finishing

And for a finish I wanted to use something oil based, since this table will get a lot of use, a lot of coffee cups, tea
cups, bowls of ice cream, lots of things, so I wanted something pretty durable, and rich feeling.

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For a much better perspective, make sure to check out the video where I go over each step of the build, and show
the final result!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppFKdJTI_pI&lc=

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