233 Lancaster Ave · Kitchen nook
Four 1″ pine stair treads, 11½″ × 48″, nosing already on the front. Two runs hard to the wall on a 2×4 ledger, eight legs behind a glued 1×2 rail, no screws through the top — and the fourth tread buys the counter wrap and a centred joint. About four and a half hours from here, holes included.
The one number that changed: everything is H − 1″
The treads are 1″ thick, not 3/4″. So the top of the ledger and every leg are H − 1″, where H is your stool height. At 17¼″ that is 16¼″, and the ledger’s bottom edge lands at 12¾″.
The old sheet said H − 3/4. If you cut to that, every leg is a quarter inch long and the seat sits proud of the ledger. This is the thing to get right before any saw comes out.
| Bought | Cut into | Left over |
|---|---|---|
| 4 × pine tread, 11½ × 48 | north 48, west 39⅛ ×2, wrap 25 | 8⅞ ×2, 23″ |
| 2 × 1×2 × 8′ | rail: 78¼ + 48 | 17¾″ and 48″ — the wrap’s rail |
| 2 × 2×4 × 8′ | ledgers: 78¼ + 48 | 17¾″ and 48″ — 3 legs |
| 3 × poplar 2×2 × 3′ | 2 legs each at H − 1″ | 3½″ each |
Legs are the tight item, and the 2×4 offcuts close it exactly
Three 36″ poplar squares give two legs each — six. The two runs need eight (five west, three north).
The ledger cuts leave 17¾″ and 48″ of 2×4, which is three more legs. Nine available, eight needed, one spare for a bad cut.
Poplar on the west run, pine on the north. Turned so the 3½″ runs front-to-back, a 2×4 shows the same 1½″ face as a 2×2 — from the room they are identical, and each run is consistent within itself.
The wrap’s two legs come later, with the wrap. One more 2×4 then.
Two things to check before the saw
Measure a poplar 2×2. Hobby squares are usually a true 1½ × 1½, but some run 1¾ or a full 2″. Oversize just sets the leg further behind the rail — nothing breaks, but know it before you lay out.
If you go clear, poplar and pine will not match — poplar runs greener and greyer. Under paint they are identical. They sit in shadow behind the rail either way, but that is the one place mixed stock shows.
Still to get: wood glue, a stud finder, a countersink bit if you do not have one, rubber pads for the table’s pedestal base, and the finish. Optional: a 2½″ hole saw + arbor, and if you are painting, drill before you paint.
No 1×1 or 2×2 on the rack? Neither is framing lumber
1×1 is in moulding and trim, sold as square dowel or “S4S square”. 2×2 is in deck railing, sold as balusters. Check there before substituting.
Rail → a 1×2 laid flat. Stocked everywhere, and better than the 1×1: same 3/4″ depth so no geometry changes, more glue area, and stiffer. The 30¼″ bay goes from 0.187″ bare to 0.050″ — the 1×1 gave 0.073″. On edge it is 0.027″ if you would rather. Two 8-footers, since you need 126¼″.
Legs → 2×4. Either rip one down the middle for two 1½ × 1⅝″ sticks — 192″ of stock against the 113¾″ you need, one board and one cut — or use them whole and turn each leg so the 3½″ runs front-to-back. Only 1½″ of face shows to the room, it sits in shadow behind the rail, and it resists front-to-back rock better than a 2×2 would. Two boards if whole.
No 1×2 either? Rip 3/4″ strips off one 1×6 — a single board gives far more than 126¼″. Do not substitute lattice or screen moulding; too thin to be worth gluing.
| Part | From | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| North seat | tread 1 | 48″ | no cut at all |
| West seat, piece A | tread 2 | 39⅛″ | joint dead centre, leg under it |
| West seat, piece B | tread 3 | 39⅛″ | |
| Counter wrap | tread 4 | 25″ | round the free corner 3″ |
| Test coupons | offcuts | 8⅞ ×2, 23″ | finish and hole-saw practice |
| West ledger | 2×4 | 78¼″ | runs into the corner |
| North ledger | 2×4 | 48″ | starts 11½″ off the west wall |
| Front rail | 1×2, laid flat | 78¼″ + 48″ | tucked behind the nosing; 48″ spare for the wrap |
| Legs × 8 | poplar 2×2 (5) + 2×4 offcut (3) | H − 1″ | 5 west, 3 north. Cut one, sit on it, then the rest |
The west run always needed a joint — it is 78¼″ and a tread is 48″. The fourth tread means you can put it dead centre instead of at 48″, which is the whole difference between two deliberate panels and one patched board. Two cuts instead of one, and it costs 8⅞″ of offcut you were not using anyway.
