Gino Espinoza

I was pretty much convinced from the start, that if I was going to take this woodworking hobby head-on, my first project would definitely have to be a woodworkers table. I had a fairly rough idea of what I wanted from some research I did on the internet. Unfortunately, much of what I found was way beyond my skill level. Keep in mind, the last time I did anything with woodworking was back in high school, and that was ummm… well, let’s just say that was awhile ago. So after a few rough sketches I came up with a basic design that focused on simplicity and core functionality. I was still tooling-up at this time and started to base my tool purchases off of what it was I needed for this project. After a few weeks of hunting down the remaining tools I was set to go. I decided to start with the top first. I began by ripping a 4′x8′ sheet of 3/4” ply straight down the center length-wise. I then stacked and glued the two pieces to form a 1 1/2” base which would later become the underlayment of the top. After taking the space limitations of my garage into consideration, I decided to trim 24” off the end, leaving me with a 2′x6′ rough top. I then glued up some 1/2″ Alder to form the finish of the top and sides. Why Alder? Honestly, that decision came down to me being the naive newbie woodworker that thought “hey, wood is wood” and “The only place you can buy wood is at the big box store, right?”. If I would have known then what I know now, I think I would have gone a different route. All in all I’m still pretty happy with it, not to mention it gets plenty of use. Enjoy!