another claro walnut slab coffee table

coffee table #2 for this month ... a fine cut off from the big slab that passed through here on its way
to miami. it had a pretty big crack, but it also had some incredible crotch figure. 
in the end it finished out to be about 40" long x 64" wide.  short and sweet ...

before

it came off the right end of this one

tah dah ...

i still have one cut off left ... +/- 36 x 42 x 3" thick in the rough

smallish, but nice!

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in the time before blogging

i was recently looking for photos of a walk i had taken with friends to a waterfall, virtually in my backyard, when i stumbled across a folder of pictures from the good old days, in our case 2002 to 2006, back in the time before blogging you might say.  so, why not just share them to my picasa albums, and continue to add images to that folder as i go back through the archives ... my real photographer retired in 2001 or 2002, and  i was just figuring out the digital thing.  so, some of the images from those days are better than others, but some are actually quite up to snuff.  ill post a few below, just so you get an idea of what we were up to back then (more of the same, but different styles) but you can view the real folder with about 80 photos at the link below ...

some images from 2003, 2004 and 2005    click on that first one and scroll through them with the arrow keys ... if you have a good connection, you can whip right through them ...   enjoy!

 a cherry and curly maple corner cupboard ...  it had a tv in it actually ..

 

a close up of the inlay in the side table above

 a custom audio/video cabinet

 a small mahogany console

 a mahogany porch table and some aluminum chairs

  a walnut partners desk

 a 14, one piece of bubinga table and chairs

and a sideboard made from the cut off

more images at the link above ...below, the waterfall pictures

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a claro walnut slab table 1st of 2016

ok, first slab table of 2016 ... a nice piece of claro about 130" long in the photo above ...

it started out as this slab from goodhope hardwoods

 

we nipped off both ends and cut it back to 130".

rough smoothed the bottom and routed for the legs

first coat of finish on the top .. we did a little filling with tinited advantech epoxy ..

and jim fabricated and polished up a set of our standard shaker style 1.5" thick steel legs

 couple close ups of the finished top here

ready to roll ... off to westchester county, ny

the next 60" round table with 3 leaves is stickered in the background ..

more on that one later

see many other slab tables we have made at this link

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a round cherry expanding pedestal table

well, here we go again ... always one of my favorite designs, and were happy to do it again and again.  the one above is from 2003, and it had three 18" leaves.  the one we are making now will be the same, only with just one leaf.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

we started with a cad drawing testing the water for 52 vs 54".  in the end, i sent them a cardboard template via ups and after putting it in the room, they decided on the 54".  ive blogged about a similar table before in this post back in 2013, and a smaller version in mahogany, way back in 2008.  

but here it is again anyway ..

get yourself a nice matched set of curly cherry boards and glue them up ..

and then cut and stack your plywood propeller pieces and veneer the edges and top.  glue up your column pieces with the angles on the top and bottom then too.  

i have a taper jig photo somewhere ... 

and get yourself some equalized table slides from moin hardware

then, if youve got one, cut the half round sections on the cnc, and cut the inlay pockets at the same time .. let me say here that we did not have a cnc in 2003, and we made many, many tables with central inlays without it.  faster now with it though.

start with the borders;  in this case end grain walnut, burl and end grain vertical grain fir, glued up in a log and sliced like baloney ... put some glue on it, drive a headed brad in next to it 

and bend it to press it tightly against the edge of the pocket.

check your fits with some mdf templates

and cut your burl pieces  ... still need to add the edge inlay and do the finishing.  more photos to
follow

home stretch ... in the finishing room now

all in, all done .. couple views below

with the 20" leaf in

 other sizes and variations on the form ... "take an object; do something to it"

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big piece of claro walnut

well i think youd have to agree that this is a pretty big piece of walnut ...  17.5 x 66" ..

its certainly the biggest piece i have ever had anywhere near my shop ... 

somewhat unfortunately, its actually too big for the clients room and we have to cut it to 

136" x 53", which we did when it arrived last week at my friend noel dydos shop.  

he had to get it out of the truck with a lull and a forklift ... 622 pounds.

on our end, we had to do some thinking about how we would manage it once it arrived here.

after working on this table last spring, i realized that it was going to be difficult to work on it in the actual shop and that we would have to move to my garage, where we built the 26 x 9 and the 20 x 8 tables a few years back. 

here it is last thursday at my friends shop

first step, cut one end ... blow this one up and note the D9 in the background ... 

serious earth moving equipment at noels shop .

here were preparing to add the rotating feature to this slab ... at about 450-500 pounds, we had to rethink how we were going to flip it .. sam made two 24" pieces of 5" channel with a 1 and 3/8ths" pin going through it.  we drilled and tapped the ends for 3/8th" bolts to clamp the metal pieces to the slab with wood shims. in this photo, i am wearing my special matching stihl sneakers while i cut a little off the width of the slab so it is the right size for the room.  way down at the other end, its still 66" wide and about 40" too long.  well get to that in a minute ... 

well, here we are, ready for the local lumber company to send their sheetrock truck to move it to my garage .. too big for the shop with the other stuff thats going on in there now. you can see a little piece of pipe in the top of the tarpezoid, which the greased pin fits into.  we let sam have the honor of the first flip today, which he was able to do by himself almost with one hand.  should of had this rig about 7 or 8 years ago.

flipping videos to follow soon.
videos of flipping the slab at this link     

heres another video .. you remove one of the side ties and flip it halfway, and then you have to replace it and remove the opposite tie piece and replace that once the slab is horizontal ... we could remove both tie pieces, but hey, the ends are on wheels and we wouldnt want to drop it, would we?

 

 crazy figured !!

did a little rough smoothing and alcohol splashing on what will most likely be the bottom of the slab.

 

all in all done and in miami .. hard to photograph, but with a little photoshopping ...

you can get the idea ... big piece of wood!

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