The rail is your alignment jig — that is what makes the joint disappear
The thing you would actually feel is a step, one piece sitting proud of the other by a thirty-second. You do not need biscuits or a spline to prevent it: glue the 1×2 rail continuous across the joint and clamp both tread pieces down onto it while it sets. A straight rail forces them coplanar.
Then a leg directly under the joint and a 6″ block glued across it underneath. The boards meet end to end and wood does not move along its length, so once shut it stays shut.
The most visible part of the joint is the break in the nosing — and at 39⅛″ that sits under the table’s overhang, which covers the front 4–5¾″ of the seat.
One half inch you should know about: the north seat is a full 48″ tread and the west bench takes 11½″ of the corner, so the north run ends at 59½″ from the west wall rather than 60″. Not worth splicing half an inch — just know it lands there.
Ten minutes with a tape
1. H, the seat height. Measure the top of a stool. Everything else comes off it: ledger top and every leg are H − 1″.
2. The west run. Cabinet face to the north wall, should be 78½″. Cut the seat and ledger to 78¼″ — captive at both ends, and a tight one will not drop in.
3. The north run. The tread is 48″ and it starts where the west bench ends, so it finishes at 59½″.
4. Every stud, both walls. Mark them above the ledger line so the ledger does not cover your marks.
Get the ledger level along its whole length. The seat copies whatever the ledger does, and it is far easier to fix now than with a tread on top of it.
The 3″ saw is better here than the 2½″ would have been, and it lands on a spacing that makes the seams work.
5″ centres, and every seam gets a web
A 3″ hole is 7.07 sq in against the 2½″’s 4.91 — 44% more air per plunge, so you need fewer of them. At 5″ centres the numbers fall out clean:
West run: 14 holes, first centre 6⅝″ from each end. Perfectly symmetric.
North run: 8 holes, first centre 6½″ from each end. Also symmetric — and within an eighth of the west, so the two lines read as one system across the corner.
The centre joint gets a web, not a hole. The holes either side sit at 36⅝ and 41⅝, which leaves exactly 2″ of solid tread centred on the joint. You could not place that better on purpose.
| Run | Hole centres from the end |
|---|---|
| West, 14 | 6⅝, 11⅝, 16⅝, 21⅝, 26⅝, 31⅝, 36⅝ | 41⅝, 46⅝, 51⅝, 56⅝, 61⅝, 66⅝, 71⅝ |
| North, 8 | 6½, 11½, 16½, 21½, 26½, 31½, 36½, 41½ |
All on a line 3½″ off the wall — the 3″ hole spans 2″ to 5″, clearing the 1½″ ledger by half an inch, same margin as before. (The 2½″ plan used 3¼″; the bigger hole needs the extra quarter.)
Does it still vent? Yes, with room
The west radiator stops at 60″, so the last three west holes vent nothing — they are there because a line that stops 18″ short looks like you ran out of enthusiasm. The 19 holes actually over radiator give 134 sq in, or 1.12 sq in per inch against the 1.0–1.5 target.
| If you screen the underside | Effective | Per inch |
|---|---|---|
| nothing | 134 | 1.12 |
| ½″ hardware cloth | 118 | 0.98 |
| ¼″ hardware cloth | 107 | 0.90 |
| fly screen | 91 | 0.76 — too much loss |
Use hardware cloth, not window screen. Fly screen is only about two-thirds open and eats the margin; ¼″ cloth stops a crayon and a small hand, ½″ stops hands and forks but not crayons. Either looks more deliberate under a bench than insect mesh. And the open bench front is a second path that none of these numbers count.
A 3″ saw is a different tool from a 2½″
Drill today, on the sawhorses, before anything is assembled. This is by far the cheapest day for it — and if you paint, drilling has to come first anyway.
