This project was mainly driven by the need to make use of some left over oak veneered MDF. It's the same material as I used for the previous project - the coat and shoe rack, and I needed to clear some space in my workshop which meant using up the rest of it. Because some of the pieces were quite short, I had the idea of making some bedside tables, and when I started using SketchUp to make a 3D model I found that I had just enough material to make 2x matching ones. Unfortunately some of the material had some mould on it, so I couldn't use everything that I had.
I cut the larger pieces to length on the mitre saw and the shorter pieces on the cross cut sled on my tablesaw as they were more manageable.
I assembled them using cleats as they would be hidden by the solid oak trim on the front of each shelf, and I knew they'd be nice and strong and it would be quicker than cutting dado joints. I used some offcuts from the oak parquet coffee table top that I made recently for the cleats.
I used some scraps of oak to cut some trim for the sides of the top shelf to hide the MDF edges and glued and taped them in place I used some boiled linseed oil to better match the colour to the finish on the rest of the pieces.
Finally, I used a rabbet bit on the router to cut a channel on the back where I could flush fit a piece of 4mm plywood. This was then cut to size and glued and nailed on.
I didn't have any use for the bedside tables so I listed them for sale on Gumtree, and they sold within a week!
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