Made of pine, walnut stained (originally), polyurethane finish, with inlayed
of walnut and maple checkerboard.
Wood shop, 7th or 8th grade. This was my first woodworking
project, done in the context of this class. I do not remember being
overally interested in the project, but I certainly remember a whole
lot of things from having built it. I think this just confirms that
if you want to teach people, have them actively work at something:
don't bore them by lecturing while they passively tune out. I still
use this table to this day.
The inlayed checkboard has a neat trick to it that I remembered to
this day and which I employed again on the
Benches project. The trick is that you never actually cut out
little squares. You cut out strips, glue alternate pieces together,
then cut them the otherway to give you new strips. Flip every other
one an dreglue and you have a checkerboard. I got extra credit for
doing this.