Low speed, both hands, and back the tread with scrap. A 3″ saw grabs. Let the pilot find its mark before the teeth touch, keep the drill square, and back off if it starts to smoke — a scorched pine rim is permanent under clear finish.
Clear the plug every hole. A 3″ plug in a 1″ tread is a solid slug and it will jam the saw if you leave it. 22 plunges instead of 30, but each is more work.
Ease every rim with sandpaper rolled into a tube, top and bottom, before finishing.
| Time | Step | Mins |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | The four numbers. Snap the ledger line at H − 1″, mark every stud | 20 |
| 0:20 | Crosscut: treads 2 and 3 to 39⅛″, tread 4 to 25″, both ledgers, the rail. Rip the leg stock if you are ripping. Cut ONE leg | 25 |
| 0:45 | Stand the leg under a tread and sit on it. Then cut the other six | 15 |
| 1:00 | Mark and drill the 22 holes — face down on sawhorses, backed with scrap, rims eased | 50 |
| 1:50 | Mark legs, glue and screw the rail, block across the joint, both halves clamped down flat | 30 |
| 2:20 | Primer or sealer, both faces, all edges, and every bore, while the glue sets | 25 |
| 2:45 | West ledger up, then north. Three 3½″ screws into every stud | 40 |
| 3:25 | West seat down, both pieces, joint over its leg. Then the north tread. 1¾″ screws every 12″ on a line 3/4″ off the wall | 30 |
| 3:55 | Legs. Five west at 0 / 19⅝ / 39⅛ / 58⅝ / 78¼, three north at 0 / 24 / 48. Two 2″ screws each, through the rail | 30 |
| 4:25 | Sit on them. | — |
Ledgers before seats, seats before legs, and both ledgers up before either seat goes down — then the north tread is measured off the west one actually in place.
Eight legs, and the rail is what makes the joint disappear
1″ pine is 2.19× stiffer than the 3/4″ plywood this was drawn for — the thickness more than covers pine being soft. Front edge under a 200 lb adult:
| Bay | Bare | With the glued rail |
|---|---|---|
| 19⅝″ — the west bays | 0.050″ | 0.014″ |
| 24″ — the north bays | 0.093″ | 0.025″ |
| 30¼″, the old off-centre plan | 0.187″ | 0.050″ |
Centring the joint took the worst bay from 30¼″ to 19⅝″ and the whole run is now essentially rigid — 0.014″ with the rail glued, which you cannot feel. It costs a fifth leg on the west, and buys symmetry plus a joint you can put a support directly under.
The rule that matters more than any of it: the leg must touch the seat
Leg top bearing directly on the underside of the tread is 700–900 lb. The same leg hanging off screws pulling out of the rail is about 240 lb. Three to four times, free.
So the rail locates the leg and stops it racking; it never carries anyone. Tuck it behind the nosing rather than flush — the tread already has the finished edge the rail was going to fake.
| Joint | Use | Goes in | Spare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ledger → studs | 3½″ | 1½″ of stud | through 1/2″ drywall + 1½″ ledger |
| Tread → ledger, at the back | 1¾″ | 3/4″ into the ledger | 3/4″ |
| Rail → tread, upward | 1¼″ | 1/2″ into the tread | 1/2″ |
| Rail → leg, horizontal | 2″ | 1¼″ into the leg | 1/4″ |
| the 2½″ and 3″ boxes | nothing here needs them | ||
The inch-thick tread makes the upward screws safer than they were: 1¼″ now leaves half an inch of margin instead of a quarter. Plain wood screws into the studs are fine and not close — six people at 250 lb is roughly 45 lb per screw in shear at two per stud, against well over 100 for a #8. Put three in every stud since the box is open.
Two drilling rules that matter more than the screws
Clearance hole in the near piece, pilot in the far one. If the threads bite the near piece the screw jacks the two apart instead of pulling them together — and on the ledger that means it never pulls tight to the wall. Clearance-drill the 1½″ ledger before it goes up.
Pilot everything entering a leg. 1¼″ of screw into a 1½″-wide leg splits it, and a split leg looks fine until somebody sits down.
