Got a new sofa and our old coffee table was too large to fit the space. Wife asked for a new one and I took it as an excuse to try out cutting circles with a router.
I couldn’t find poplar thick enough for a sturdy-looking table, so took a pine panel and glued it underneath my poplar panel before routing out the final shape with a router (straight bit).
Finished the top with a few coats of shellac and then polished with wax and steel wool for a smooth finish.
There’s plenty with this build that I’m not proud of, but I was surprised at how easy it was to route out the circular blank. If I did it over again, I’d have used oil-based stain so the final color isn’t so harsh across the various poplar boards. I also would’ve liked to route out some kind of design in the tabletop, but I’m still only just learning how to use the router.
Link to gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/hSzKjGF
Looks good. Poplars green tint is a pita to deal with. Usually it’s painted. Nice to see a clean stain and grain.
Thanks for the kind words! You can actually see a bit of the green poking through in the grain band to the left of the scorpion. At first I wanted to cover it up completely, but I grew to like it more and more as the spooky month was going on.