Furniture Design - Cats Do Not Like Table Saws

After blogging this morning I got to that leveling job I mentioned yesterday. It was actually not so bad. What I learned: make sure the table legs are plumb before screwing them on, and you need at least two screws arranged vertically in each plane to make sure they don't tilt afterward. Lost anyone yet? Here's my beautiful flush counters:



They're less than 1/16th of an inch off, so I'm content.

Then I went off to Home Depot to buy another round of lumber- its beginning to look a lot like a wood shop in here- to start on the futon prototype. I had to rip a 3/4" square out of some 2x4s for the firring strips to sit in. To do this I needed to use the table saw loaned to me yesterday by Paul. It did not go over well with the cats, who flew from the room as fast as I have ever seen, and went up and hid in my bedroom closet.

After trimming the 2x4s, beveling the edges and squaring them up, I continued with the tedium of mounting 14 firring strips to the inside of the notched out sections, secured everything with wood screws (nail gun nails might have worked better, but alas, I have not a nail gun). What I was left with, I think is actually pretty good- I'm strongly considering making this a final version.



The only difficult parts that will need to be made more than once are the arm sections, but those can be made and scrapped independent of the main seating area. I tested it out, and not only does it support my weight very well, its actually very comfortable! By the end of the week I expect to have a futon and none of you will have any excuse to not visit me. The futon-half in place:



Right now I'm going outside to do some sketching for the arm sections, which I'll post tomorrow if I'm happy with any of them.

Thanks for reading!