Read this once before you start
1. H − 1″, not H − 3/4. The treads are an inch thick. Ledger top and every leg.
2. West seat 78¼″ total, not 78½. Captive at both ends.
3. One leg, sit on it, then the other six. Height is the only thing here you cannot fix afterwards.
4. A leg goes directly under the centre joint at 39⅛″, plus a 6″ block glued across it underneath — and clamp both pieces onto the rail so they set flush.
5. Nosing faces the room. Obvious until you are gluing a rail to the wrong edge at speed.
6. Stud marks above the ledger line, or the ledger eats them.
7. Drill the holes before anything is assembled. Today, on sawhorses, is the only easy day for it.
| Number | Value |
|---|---|
| Seat thickness | 1″ |
| Seat depth, wall to nosing | 11½″ |
| Ledger top / bottom | H − 1″ / H − 4½″ |
| Ledger projection | 1½″ (2×4 face-flat) |
| Leg length | H − 1″ |
| Legs, west | 5, at 0 / 19⅝ / 39⅛ / 58⅝ / 78¼ |
| Legs, north | 3, at 0 / 24 / 48 |
| Back screws into ledger | 1¾″, every 12″, 3/4″ off the wall |
| Vent holes | 3″, 5″ centres, line 3½″ off the wall |
| Walkway at the crook | 20.6″ → about 27″ |
Check the treads first — it decides everything
Look at an end and a face for finger joints (interlocking zigzags every few feet) or a pre-primed coat. Knot-free pine at that price is usually one or both.
Either means paint. Finger joints show through clear finish as a permanent zigzag, and if it is pre-primed the decision has been made for you — happily, since it saves you a coat.
Solid clear pine with no joints? Then clear is on the table. Know that pine dents — Janka about 400 against red oak’s 1290 — and four children will find every fork drop. Under paint that reads as wear; under clear it looks beaten.
If painting — and you can take your time over it
Primer blocks stains rather than sealing them in, so bare treads through a few weeks of dinners cost you nothing. Build now, paint when you feel like it.
Zinsser B-I-N, the shellac-based one — not a water-based primer. Pine resin bleeds brown haloes through waterborne primer within months, and finger joints bleed worst of all. Prime both faces and every edge while the treads are still on sawhorses; that is the only free chance at the underside.
Then two primer coats sanded at 220 — that is where flatness comes from, not the colour — and two coats of a waterborne alkyd enamel (Benjamin Moore Advance, Sherwin ProClassic). Not wall latex, which stays soft. Read the recoat window before you plan the weekend: 4 to 16 hours is the difference between a two-day job and a four-day one, and it is hard in two to three weeks, not one.
Consider satin rather than high gloss. The chairs are vertical and catch light edge-on; a seat is horizontal and catches it flat, which is the hardest surface there is for gloss. Same match to the chairs, and it hides dust and scuffs by an order of magnitude.
All of it defers cleanly and none of it makes you undo anything.
Full setting-out is up in The holes. Short version: 22 holes at 3″, 5″ centres, on a line 3½″ off the wall, first hole 6⅝″ in on the west and 6½″ on the north.
Three treads leave a 17¾″ offcut and the wrap wants 25″, so this one costs another board. Two legs at the outboard corners, 40 minutes, nothing into the cabinet — the face is a finished end panel, so it blocks nothing, but a 1/2″ end panel is not something to hang a bench off. The inboard end ties to the west run’s frame and the whole thing lifts out.
Do this bit tonight, it is independent: rubber pads under the pedestal base (not felt — felt is built to slide), six to eight screws through the flange instead of three, shim any rocking foot, wrench the column bolt. That takes out the shift and most of the wobble.
The rest is a block in the crook, seat to tabletop, screwed both ends — roughly 6″ out from each wall with a bench leg under it. It turns one support point into two about 21″ apart, ending shift, rotation and tipping together. Glue a 4½″ cleat to the tabletop rather than screwing up through a 3/4″ top with the good side up. Height and position wait until the table is where it will live.
The vent holes are the cable pass-throughs: 2½″, at the back of the seat behind everyone, and they swallow the slack. Don’t leave a charging brick in the cavity — it runs 100–120°F over the radiator and most bricks are rated to about 104°F. Either swap a receptacle for a tamper-resistant USB-C one, or put the brick in one of the two radiator-free stretches. Clip the cable off the fins; six-foot cables.
