I am making a coffee table for outdoor use on a covered patio. I wanted to make an irregular curved shape table top (like a pond or cloud shape) 40-45mm thick.
I've seen several tutorials online where they did something similar using MDF boards, by first cutting the shape with a jigsaw and then glueing boards together to get the desired thickness. One example is pictured below. However, they all seem to have really messy looking vertical edges. I haven't worked with MDF before. Is this unavoidable when glueing boards together? Is it because of the irregular/curved shape? Or is it just a matter of not sanding the vertical edge enough?
I was planning on using 1 x 12mm and 2 x 16mm thick boards to get a thickness about 44mm for my table top. I thought I would cut the shape in the first board with a jigsaw and use that shape to stencil onto the other boards, glue and clamp them together, sand the vertical edge with an orbital sander, and finally round off the top and bottom table top edges with a router. Is this a good plan to get a neat finish? I would then prime and paint.
DIY example from another creator
