How to Build a Jet Engine Coffee Table

This has been one of the more unique pieces I have had the pleasure of designing and building. The piece of machinery in the center of the coffee table is a compression chamber from a jet engine. The client who commissioned this project wanted a unique way to display the engine. After a few iterations of the design, we came up with a coffee table where a river of glass is flowing out of the jet engine. I made the base from walnut that is dyed to match some of the other millwork in the house. I reinforced the base with a hidden steel frame to help support the weight of the engine.  This is a great example of where wood meets steel.  I used one of my favorite design elements to make it look like a bridge, even though the water is flowing over the top of the bridge instead of underneath it. I think the element helps tie the theme together. I made the top from a cottonwood live-edge slab, which had some beautiful burls on it. The cottonwood tree was felled here in Colorado and provided by a local arborist, who helped slab the tree and dry the wood. Then, for the river, I used real glass versus an epoxy pour.

More pictures on my custom furniture site for custom river tables

SPECIALTY TOOLS I USED (affiliate links)

• Stanley shoulder plane https://amzn.to/3ag3Jlj

• West Systems Epoxy https://amzn.to/340xKD4

• Tracing paper roll https://amzn.to/2VHHwr1

• Titebond CA Glue Medium – 

• Titebond Accelerator – https://amzn.to/2BF5Kcl

• Japanese Dozuki Saw https://amzn.to/34CjRvG

Getting Started: Extracting the Engine

The engine arrived in a heavy wooden crate, standing upright and weighing approximately 800 pounds. My first challenge was extracting it without damaging the crate, which I wanted to preserve for return shipping.

The solution: I welded a custom tube with a spacer that locked into place and attached it to my engine hoist. This allowed me to safely lift the engine out while keeping the crate intact.

Repositioning the Engine

With the engine out of the crate, I needed to turn it on its side without damaging the delicate fins. I built a blocking rig from scrap wood to support the engine during the transition, carefully maneuvering it into position like a game of heavy-duty Tetris.

To prepare for accurate measurements, I welded a steel tubing bracket with an offset on one end. This compensated for the center opening being about an inch wider at the front, ensuring the engine sat level in its temporary crate.

Building the Base: Milling the Legs

For a table supporting this much weight, I needed substantial legs. I started with 8/4 lumber, carefully orienting each piece so that when glued together, the grain direction would disguise the fact that each leg wasn’t cut from a single piece of wood.

Key steps:

• Cut all legs to length using a stop block on the table saw for consistency
• Orient the best-looking face outward on each leg
• Lay out all joinery carefully before cutting

Creating the Joinery

I used mortise and tenon joinery throughout the base for maximum strength.

For the mortises:

• Route out the mortises using multiple passes with a smaller bit
• Square up the rounded corners with a chisel (because rounded tenons are lazy)

For the aprons:

• Mill and cut to length using stop blocks for consistency
• Cut tenon cheeks with a dado stack and sacrificial fence
• Cut top and bottom shoulders by hand for different offsets

I used a knife to mark the shoulder cut lines, which severs the wood fibers for cleaner edges and gives the saw something to track against. Creating a small channel with a chisel on the waste side of the knife line helps the saw track even better.

After test fitting, I refined the tenons with a shoulder plane until achieving a satisfying fit.

Building the Center Support

The center support holds one end of the engine and hangs from the apron using a bridle joint pinned with a through tenon.

Process:

• Create a routing jig the width of the center supports
• Rout dados on each side of the apron
• Mark the bridle joint locations and establish outside edges at the table saw
• Chisel out the waste by hand for a perfectly flat bottom

For the support piece that contacts the engine, I used through tenons for both decoration and strength. Standing the workpiece on end and cutting the cheeks with my shop jig produced much cleaner cuts than a dado blade would have.

I cut slots for wedges to secure the tenons during final assembly.

Reinforcing the Structure

To prevent the bottom from blowing out under the engine’s weight, I routed grooves in the bottom of the supports and glued in splines across the end grain for considerable added strength.

