Let’s say you have a hypothetical guy. Let’s call him… cardiowattle. Let’s say he lives about 2 blocks from a Lowes, has a large garage, some very basic tools (hammer, screwdrivers, saws, maybe a power drill), and no knowledge of wood working beyond that learned in 7th grade shop. How hard would it be to put together a simple table from scratch?
I foun… I mean, cardiowattle has found some plans online at buildeazy.com. They look simple enough. But being a complete naif, is unsure of what other tools would be necessary (do … does he need a table saw? A belt sander? Can these be rented from Lowes?), what kind of wood is good (painted or not, does it matter?), and how much this might cost.
Anybody else ever just try making something like this with no experience at all? Is this feasible?
Amateur furniture builder here (I’m amateur a lot of things). The answer to your question is: It depends. It really depends on what the plans are for.
Unless you just want the satisfaction of building it yourself, just buy one and save yourself some money.
If you want to build one, and you want something very basic, you can get furniture grade hardwood plywood at Lowe’s or Home Depot in the $50-$60 range for a whole sheet. You won’t need a whole sheet, but you will pay almost as much for a partial. You’ll need a handheld circular saw (I don’t think anyone rents these but I may be wrong), a straightedge and some clamps to hold the straightedge in place while your making the cuts. The most important part is making straight, square cuts. You will need a power drill and some screws for assembly. You can upgrade this basic table by hiding the plywood edges with veneer or make some framing strips from solid hardwood. You can sand it by hand and stain it a variety of colors, or clear, or you can paint it.
If you want something more elaborate, get yourself a book on making Craftsman, aka Mission, aka Stickley (okay purists, don’t rag on me for grouping these together) furniture. This style, in its simplest form, consists of straight cuts, square joints, and clean lines. It’s well suited for a beginner.
If the plans you have are intended for solid hardwood, get ready to spend some money. If they are suitable for softwood, like white pine, the $ won’t be so bad.
I apologize if this doesn’t help much. I can’t help you much without knowing what the plans are. Unless you’re looking to get into this as a hobby, it doesn’t make sense to invest in good tools and my personal opinion is that buying cheap tools is a waste of time and money.
Thanks for the information. I was actually thinking about doing this as a V-day gift to my girlfriend who is currently table-less, but it was more of a spur of the moment thought as I drove past Lowes than a carefully considered plan. Here are the plans if you’re curious.
Actually, if you know the dimensions of the table ahead of time, you can get Lowe’s to cut the plywood to size in the store. Not only is it easier to transport, they’ll do a pretty good job getting the cuts square. It’s usually a small fee, or sometimes they’ll do it for free.
Cutting the pieces and attaching them isn’t that difficult or time consuming. But spend lots of time on the finish steps. The difference between knock together furniture and nice stuff is the finish. Take the time, do it right.
I’m assuming a belt sander would be best. But I don’t have a belt sander. Will hours with sandpaper have the same effect? Will the plywood look okay if I don’t paint it?
If you do something simple then you’ve got a decent chance of success. By simple I mean something like a shaker style coffee table (something with nice simple straight legs, fairly simple construction throughout). Fortunately, according to your link you’ve got plans for exactly this type of table.
You could make it all with just a circular saw, a drill, and a screwdriver. A chop saw will make cutting the legs and the rails a lot easier, but is going to cost you some money. A finishing sander will come in handy.
It’s going to be more expensive than just buying a cheap coffee table from wally-world, even if you use the cheapest wood.
How much it costs will depend a bit on what wood you pick. Pine is going to be the cheapest, but pine is a soft wood which means it will dent easily. It’s also an easy wood to work with. Oak is a very hard wood, which means it’s a lot harder to dent, but it’s also a lot harder to work with. I wouldn’t recommend using oak for a beginner. Poplar is in between, more durable and more expensive than pine, but less expensive and less durable than oak. Maple is a bit better than poplar. Cherry and walnut are harder and are good for furniture, but again you are talking more expensive woods here.
