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The commission for this set of 3 tables-- a glass-topped coffee table and two end tables-- began with an e-mail from someone who had seen photos of my work online and in Fine Woodworking Design Book Six.  Early on in the design process, he sent me the image shown below and wrote, “I have always had a sneaking fascination with one of the Sierpinski curves of order 2.  Superimposed on top of the order one curve it looks cool.”

For the core of the table tops and shelves I used 1” Ultralite MDF board (very flat and stable).  I laminated it on either side with 1/4” maple veneer plywood, which was then trimmed flush as shown in the video below:

I made LOTS of small parts:

The cherry edging all came from the center of one piece of lumber, and the table legs came from the rift-sawn pieces left on either side:

I kept track of the order of the cut pieces of cherry so that the grain would be continuous in the finished piece.

a video of the last bit of assembly:

The joinery for the 4 sticks of maple that don’t glue up against the MDF is a few dowels put in after the pieces are already glued together:

The cross-cut sled I used for cutting the miters:

Together we came up with many table designs before settling on these.  Computer rendering was a very helpful tool for conveying ideas.

photos by Jim Thomas