After gluing up the apron sub-assemblies, I added a support strip that would attach to a steel frame, providing additional strength and preventing the aprons from sagging under constant load.

Suspending the Engine

Getting the engine level and positioned so the glass top would pass directly through the center required careful planning.

My approach:

• Scribe the engine shape onto plywood and cut it out at the band saw
• Refine the shape with a spindle sander until perfectly centered
• Do a dry fit with a plywood strip the thickness of the tabletop
• Mark the position on the cross brace and rout out a ledge

The front of the engine was stepped, so I recut my template multiple times to create the step effect, routing each level until the engine fit snugly.

Final Details on the Base

Before final glue-up, I tackled a few finishing touches:

Leg tapers: Using a quick makeshift jig, I cut a slight taper on the outside of each leg, saving the wedge-shaped cutoffs to use as clamping cauls later.

Decorative pegs: I created another jig to cut mortises in the center of each bridle joint for pegs that add ornamentation and backup strength. After milling stock to fit and cutting slots for wedges, I glued them in place.

Glue-up strategy: I glued the center support as a sub-assembly first, then the legs using the saved wedge cutoffs as clamping cauls (it’s much easier to clamp against square surfaces than tapered ones).

Adding Steel Reinforcement

While the wood frame held the engine’s weight without issue, I wanted insurance against sagging over time.

The steel framework:

• Cut angle iron and drill attachment holes
• Mark the shaft location and cut arches with an angle grinder
• Add decorative arches anywhere the steel would be visible
• Tack everything in place, then complete final welds
• Weld on clips for securing the top
• Clean up welds and paint everything black

Creating the Live-Edge Slab Top

I selected a slab with beautiful burls that I wanted to feature in the final design.

Preparing the slab:

• Use a flexible curve-finding strip to trace the engine’s general curve
• Create a plywood template and position it to incorporate the burls
• Cut the slab to length
• Remove the center section and re-glue the outer edges together
• Use glue blocks down the center to pull the seam tight

Before cutting into this expensive burl wood, I created a craft paper pattern to position everything perfectly on the slab.

Inlaying the Engine Opening

Cutting process:

• Rough-cut the engine shape with a jigsaw
• Use a router with a pattern bit to follow the template perfectly
• Clean up inside corners by hand with a mallet and a chisel
• Scribe the gear shaft for the general back shape
• Stand it up and use a pattern to cut the round shaft shape
• Rough cut the waste and chisel to the scribe line

Where Mother Nature didn’t cooperate with my design, I used a power carver to sculpt the edge to fit.

Adding the Glass Inlay

After achieving a satisfying fit, I traced the grain shape where I wanted glass inlaid and sent the template to a glass company for waterjet cutting.

Creating the Bent Lamination Arch

While waiting for the glass, I started on decorative arches:

• Cut strips on the band saw
• Run through the drum sander to remove saw marks
• Create a bending form from walnut plywood
• After drying, clean up glue squeeze-out with a card scraper
• Run across the jointer and set up a table saw jig for angled cuts
• Mill cross braces and temporarily clamp arches to layout locations
• Chisel through mortises at an angle, working from each side until meeting in the middle

The Glass Challenge

When the glass arrived, there was a problem—the company couldn’t translate my complex template into their waterjet software.

My solution:

• Scan the original paper template to create a tool path
• Redraw ambiguous sections (knowing these spots might not fit perfectly)
• Glue felt to my router base to protect the glass
• Carefully create a new template by routing around the glass itself
• Position the template on the table and rout the opening to fit

Finishing Touches

Final details:

• Pare chamfers on tenon ends
• Stain and prefinish all parts before final assembly
• Tape off sections for final glue-up
• Stain the slab edge to replicate the contrast of bark (since bark doesn’t always stay on dried slabs)
• Seal everything with polyurethane

Assembly and Installation

With all components complete, I assembled the table and set up the engine in its new home. The combination of walnut, steel, glass, and aviation history created a truly unique piece.

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For more behind-the-scenes details and additional photos of this build, check out the highlight reel on my Instagram and portfolio on my website.