Notching the ledger for the outlets is fine. It is a cleat lagged to every stud, not a spanning beam. Notch the bottom edge, never the top, and put a screw into the stud each side of the notch.
Still open, still separate. Sill at 20½″ and the seat at 17¼″ makes it a 3¼″ step up, so the bench makes climbing easier, not harder. Measure the sill depth — 4″ or under and a sloped board is the whole answer for one plank; over 5″ and it becomes a comfortable wedge they will still sit on.
The bean is built and in — 42¼ × 54¼, mounted on the old pedestal through a plywood puck, in at 1:40pm on 30 August against a 3:35 estimate. This is v2 — and it is second. Build the benches, sit on them, then measure where the table edge wants to be; that number sets the arms, and everything on this page follows from them.
Arms
46¼ × 58¼ in, from the corner
Crook corner
4 in radius, was 8½
Counter end
16⅛ in flat, then 45°
Tabletop
2151 sq in · +20.5%
One 4×8 sheet, water-based poly rather than shellac, and the puck re-drilled to a new balance point. The arms below are the best numbers before the benches exist — treat them as the current answer, not a commitment.
What the benches will tell you, and what it changes
Sit on the finished bench and find where the table edge wants to be, measured out from the wall. You want it landing 4–6″ over the seat, so it is on your lap rather than at your knees. Call that number D, and the bean’s right-angle corner sits D from each wall.
D does not change the shape at all — the arms, the 4″ corner and the flat are the table’s own dimensions. What D moves is where the table sits: the walkway number, and how far the flat overhangs the wrap. So nothing on this page is wasted by waiting.
What could change is the arm lengths, if sitting there says the table should run further along a bench than 46¼ and 58¼. The east arm is capped near 47″ by the sheet’s 48″ width; the west has room. And if they do change, the flat follows a formula rather than needing me:
flat = √(east² + west²) − west
That is the free maximum for any pair of arms, exactly — it is the point where the 45° line lands on the fattest point, which is what makes it free. The fattest point itself is at east²/√(east²+west²) along the east arm and west²/√(east²+west²) down the west.
| East arm | West arm | Free flat | Fattest point | Tabletop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42¼ | 54¼ | 14½ | 25-15/16 / 42-13/16 | 1829 |
| 44 | 56 | 15-3/16 | 27-3/16 / 44-1/16 | 1967 |
| 46¼ | 58¼ | 16⅛ | 28¾ / 45⅝ | 2151 |
| 47 | 58¼ | 16⅝ | 29½ / 45-5/16 | 2188 |
| 46¼ | 62 | 15⅜ | 27⅝ / 49-11/16 | 2285 |
Note the last row: a longer west arm gives a shorter flat. The two trade against each other, because both are spending the same diagonal. Worth knowing before you decide the table should reach further down the bench.
The shape
Both instincts are right, and one of them is more exactly right than you probably realised.
| v1 | v2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| East arm | 42¼″ | 46¼″ | |
| West arm | 54¼″ | 58¼″ | |
| Crook corner | 8½″ | 4″ | 1.9″ more reach |
| Tabletop | 1785 sq in | 2112 sq in | +328, or +18% |
| Balance point | 17.9 / 23.0 | 19-9/16 / 25¼ | new puck position |
| With the 16⅛″ flat | — | 2151 sq in | +20.5% — the spec |
“+4 on each axis” really is a 4″ offset
Worth confirming because it did not have to be true: growing both semi-axes by 4″ moves the curve 3.97 to 4.00″ from the old one at every point along it. So you get a genuine parallel push-out, and you can still lay it out with the same batten-and-offsets method rather than anything clever.
Still one 4×8 sheet — 46¼ leaves 1¾″ on the width, so ask for a single rip at 46½″ and keep the factory edge for the long straight side.
What it buys in seats: fewer than you would hope
You get 3 easy / maybe 4 on the west and 2 easy / maybe 3 on the east. In kid-widths that is 3.88 and 3.02. v2 takes them to 4.16 and 3.30.
So it does not add a new place anywhere — it turns both maybes into yeses. Four along the west and three along the east stop being a squeeze and become the normal arrangement. That is worth having, but it is a different claim from “seats another person”, and it is the honest one.
