Ming Coffee Table

This interesting table was commissioned by a customer who wanted a ming-style table with a granite top for her living room. The dimensions were pretty large, 42 x 60, but the added 300 lbs of granite made for an interesting project.

I was given a photograph of the general design idea, and found some others online to help put a good working drawing together. The Ming Dynasty tables were notable for the legs -- curved or straight, they ended with a horse-hoof element.

I decided to build 6x6 blanks for the legs using 8/4 African Mahogany. The rails are 2 x 4 and are morticed into the legs with traditional European joint. The Chinese mitered joint is a little time consuming for this project and customer was happy with the idea.


I cut the legs on bandsaw, morticed and sanded to 150 grit. The rails had to be tenoned and dry-fit so the leg curve could be transcribed to end of rail. I ran the rails through table saw and hand planed to approximate shape and finished with belt sander and palm sander. Then all glued up.


The 1/2 x 2 mahogany risers were glued and screwed to rails and 2x4 fir support lattice installed to hold the 3/4 plywood support for granite. After everything was fair and sanded, I cut a 1/4 in. vee with the router on inside edge for accent.

Dyed before staining to bring the different colors into harmony.

Thankfully, I didn't have to mess with the granite. It was installed after I delivered the table.

Looked pretty good!
















Some Additional tables for the Media Room:

The customer liked the Ming table, so she had me make an end table in that style and three round tables for the long sectional couch.

I used the vacuum bag to make the top for endtable since it was so large and solid wood for the round tables.

A note on making the round aprons. I made up a form with three layers of 3/4 MDF cut to the inside dim of apron. The form was brought to perfect round by spinning on a center pin against belt sander. Belt sander was clamped on its side and the form spun against it.

Recipe is 1 layer of 1/8 bending poplar, 2 layers of 3/8 wiggle board and finally the finish veneer of African Mahogany. To get a perfect joint on the veneer, I just cut 1 in long and taped the surface of lower piece where it would overlap that 1 inch. After applying glue and temp clamp, I cut the overlap with a sharp blade and removed the waste. Then put on the band clamp, and we're done!

All pieces were dyed with a secret mixture of red, brown and black then stained with Minwax Red Mahogany.