24 ■ POPULAR WOODWORKING
Concrete & Wood Table
a sheet of melamine as a base, and
gluing the edges of the form on top
of the base in the desired shape.
I use the fi rst approach when
creating simple rectangular slabs,
but fi nd the second approach much
easier for projects with complex
shapes (like this one). It allows you
to sketch the desired shape directly
onto the melamine base with a dry-
erase marker, and then cut the side
pieces to fi t as you lay them out
around the sketch.
To make the form for my table,
I cut two rectangular base piec-
es, with the larger one being a bit
longer than the length of the table
(including the angled waterfall), and
both being wider than the sides of
the table by a few inches.
The waterfall base needs to
support the weight of the concrete
during the pour, so I cut triangular
support pieces from scrap melamine.
The support pieces don’t need to be
pretty, so pocket holes work well to
secure the support pieces to the base.
However, melamine is slippery and
the support pieces have to be aligned
such that the two bases provide a
perfect tabletop-to-leg transition.
As such, I aligned the triangular
supports using a straight edge and
hot glued them to the base before
I screwed them to the base. I could
then clamp the waterfall base against
the supports and secure it using hot4
4 The form has to support the
weight of the concrete waterfall.
5 The sides of the waterfall form
were shimmed in lieu of a compli-
cated triple miter cut.
6 As long as the inside corners
align, the outside of the form can
be a mess.
7 For perfect caulk lines: a caulk
gun, paste wax, 100% silicone
caulk and a fondant ball tool.5
6
glue and screws.
Pieces of the form that won’t
bear signifi cant weight can often be
joined using only hot glue on exte-
rior seams, which greatly simplifi es
the process. Also, you’ll be much
more effi cient if you can let go of
the woodworker’s desire for perfect
joints. Small gaps and misalign-
ments at interior joints will be fi lled
with silicone caulk when you seal
the form, so they won’t aff ect the
fi nal concrete product.
Before cutting the sides for the
form, I use a dry-erase marker to
sketch the angular “wing” shape
on the base of the form. I ripped
1 " strips of melamine on my table,
and used my miter saw to cut the
side pieces to fi t from the 1” strips.
The side pieces were placed on the
base of the form (using the sketch
as a guide), and secured to the base
using hot glue at exterior seams.Compound Angles
The sides of the waterfall form were
a bit tricky. If you’re like me, com-
pound miter joints make your head
spin. To cut the sides perfectly, you’d
need to cut a triple compound miter
joint to account for the inward angles
of the waterfall and top, as well as
the 15° outward slant of the water-
fall. However, if you let go of your
woodworking instinct and remember
it doesn’t matter how the outside of7