Cylindrical Plywood & Walnut Side Table

This is another charity project so I kept the plywood and walnut theme going. I hope you like it.

I have a full build video here:

Materials Used:

• 18mm Plywood
• American Black Walnut
• Black Paint
• Polyurethane
• Chrome Feet
• Red Leather
• Black Milliput
• Wood Glue
• Contact Adhesive
• Painters Tape
• Sandpaper

Tools Used:

• Router
• Jigsaw
• Drill & Driver
• Scissors
• Clamps

To make perfect circles I used a trammel and a trim router. The pivot point was a dowel set 25cm away from the straight router bit. This will give me circles that are 50cm in diametre. I slowly lowered the the depth of the cutter with each revolution.

Once I was past half way I used the jigsaw to cut the circle free. I could then finish off the cut with the router. This just makes the circle easy to handle.

These will be the shelves so I added painters tape to the edges, this will help the wood glue adhere later. I then painted them black.

For the main body of the table I used plywood too. To make the most of the material I had I decided to create separate arcs rather than cutting one large horse shoe shape.

I started by cutting a hoop shape from some MDF. Using the trammel made this nice and easy. The outside diametre is 50cm and the inside diametre is 45cm. This means the 'walls' of the hoop is 25mm.

I then cut a 35cm opening in the front of the hoop which gives me the horse shoe shape. The I chose a random spot at the back to cut the piece in two. I made sure its wasn't central though because I want to be able overlap them later.

Then using the MDF templates as a guide to draw around I cut out the rough shapes with my jigsaw. I needed 18 small arcs and 18 large arcs. With them all cut out I could take the first 2 for each shelf section and attach the MDF with screws. This will be a guide for the flush trim bit. I could then flush trim them to match the MDF exactly.

This only needs to be done for 3 small arcs and 3 large arcs.

The full circle shelves are used as a guide now. I placed the flushed up arcs onto the circle with no glue. I just needed to make sure they followed the right curve.

I could then apply wood glue on top of that layer and add the a large arc. As you can see in the images I alternated the placement of the large arc. This is so they over lap and form a finger joint. Its a lot like a brick wall pattern. The joints are much stronger this way.

The smaller arc gets added too and then screw hold them in place while the glue dries.

When the glue was dry its just a case of flush trimming the top layer to match the bottom layer. Then its very much rinse and repeat. I did this to build up 6 layers. I made another 2 sections this way which gave me 3 arcs curves each made up of 6 layers of plywood.

Its much easier to add the finish now so I gave them 3 coats of polyurethane.

Now its time to stack the sections up. To make it easier I first glues 1 curve section to a shelf piece. let the glue dry and then started to stack them.

Wood glues is used between each joint. I made sure to wipe away any glue on the inside.

I used a heavy hamper to act as a clamp while the glue dried. I have a clamp for every job!

When the glue was dry on the stack I filled any voids on the outside.

I then placed them on a panel of walnut. I glued up previously. I traced around the shelves with a pencil. This gave me a mark to cut to with the jigsaw. I made sure to leave the line though.

I cut 1 for the top and 1 for the bottom.

Before I glue them on I made sure to sand the outside smooth and round.

I then glued the top and bottom pieces of walnut to the stack of shelves.

When the glue was dry I used the router again to flush trim it to match the plywood shelves.

I thought a heavy round over would suit the piece so I used a router bit to create that profile. Im glad I did. I think the round over works well. I did this to the top and bottom walnut pieces.

Before applying finish I carved the balloon. The Birmingham Children's Hospital logo is a red balloon and Ive been incorporating it into every project. A profile bit was used to carve the lines and then a straight bit removed the bulk material.

I used Black Milliput to inlay the string black. This sands flush to reveal the design beneath.

I used 3 coats of polyurethane to finish the piece. I sanded between each coat to give a nice smooth finish.

I put painters tape inside the balloon shape to make sure no finish got inside.

when the finish was dry I added 4 chrome feet to the bottom. These are adjustable so they can be levelled to the floor.

The tape kept the walnut free from finish so it should work a lot better with the adhesive.

The inlay is red leather. Pressing it over the carved shape leaves a mark on the underside. Its quite faint but in the right light it can be seen. I then used a pair of scissors to cut out the shape.

To glue the leather to the walnut I used contact adhesive. This gets applied to the leather and the walnut. Then its left for about 3 mins to get tacky. The leather then can be applied. I used some tweezers to help tease it into place.

That's it Done! I really hope you liked this one :)