The corner is the sleeper win. Dropping 8½″ to 4″ pulls the table back only 1.66″ from the crook instead of 3.52″, so whoever sits in the corner gets 1.9″ closer to their plate — and you are right that nobody needs the wide radius to get in, because people arrive along the bench, not through the corner.
The check to run once the benches are in
v2 pushes the curve 4″ further into the room, and the walkway is measured to that curve. Taking the benches to 12″ hard against the wall bought 5.7″; v2 spends 4″. The bench change more than pays for the bigger table — the path lands near 22¼″, about 1½″ better than the nook has today, not worse. That turns this from a trade into a free upgrade, so the check below is a sanity test rather than a decision.
Unless your chair argument holds — and it is checkable. Push a chair in as far as it will go, then measure from the table edge out to the back of the chair. If the chair back sticks out past the edge, the chairs already define the pinch, v2 costs you nothing on a normal day, and you should build it. If the chair tucks inside the edge, the tabletop is the pinch and v2 costs the full 4″.
Do it sitting on the finished bench, at the same time you find D. Both numbers come off the same five minutes, and neither is knowable before then.
Your photo settles the part I could not see: the gap between the table and the counter is not how anyone gets to the benches, so widening the table there costs nothing to get in and out. And it turns out there is an exact number where it stops being free — and it is slightly more than you asked for.
16⅛″ of flat, and you pay nothing at all
Run the edge straight off the west arm’s tip for 16⅛″, then a straight run at exactly 45°, and that run touches the old curve precisely at its fattest point — 28¾″ along the east arm, 45⅝″ down the west arm. From there the curve is completely unchanged.
That is the whole trick. Not one point of the original curve moves. The walkway at the crook, the clearance at the corner, the reach past the east arm — all identical, to the thousandth. You are only filling in a wedge the ellipse was leaving empty against a cabinet.
And it is self-checking: if your straight run leaves the flat at 45°, you are exactly at the limit. A speed square is the whole verification.
| Flat | Table | vs v1 | Straight edge to sit at | Walkway cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| none | 2116 | +18.5% | 0 | — |
| 12″ | 2131 | +19.4% | 24¾″ | none |
| 14″ | 2140 | +19.9% | 29¼″ | none |
| 16⅛″ | 2151 | +20.5% | 34″ | none — the limit |
| 18″ | 2165 | +21.3% | 38¼″ | 1.9″ |
| 20″ | 2181 | +22.2% | 42⅞″ | 3.9″ |
| 24″ | 2224 | +24.6% | 52¼″ | 7.9″ |
16⅛″ is the spec. You asked for 12–14 and the free allowance is bigger, so there is no reason to leave any of it. And note which column is worth the most: not the 35 square inches, but 34″ of continuous straight edge at the seat you use every day, where today the curve turns away the instant it leaves the arm.
Marking it out
Three marks and a straightedge, before any batten comes out:
1. West arm 58¼″ from the corner. 2. Square across from that tip, 16⅛″ — call it A. 3. The fattest point: 28¾″ along the east arm, 45⅝″ down the west arm. Join A to it with a straightedge and check the angle — it must read 45°. If it does not, one of the three marks is off, and you have found it before cutting anything.
Then plot the rest from the offsets below and spring the batten from the fattest point round to the east tip. The batten never touches the flat or the 45° run — those are straightedge work, which is faster and more accurate than a curve anyway.
| Along the east arm | Down the west arm | |
|---|---|---|
| 28¾ | 45⅝ | the 45° run lands here |
| 30 | 44-5/16 | |
| 32 | 42-1/16 | |
| 34 | 39½ | |
| 36 | 36-9/16 | |
| 38 | 33-3/16 | |
| 40 | 29¼ | |
| 42 | 24⅜ | |
| 44 | 17-15/16 | it drops fast from here |
| 45 | 13-7/16 | |
| 46 | 6-1/16 | |
| 46¼ | 0 | 90° tip, same as v1 |
Why the flat is worth more than its area
35 square inches is a rounding error on a 2,150″ table. The reason to do this is that the bean’s arm tips are 90° corners — you found that out cutting v1 — and an ellipse leaves a 90° corner heading straight out, perpendicular to the arm. So at the exact spot you sit, today, the edge turns away from you immediately.