Even though it’s not the best of woods, I’d probably recomend pine for a beginner. Note that there are different grades of pine (and other woods). You don’t want to get the el-cheapo stuff because it is full of knots and looks crappy. You’ll have to see what Lowes has available for the top piece, but you can probably get the entire thing in one piece in about the right size. A table saw will come in handy for cutting a larger piece of wood to size. If all you have is a circular saw though, you can make that work, especially if you clamp a piece of wood to it to use as a guide to make nice straight cuts.
You’ll need a finishing sander more than a belt sander. You should stain or paint the wood. Plywood isn’t good for unfinished work. The typical wood finish is stain it to the desired color then slap on a few dozen coats of polyurethane to protect the finish. You can also paint and polyurethane.
Yes! In inexperienced hands, a belt sander is a Weapon of Mass Destruction.
Any kind of sander on plywood has the potential for a major oopsie - the face veneer (outermost pretty layer) of a sheet of plywood is very thin and too much sanding will go right through it, exposing the typically uglier internal plies.
Audiobottle, it is certainly doable to build very nice furniture with basic handtools (carpenters have been doing it for centuries), however there’s a learning curve. Rather than trying to make a gift for your girlfriend right off, I’d suggest starting with something where appearance isn’t so critical - shop furniture is a great way to learn; build some knock-down sawhorses, or a simple workbench, or some shelving. It’s not complicated and if you make some little mistakes it’s not a big deal. In addition you can use what you just built to help on the next project. As you get more comfortable and skilled move on to the showier stuff.
Almost every time I’ve tried to use a belt sander, I’ve regretted it. It seems I spend as much time repairing the damage as I would have if I had sanded by hand to start with. For somethin like a table top, I prefer to hand-plane and then hand-sand.
If you want to sand electrically, you want a finish sander, as mentioned previously. I prefer the 1/4 sheet type because I can use the sheets for hand sanding also. The finish sander vibrates in little circles about 1/4" in diameter. Be sure to sand down to at least 400 grit to get the marks from the little circles sanded until they’re too smal to see (another reason I like to hand-sand).
More important than all the other advice so far: You don’t have time to do this for a valentine’s day gift. You’re too late, especially for a novice, unless you have a lot of free time.
I’ve looked at the plans. Thats a good design for a beginner but there are some issues. The biggest issue is this: the plans call for full dimensions on the lumber. For example, the legs are listeds as 2"x 2". They make a point of telling you that this is “before dressing or gauging”, but, do they adjust the length of the rails to account for the fact that the 2"x 2" you buy a Lowe’s will only be 1.5" x 1.5"? You would definitely want to dry fit everything together before you start assembling.
I would never use MDF for a table top. Plywood would not be so bad if you can hide the edges.
You can get away with attaching the table top the way they describe if you use plywood. Plywood is relatively stable. Do not use this method if you choose solid boards for the top. The top must be allowed to ‘float’ when the wood expands and contracts with changes in temperature and humidity.
The 45 degree cuts that they show for the corner blocks are going to be difficult for a beginner to make without a table saw. With this design, the blocks are mandatory.
Speaking as someone who is currently surrounded by new furniture, some of it self-made, some if it by Ikea, I say don’t try to make it yourself. Not unless you really, really like making it, because then the time spent is its own reward.
But it is all rather pointless if you realise you can get a perfectly fine coffee table for under 15 dollars, with a very pretty finish, at Ikea.
Something else to keep in mind is that most women are very, very choosey about what to put in their homes. Material, style, size, how it compliments other stuff she has. You’re running a big risk of making something she doesn’t really like, but she will fake a smile because she doesn’t want to hurt your feelings, the same you would with a homemade meal she put a lot of effort in that turned out bad. Only a coffeetable lasts yers; a bad meal just an hour or two.
If you want to treat your GF to furniture, just take her to the nearest Ikea.
Okay, I think I’ve been persuaded out of this. The V-day deadline isn’t too important (she’s in another state so I wouldn’t see here then anyway), and she’s definitely not choosy about her furniture (her present coffee table is actually a TV stand we got a Target), but I definitely don’t have the skills or the time to develop those skills right now. Shame. It seems like it’d be a fun project just to do on the weekends. Maybe some other time.
Thanks for the advice!