Couch Table

Ever want to chill on the couch while eating some dinner? In this project, I made a table specially made for the sofa using CNC router cut wood.

1. 3/4" x 35" x 30" wood (any type)
2. 14-16 1" wood screws
3. CNC Router
4. 1/4" and 1/8" end mill
5. Drill, and bit
6. plastic nail and nail gun (to keep wood on router)
7. Wood Glue (Optional)
8. CAD/CAM

Although this is possible to make without a CNC router, wood will likely not be square, and not fit together well.

There are many different types tables like this, different sizes, and leg designs, but I ended up choosing this design for a few reasons. For one, it was the version that allowed for the most simple router configuration, with only 5 pieces being cut from one big piece of wood. The second reason is because my grandpa used this design when he made a table like this in his youth. This design is simple, yet effective and can be done with minimal setup.

I chose to make this prototype 1/4th scale, with 1/4" thick plywood. Instead of using screws to connect the pieces, I just used hot glue. the prototype turned out a bit crooked, so in the future, I would want to use better wood, as well as screw for the prototype. This prototype helped me gauge the scale of the table, and somewhat determine if it is stable.

I designed this table in Fusion 360, but it can be easily done in any other 3D software. At first, I designed this table with 1" thickness wood, but after examining the prototype, I realized this was too thick, as well as cost more to use thick wood. I then changed the wood to 1/2"thickness and cut out my final design. In hindsight, I would recommend 3/4" thick wood, just to make the table more stable.

With one failed run on the CNC router, I figured out that it is optimal to program the router to cut out inside objects, and then outside objects, as well as drilling holes as the first step. these ensure that if there an issue, the rest of the parts aren't ruined. I found that these feeds and speeds are optimal for the plywood and 1/4" flat end mill I was using.

After you cut out the pieces, you should have 5 separate pieces; the 2 legs, 2 supports, and the top. You will need to drill pilot holes before you use the wood screws to connect the parts. I did this to prevent the wood from splitting. You can put wood glue if you want for a little bit extra support. after assembling my table. I realize that the table was quite unstable. To fix this, i cut out 2 extra supports. one of them was identical to the other supports, and the other is an X shape that spans the bottom of the legs. I think that these extra supports would not be needed if I had used 3/4" wood instead of 1/2" wood, as well as a type of wood stronger than plywood. Sense I added the 2 supports i ended up needing an extra 12 wood screws.

If you follow these instructions, you should now have a functional, and streamline table to use at the couch. You can always modify and change any aspect you like, such as wood stain for extra color. If you don't have one of these tables yet, I highly recommend it, as it makes watching T.V. a lot more enjoyable. This project has taught me a lot about solving problems and will likely teach you some things you didn't know before if you decide to build this.