Creation Process
This is a series of blog posts I made while creating the kotatsu gaming table. I want to be open about my creative process, and the mistakes I learn from along the way.
The original blog posts are here: https://yo.asmbly.org/
Newest
Oldest
Post 5
Its done! I made a website too. tayloredtables.com (I also have pics there of the cyberpunk desk I made)
Next step is to find a customer that wants to commission their own table.
What it looked like after finishing, but before the inserts.
The felt inserts are made from felt spray glued to hardboard. I couldn’t cut the hardboard to perfectly fit without showing a little of the base underneath at some edges. So I added a felt strip on the edges that the top felt folds over. The idea was that this would add extra thickness to the edges while still being compressible which would fill those gaps. If I didnt include the strip when folding the felt over there would be a bad looking step down from the hardboard to the felt edge. Its hard to explain, but trust me i needed the felt strip to make it look good.
​
2 problems.
​
One, the felt couldnt be cut to thin or it wouldnt hold together, so the edges ended up being thicker than i wanted.
​
Two, the hardboard was already way to tight fitting, so adding the extra felt edges made everything to thick to fit. There was really only a few edges that needed the felt strips. The rest would have been fine just folding the top felt tight over the edge. Next time i need to give the inserts like 1/16” gap on all sides, then only felt strip one side.
​
Ended up having to cut off a lot of the edges, undoing my work.
Messed up attaching the felt evenly here. Ended up with a very small margin on the top right.
Gluing up all the inserts.
Here’s my final stats for the project
Total time spent : 252h:25m (aka about 4 months)
Total time waisted (because of fixing errors or redoing work): 108:55
Time spent that could easily be reduced: 33:15
Total Cost: $2205
Total Cost minus membership fees, waisted material, and one time purchases: $1170
Final thoughts
7/10
I wouldnt sell this to someone. There are too many problems. The interior felt insert doesnt perfectly fit, so its pushed up on a corner. I’d want the cherry covers to sit in line with the outside top pieces. The walls of the table should be thicker and connect more strongly with the wood bottom. The metal base is to close to the tables edge, making the table look to thick and clashing with the look of the corner cuts. The bottom doesnt sit flat on the exterior bars of the metal base since it bows up. But most importantly its unstable on the long edges because the leg base is to small. Pushing on the long edge easily tips the table.
​
But I now know how to fix all of these problems for the next one ;)
Post 4
Got the covers made! Their 4 segments of cherry.
Before I show you more, I need advice for something. When i glued up the cherry boards, one of the glue joints didnt fully press together which left this gap. Anyone know how to easily fix or fill this? I’m hesitant about using wood filler, since it will finish as a different color and stand out.
Added these corner cuts to each segment
I used a router to cut the 45 degree edge, but realized after it would have been much easier and faster to use the table saw.
The router gave me all sorts of trouble, like with these edge chips, cuts, and gouges. These are just a few. But when the bottom left mistake happened, it actually gave me the idea to make the corner cuts. And it looks SO much better with the comer cuts! It also helps hide any alignment issues between the covers, even though there really isnt any other than micro millimeter stuff.
​
Also those cuts on the bottom edges that go in 1 1/2” are so the covers can slot into the tables center. This prevents the covers from sliding off.
Made a wand for lifting up the covers. Theres a hole in the bottom of the table that you poke the wand through to lift a cover from the underside
The covers took a super long time to make because of this. These are my original covers, and i actually like their look better than the new ones. Their flush with the outer table top. Made from cherry veneer with MDF glued on the underside edges. This let me shave the mdf so i could adjust the height until it became flush. My vaneer wasnt thick enough alone. Plus veneer would have been a pain to sand flush. Then a rim of walnut was glued on to hide the mdf and veneer edge.
​
This was all to avoid expansion, since the fit was to be tight and MDF and veneer dont expand nearly at all (i think).
However, two problems arose.
​
First i couldnt remove the glue on top of the veneer from when i attached the walnut without chipping the veneer and revealing the ugly underwood (it was also taking me a super long time to do). Its hard to see in the photo, but if you zoom in on the one above you can see the chipping in the bottom left coner.
​
Second i forgot i had these corner brackets, so the covers cant reach the edge. I would have need to cut the corners on 2 covers, re glue the walnut where i cut (i didnt have any more of that size so i would have needed to cut more), and sand the walnut down until it fit snug with the brackets.
​
With both of these problems, i decided to just throw out the covers i spent 20ish hours on and start over.
Lastly Im debating adding pegs between the covers so they can slot into each other. It would keep everything in line nicely, but when you use the wand to push a cover up to get your hand under and remove it it would put torquing force on the peg thats inserted into the neighboring cover. So i would also need to remove the wood under the peg hole to give it space to rotate down. Bit idk if the work is worth it
Post 3
Finished the frame to support the top! I actually already made this out of wood, but it turned out to be to weak. I could have remade it with thicker wood, but there would still have been a chance it was to weak, so metal was the safest bet.
Tip: Despite the name, dont use the grinding wheel on the angle grinder to clean up welds. Use the sander attachment. Turns a 2 hour job into a 15 minute one.
Attached to the legs. Got them from flowyline.com
Plasma cut these long holes in the side so i could attached the heater later. In hindsight, should have either bought the heater first, then drilled holes exactly where i needed them, or used the angle grinder to hand cut. This plasma cutting was difficult and not perfectly clean.
Drilled holes for the bolts to connect
I wanted the bolt head to fit on this side to look cleaner, but realized the holes on top didnt allow space for a wrench to fit. The small holes also make tightening these hard. next time im a just cut a square hole on top.
Post 2
Last time i was trying to figure out how to attach the top edge pieces in a removable way. I was thinking of using hinges, but that didnt work for a number of reasons. Instead went with painstakingly hand chiseling 11 square pegs, then gluing the pegs to the inside wall.
And here the cool part that i hope works. I put all the pegs on the inside, so when the outer top panels expand they do so mostly outwards, meaning i can get the inside panels very flush.
​
Next time though, going with a steel cylinder glued into the square pegs, that way i can just drill the 11 holes and not worry about expansion.
​
Also cut the cover to size! It needs more work to separate it into 4 panels. The thing is way to heavy. Also giving the panels some trim to hide the ugly truth that its just veneer glued to mdf. Went with this instead of solid cherry wood in order to avoid expansion problems. I wanted the inside panels to sit flush with the outer top part.
But maybe next time i do go with solid wood, and make the trim welded metal to prevent expansion.
Post 1
You’ve probably seen me around because I’ve been creating a this table for 2 months now and are at the space often. Thought I’d start showing my progress to better document my issues.
​
Right now I’m trying to decide how to attach the top 4 boards so that they are removable so you can store stuff under them. Original idea was to use invisible cabinet hinges, but after prototyping the idea, it simply wont work (i mean i could use more expensive 170 degree hinges with short profiles, but i’ve already tried 2 different hinges, and it just adds more complexity + failure points)
​
This is table assembled currently
These top panels will lift off for storage space.
Current plan to cut this cylinder part in half to create 2 pegs with square bases that the tops will slot on to. Going to have all the pegs up against this internal wall to give the wood space to expand. Will probably use 3 or 4 pegs total for each of the 4 top pieces.
There’s TONS of evidence on the table of my failures, so if you want to know more about why you see a certain thing or learn from me, just ask. Here or in person.