The flat replaces that with a proper straight edge, and the 45° run continues it: 34″ of straight in front of the one seat you use every day. That is a laptop and a coffee with room to put an elbow down, instead of a receding curve.
Shellac softens around 150°F and a bowl out of the microwave is 160–180°F. The film softens, traps moisture, and you get a white ring. The useful rule: if you can’t hold it comfortably, it will mark the table. That is not a defect you can finish your way out of with shellac — it is the deal shellac makes, and the other half of that deal is that the rings come out in fifteen minutes.
First fix: re-coat the whole top
One thin coat, ragged on. The fresh alcohol re-dissolves the top of the old film, the rings level out and vanish, and you get the third coat you skipped. Lowest risk of anything here — it treats every ring at once and you cannot really overdo it. Fifteen minutes, no sanding, no visible seam.
Second fix: pad the stubborn ones
Fold a lint-free cotton cloth into a pad, dampen with isopropyl — 91% if you have it, since 70% carries the water you are trying to drive out — then blot it until it is barely damp. Wipe across the ring in long continuous strokes, landing and taking off like a plane, and never stop moving on the surface. The film goes tacky, re-flows, the ring goes.
The risk is real: on a two-coat film a wet pad takes you to bare wood. Practice on a scrap first — shellac an offcut, burn a ring into it with a hot mug, fix that one before you touch the table.
Don’t use the iron trick. That is the standard advice for lacquer and poly; on shellac, more heat is the last thing you want. Alcohol is the direct tool.
And it settles the v2 question
This is data, not a nuisance. If the bean becomes the permanent table, shellac alone is not the finish — a family table meets hot bowls forever and you would be re-padding monthly. That pushes v2 to the stack below: dewaxed SealCoat as a barrier, then three coats of satin water-based poly. You lose the invisible-repair trick and gain a top that does not care about a hot bowl.
Check the can first, because it decides everything. Zinsser Bulls Eye Amber contains natural wax; Clear is dewaxed. Yours came out amber, so assume waxed — and polyurethane does not reliably stick to waxed shellac. That is the classic adhesion failure: fine for a month, then it peels in sheets.
The table you have now — one more coat of shellac, nothing on top
Fifteen minutes and it looks better than it does now. Shellac is uniquely repairable: new shellac melts into old, so a ring or a scratch wipes with alcohol and re-coats invisibly, which no other finish allows. For a family table that is a real strategy rather than a consolation — the trade is that you will be doing it, because water rings, alcohol marks and heat marks are all exactly where shellac is weakest.
v2 — water-based poly, satin, three coats
Stays clear instead of ambering further, recoats in 2–4 hours, low odour indoors. Oil-based is tougher but pushes the colour noticeably more orange and is an overnight-per-coat, smelly job.
The sequence, given the wax: one coat of dewaxed shellac (SealCoat) as a barrier — it sticks to waxed shellac and poly sticks to it, and that one step is the whole fix. Then scuff lightly with the 200 sponge, dry cloth only (no isopropyl, it softens what is underneath), then three coats of satin, hitting the edge hardest since that is still where water finds plywood. Give the underside a coat too so the faces stay balanced.
Test the stack on a scrap first. Shellac an offcut, add SealCoat and poly, wait 24 hours, scratch a cross-hatch into it and press packing tape down hard, then rip it off. Nothing lifts and you are good — that answers the wax question better than any label.
The thing people get wrong about poly: dry in hours, but about a week to fully cure. Wipe spills fast and keep hot plates off it for that first week or you will press marks into a finish that would have been fine.
So, two finishes for two tables
The current top: one thin coat of shellac. Fifteen minutes, the rings go, and it carries the table until v2. Do not put poly on it — the wax is why.
v2: SealCoat barrier, then three coats of satin water-based poly, both faces. That is the finish that stops this being a monthly job.
The number the puck does not change
The puck fixes stiffness; it does nothing for tipping. Stone off, roughly 23 lb on the far tip lifts the base — and v2 puts its tip 4″ further out, so that number gets smaller, not bigger. The bolted mount is what handles it, which is why the top has to be through-bolted to the flange and not just resting on it.