Making Wood Tables: Practical Projects for Every Room

Provides 32 projects for making wooden tables, from computer desks to split-top sofa tables. Step-by-step instructions are provided and each stage is illustrated.

Foster, a professional woodworker, offers an excellent guide to building a variety of tables. There is something here for woodworkers on every skill level. Projects range in difficulty from a simple desk made from two filing cabinets and a door to more complex designs for experienced woodworkers. The finished items range in size from a tiny plant table to a large dinner table. Also included are plans for a workbench and a computer desk. The plans are well assembled with profuse illustrations and straightforward instructions, and several useful chapters describe tools and techniques. Recommended for all public libraries with woodworking collections.
Jonathan Hershey, Akron- Summit Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The key word here is in the subtitle: practical. This is a nuts-and-bolts, no-nonsense woodworking book. For although the title says it's about making tables and half the book is devoted to such projects, the rest constitutes a well-thought-out, well-illustrated basic woodworking text. The third chapter, modestly called Table-Making Quiz, might also properly be entitled Stupid Woodworking Tricks, for anyone who has eaten any sawdust will probably have made one of the mistakes Foster talks about. There's not a lot of flashy stuff here, but there's no trashy stuff, either, other than the mistakes shown in the quiz, that is. Jon Kartman