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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a built in cherry desk

well, long time no blog ... 3 weeks at least ... lots going on here at the end of summer, or should i say the beginning of fall.  i turned the heat on in the shop when i left today.  some in the area had a frost on their windshield this morning.  the light is changing, and the foliage is beautiful.  life is good. particularly since we installed this built in cherry desk this afternoon.  chris has been working on it for a few weeks now, and im glad to see it in place in its new home.

click the photos to enlarge them ... 

we started with a drawing and then moved on to the full size mockup below

it is in a bedroom, and the space, while not exactly tight, wanted to not be confining.  hard to tell that on paper so we built the mdf and notched luan mockup, which the clients actually used while we worked on the desk. 

great sun .. great view out the windows ...

the construction was a mix of table joinery and case joinery ...

drawers everywhere .. 10 in total, and chris got a real dovetail workout. 

      

ash boxes with cherry ply bottoms ...

more photos tomorrow when the installation is complete ...

its a short drive, but a beauty of a drive ..

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a round expanding dining table with a leaf

the black walnut tables roll on ... i think this is our 4th or 5th in the last
couple years.  this one is a variation on our midcentury modern style, only with a more open,
stationary pedestal, rather than a two part moving one in the photo below.

 

we made this design in july of 2014

of the same genre, there is also this design, from march of 2014. 

as usual, we started with some nice matched walnut from our friends at irion lumber.

both the earlier and the current cad drawings here

the equalizing runners we used on this table were from osburne manufacturing

base with the sub top, on which the runners are mounted.  

patchwork veneered top frame for the python chest on the sub top there.

trevor cut the halves, the base pieces and the aprons on the cnc, but
all those processes could be just as easily done by hand .. it might take much longer,
but the operations are standard for most woodshops.

heres trevor checking the runner mounting.  this hardware actually worked very smoothly.

ready for finish above, with one 20" leaf.  add the adam brown mahogany water stain and

a three coats of lenmar poly, and it left for virginia on tuesday.

fun project with a new designer client from the d.c. area ...

this just in ....

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a base for a glass topped table

interesting request here .. the client needed just the base of a table like the one below
to support a new glass top for a custom banquette in their home .

click the photos to enlarge them ...

weve done several versions of this design
and i just had to adapt the dimension to their floor plan shown below

we made a quick model with a plexiglass top

got the approval and i passed it on to trevor, who has become our specialist in
creating these unusual table bases.

he has worked out the engineering for the jigs and joinery cutting ...

looks scary maybe to some, but its actually very safe the way he has set it up

and he has figured out the gluing up .. glue two halves together, one at a time,

 then glue the two pairs together

dont forget to add the dowels that are engaged by the lag bolts that hold the base
very securely to the arcing supports ...

check it for level .. pretty good

and send it off to florida on the southbound ... 

all good!

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