Excedo Side Table

With one board, you can put together this side table that packs in a bunch of great woodworking techniques.

- Austin Waldo

I enjoy a good scrap wood project as much as the next woodworker but you can only make so many cutting boards. Surprisingly, the Excedo Table was originally designed to utilize many of the less desirable offcuts leftover from other larger furniture projects. I tend to choose straight rift sawn parts for my furniture over flat sawn most of the time. I like this look but it can be very wasteful. So as we will discuss later, if you turn a flat sawn board on edge you now have a straight quarter sawn that works perfect for the table top.

The Excedo Table is a fun and simple project containing all kinds of great furniture making techniques and can be adjusted to meet your needs. This table works great as a single side table or can be part of a nesting set if you want to make a second. I recommend adjusting the leg height up or down by 2" so the tops can slip past each other slightly.

Prepare the Parts

This table can be made with mixmatched parts you have laying around the shop or extra time can be spent to grain match the legs to the feet. If you choose the latter, you will need one board that is 8/4 (2" thick) 9"-10" wide and at least 82" long. Ideally, the board you choose will be clear, without knots and have a nice rift sawn edge on each side with flat sawn in the middle.

Start by roughly marking out the blanks. Each blank will contain a foot or leg on the outer edges and the inner material will be used for the top. Mark 19" for a foot section, then 21' for a leg section, then 19" for a foot section, then 21" for a leg section. Cut out the blanks on a chop saw taking care to mark each one and keep them in order.

Lightly joint and plane the faces of these blanks. Only take off what you need to get them flat and parallel. Go ahead and mark the end grain of the blanks with numbered lines so they are easy to identify and reassemble once ripped.