A Table for Books

A hardwood and glass table that invites readers to display current reads, favorite books, and flashiest covers. The unusual wooden form demands attention and brings people in to explore the books kept in the dramatic table.


This table was designed in about two to three weeks, and the remaining month was spent on producing the design. The loose concept was quickly determined through sketched and quarter scale prototypes, the construction was validated in Solidworks, and I had one shot to manufacture the finalized design with my purchased materials.

This project was my first foray into designing furniture, and I think my inexperience truly shows! It is certainly not the type of form wood typically lends itself to, and the manufacturing of this table quickly and often showed me why.
Duration:
7 weeks

Skills:
Scale Prototyping
Solidworks Modeling
Woodworking
The form language of this table was inspired by the mushroom gills I had previously been experimenting with in FUNGUY, however pushed into a further stylization that evoke something closer to turbines and fins rather than mushrooms.
Selection of development sketches.
Surface modeled form, used to generate table body pieces.
Profiles of fin cuts.
From there, wood was purchased and then processes and manufactured. The glass top was ordered to fit.
Biscuit joined walnut cuts.
Corners cleaned up with chisel.
Completed support piece.
24" diam. circle cut with router, jig created to create chamfer cut on bandsaw.
Completed base piece.
"Gear" support piece cut from walnut plywood using the Shaper Origin.
Laser etched profile guidelines.
Top and bottom edges cut with Shaper Origin, profile curve cut on bandsaw.
Profiles cut, routered, and sanded.

Once all of the pieces had been cut and sanded, the table was dry fit, pilot holes and countersinks were drilled, and the table was assembled and finished with oil.

Pilot holes and countersinks in bottom surface of base piece.
Pilot holes and countersinks drilled into support piece.
Jig to dry fit profiles to support piece and transfer pilot hole placements.

The table was fully dry fit upside down since there were no  mechanical anchors between the base and profile pieces besides the final screws. The profiles friction fit into the channels of the support piece, however, due to the length of the profiles in comparison to the amount of support actually given to them, the profile pieces had the leverage to shift around.

Between the friction fit support piece and the weight of the base, the profile fins were able to be held in place without an excess of clamps. Clamps were only used when screwing a specific fin to the base to keep the pilot holes aligned correctly.

Profile fins were screwed into base in a 1-4-7; 2-5-8; 3-6-9 pattern, then screwed into the support piece in the same order to ensure even distribution of support and tension throughout the assembly process.