Dining Table

[Pedder]

Hi Derek!

Wunderschön!

The legs look like I've seen them a hundred times, but are also new! Very good design! (ececution formidable as allways)

Take Care, Pedder

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Pedder. Thinking about the elliptical shape reminds me of your saw's backing! Similar?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Time to begin the table top. This will end up 1840mm long and 900mm wide, with curved sides.



Whoever thought that using machines saved all the grunt work clearly has never built a large table top that started with 2" thick x 10" wide x 6 1/2 feet of Rock Maple! Carrying this around on my own - there is no such thing as "flipping a board" - was a serious workout. Who needs the gym?

One board was just over 12" wide and needed to be cut down to 10". This is too long - and at this stage too heavy - for my slider, and so the ancient track saw came out. Minor issue was the track is short (1400mm) ...



No problem. Just move it down ...



The MFT also works as an in- or outfeed for the jointer and slider ...



The first two boards I jointed I did in the traditional manner, that is with the hollow side facing down ...



This was a slow and physically exhausting process in spite of the blades set for a deep cut. For the second two boards I flipped them over and ran then over the concave using the fence to balance it on its centre. This was fast! At least twice the speed of hollow-down.

With one jointed side and edge, the boards now needed to be re-sawn to 35mm. The plan was to leave them a little oversize to acclimatise and then thickness to 30mm.

The bandsaw is a Hammer N4400, which is an 18" with a 4 hp motor. Plenty of grunt to drive a 1" carbide Lenox CT Woodmaster blade. But .. running a 1900mm long board on the table is another kettle of fish.

I brought in the drill press table as an infeed, and piled some heavy boards on the slider outfeed as an outfeed ...



The drill press fence made a great guide ...



And the re-saw was as good as I could hope for ...



Four boards jointed and thickness planed both sides ...



And finally ripped to width ..



Now we can play at selecting the boards for the top ... try ... flip .. turn ... flip again ... and in the end ...



While the boards came off the jointer and slider fairly straight, they needed to be made perfectly straight and square for a gapless joint. This takes place at the bench with a jointer plane ...



What I do is place two adjacent boards together ...



... and shine a light at the rear ...



... to show where the gaps are ...



Remove the high spots.

Next, check the edge for square. This one is angles slightly to the right ..



The strategy now id to move the plane over until only the right side of the blade is cutting. You can see the far side line disappearing ...



This is the half shaving produced ...



Now that the edge is square, follow this by planing until a full shaving is obtained ...



Finish with a fine shaving ...



Incidentally, the jointer used here is the Veritas LA Jack. I also have a Veritas Custom #7. Both are excellent. Both get used equally.

The aim is to plane a spring joint - a very fine hollow - at the centre of each board. This will create a gap of around 0.5mm, which can be pulled together with clamp, and serves to avoid the ends of the boards opening up ...



All done, and the next step is to add biscuits to aid in aligning the boards. This is unnecessary for short lengths, but here it aligns the newly jointed tops ...



In preparation, the top of the MFT is covered in plastic film ...



Glue rolled on ...



Two board at a time initially ..



And later joined together ...



This is where we are at. Back to it next weekend.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tapper]

Thanks Derek, for stepping us through the process with graphic photos - well done. Starting out with 2" rough sawn material, what was the final thickness of the boards after taking out the twist?

Doug

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Derek, for stepping us through the process with graphic photos - well done. Starting out with 2" rough sawn material, what was the final thickness of the boards after taking out the twist?

Doug

The final thickness is 30mm. Roughly 1 3/16".

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tapper]

The final thickness is 30mm. Roughly 1 3/16".

Regards from Perth

Derek

Not to belabor the point, but I'm a little confused. Started with 2" thick stock. Made a couple of passes to get one side close to flat, resaw (which takes out at least 1/16") - and then plane to final thickness. I must've missed something.

Doug

[Derek Cohen]

Not to belabor the point, but I'm a little confused. Started with 2" thick stock. Made a couple of passes to get one side close to flat, resaw (which takes out at least 1/16") - and then plane to final thickness. I must've missed something.

Doug

One 2" thick side and one edge were jointed fully. Then resawn to 35mm. Finally thickness-planed to 30mm. Boards ripped to width. Jointed with jointer plane. Glued.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tapper]

Sorry, there's that old "assumption" thing again. I thought when you resawed the boards you were getting two equal sized (including thickness) boards. I didn't realize that the resawing process was just part of the preparation - my bad.

Doug

[Derek Cohen]

This is a large post, with many photos, and it takes up to the conclusion of this build. There have been many small details in the design and execution which, when added together, create the final piece. My wife just loves it, and I'm quite pleased myself, so I am happy to share the details for those who are interested in building something similar and with the techniques I used.

With the top glued up, the next step was to mark the outline, which was done by making templates ...



Block plane making shavings of 6mm MDF ...



One quarter used four times ...



Marked out with blue tape for visibility ...



No, I cannot lug this over to the bandsaw. I am not that strong. A jigsaw is used, like a regular person does, cutting close to the line ...





The templates then are used for pattern routing ...



The end grain is smoothed with a block plane. The question is, which works better, a skew block plane or a straight-bladed block plane. Answer: they do the same as one simply holds the straight-bladed plane at an angle




The top is pretty flat. The use of biscuits to level the joints worked well. Now the surface is planed with a smoother. This is the finished surface. No sanding was done ...



The side edge is 30mm thick. The plan is to chamfer the edges leaving a 10mm face. This is marked in blue tape ...



The base is positioned on the underside to determine how far in the chamfer will be made ...



A nice, even if rather old, Festool power planer takes away most of the waste in no time at all ...



This is finished to the lines with hand planes ...



The tow ends of the underside are given a long taper, first using the power planer to remove most of the waste ...



.. and then finished with a LA Jack ...



Top done. Time to attach the top to the base.



The plan here is to use bolts into metal inserts, as I do not like the idea of inserting wood screws which might cause splitting and also be vulnerable to being pulled out.



A pilot hole is drilled through the base into the table top to position the bolt holes and inserts.

The holes in the base are made with a 3/4" forstner bit, then drilled for the 6mm bolts using a 7mm twist bit (for a little wiggle room). The hole closest to the leg is fixed while the other two are elongated 2mm each side of the hole for expansion.



Note that the bolt holes go through the base, rather than using wooden buttons as the holes essentially make the attachment invisible from the sides ...



With all attached, the table is done! And two coats of Whittle hard wax oil are rubbed on.

So are we all ready for the unveiling? Drum role ...





The aim of the design was to unite the table with two DC 09 chairs I built. In common are elliptical sections in the table and chairs. The other chairs are vintage bentwood, and the use of curves allows them to be included. The reason for a trestle table, rather than a traditional four-legged table, was to reduce the number of legs with different angles. This is aided by using dark Jarrah for the base, as the base disappears and the Rock Maple top is left as a line connecting the DC 09 chairs.



The curves of the top ...





And a final picture from the kitchen area ...



Thanks all for following along with this adventure.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[FrankAtl]

Beautiful table and excellent write up! Thanks for taking the time to do this Derek.