Coffee Table - Update 2

This post has been sitting in my drafts for over a month! Sorry to all my fans.... More frequent posts are coming.

Once the table was laminated into one monolithic piece, I used a hand saw for careful cuts around the legs to take big pieces of waste off and I used a Sawzall to trim down the sides of the table and cut the corner radii. 

Here's the table just before I went at it with a Sawzall

This is after a couple hours of Sawzall and handsaw work

The sides of the table I wanted to match the 5”radius of the table ends. The table ends I was able to trace out a 5” radius on each individual piece and cut out on the bandsaw before laminating all the pieces together but that wouldn’t work for the long ends of the table. What I did here is make a 5” radii gauge out of plywood and then I used a Shinto rasp to work my way to the 5” radius, continually checking with the gauge as I went. I just discovered the Shinto rasp – This is an awesome little tool made of a web of small saw blades. It has a much better feel than a conventional coarse rasp and removes stock quicker too. I Googled the meaning/translation of Shinto, apparently it means "The way of the Gods" I dig this.

Now you can see where I started to use the Shinto rasp in the middle, that curve on the side is coming in while I keep checking I'm not over carving with the gauge.

Here's a better shot of all the hacking and carving I've done just before getting the angle grinder out. 

Next I used an angle grinder with a super abrasive disc to do the rough shaping. This disc has teeth on it like a very coarse wood rasp and removes wood wicked fast. For areas where I need to be more careful like the tips of the feet I used the Shinto rasp. This process took about 3 hours, it felt quick for the amount of work done.

Here you can see I just got started on one leg, there's my Shinto rasp and 5"radius gauge to the left and angle grinder to the right

Here it is nearly done grinding, starting to look naughty!

Very naughty!

Flipped upright, less naughty

After fishing with the angle grinder I think the table weighs around 80lbs which I like, it’s definitely heavy but not immovable.

Below is a picture of the carving tools I’ve been using. I start with the handsaw and Sawzall for removing chunks of waste, then move to the angle grinder with a Kutzall course carving disc to get the final form and finish carving the sensitive areas prone to chipping with the Shinto rasp - It's the way of the Gods.  

I'm missing the blade for the Sawzall, but I used a 9" Diablo Demo Demon Blade by Freud which is scary good at removing large chunks of hardwood. There's also a Kutzall sphere bit in a laminate trimmer in this pic, I don't think I used that on this project though.

Here's a closer look at the Kutzall abraded disc, yikers island!

Lastly, the Shinto rasp, love this tool.

Next post will be on the sanding and finishing, thanks for reading!

Nate