Cherry experiment

This here is a table that I finished in late February or early March of this year. I really, really like it and enjoyed designing, constructing, and finishing it. Every step of the process was a test of my abilities.

The whole thing is made from solid cherry with the exception of the top which is 3/4" cherry plywood. The interesting thing about this particular kind of plywood is that the cherry veneer is glued to a layer of MDF rather than pine or douglas fir or whatever kind of wood makes up the interior. So, to summarize, from bottom to top, there is a layer of cherry veneer, MDF, three alternating layers of another kind of wood, MDF, and then cherry veneer on top. The advantage to this design is that the MDF has no voids or inconsistancies that you find in real wood, so the veneer is smoother and more stable than standard plywood.

The whole design was worked off of a couple of lunchtime sketches that weren't much more than some doodles that my mom might draw whilst chatting with someone on the phone(although some of here doodles are pretty intricate).

This picture illustrates a deviation I made from the initial table I pictured in my mind. When I dry-fit the table, it was very unstable and there was significant twist going on, so I had to improvise and make up some cross supports (denoted by the fact that they are not as far along in the process as the rest of the table). Up to that point, everything had been mortised and tenoned together. Not having the time to hand-cut eight more mortises and eight more tenons, I opted for screws which were eventually covered by cherry plugs cut and sanded flush. If you look really close in the next picture, you might see two at each of the visible ends of those cross-pieces.

Another detail that I really think turned out well (despite being nearly invisible in the photos) is the edging around the top. Typically, edges of furniture are wrapped with something harder than particle board, plywood, or MDF. On most of my pieces, edges that need to take a beating are wrapped with the corresponding wood, in this case cherry. Normally, the grain of that piece runs perpendicular to the plywood, but I wanted to try something different so the edge is actually made with the end grain showing (ie. the grain runs parallel to the grain of the plywood).

Of note, all of the curves on the piece were eyeballed. I just drew curves freehand that looked nice and made them into templates. No compasses here people.
Overall, a wonderful piece to build and claim for my porfolio.