Coffe Table

I had about a metre of beech worktop left over when I put in a new kitchen; I thought it would make a nice coffee table.

You will need a mitre saw like this to be able to cut the frame accurately. If the edges of the frame or not perfectly true the legs will be wonky. My saw also cuts angles so I used it for the 45 degree cuts I needed for the corner brackets.

For the top: Beech kitchen worktop - 95x 60cm (38mm thick)
For the legs: 2 metres of  45x45mm softwood.
For the frame: 3 metres of 70x22mm softwood.

My top is 95x60cm. If your top is a diiferent size you will need to adjust the size of your frame accordingly.

Using a mitre saw cut :

Sides: 2 x 79cm.
Ends: 2 x 44cm.

Four Corner brackets with ends at 45 degrees -  the long side is 10cm

The next thing I did was make a jig to hold the frame whilst I put each corner together. Its just a flat peice of 3/4" ply with a couple of battens at right angles and a couple of blocks of wood screwed on so that I had something to clamp the peices of the frame to whilst I screwed and glued the corner brackets in place. I also made a small square spacer that ensures the I have to right gap between the sides and ends for the legs to fit into.

Do one corner at a time using the jig. Once the corner bracket has been screwed on it will hold the parts together and you can remove it from the jig and move to the next corner.

The frame is fixed to the top using four metal brackets. These brackets should have slotted holes so that the screws can slide in the slot if the top expands or contracts. Otherwise there is a risk that the top will split due to changes in temperature and humidity.

I wanted it to have removable legs so I decided to use four of these connectors to fit the legs.

I did two coats.