96" diameter conference table?

[Crazyraceguy]

I recently rewatched one of Chris Salamone's videos about a round table he designed a couple of years ago. It just randomly popped up in my recommended videos, while I was working on one too.
Of course, I didn't design this, just following the drawing, having no say in the matter.
It only has 3 legs, which looks fine in a plan view of a drawing, but doesn't look so great, from certain angles. When you see it from a side where you are perpendicular to one of the legs, it seems very off-balance. When you can see all 3 at the same time, it looks fine. It may be better with chairs around it?
I get the point of a round table, so everyone can see each other, but at this size, you can't reach the middle of it.
The wood border is 5" wide, 1 1/2" thick Ash, stained black to match the legs.
It is over 65" from the end of one leg to the next, so I inlayed a carbon fiber strip between them. It stiffened the edges quite a bit, while adding no weight.

 

[onocoffee]

Looks cool. But that last pic - of the vastness of your shop, makes me wonder how ever will you compress during retirement!

 

[smorgasbord]

If I were going to be Severed, that’s the table on which  I’d want to wake up.

8)

 

[luvmytoolz]

Sensational work! Beautiful!

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Stained today. It got a couple of coats of conversion varnish too, one more tomorrow. I should be able to get a pic with it uncovered too. It ships first thing Monday morning.

[member=82312]onocoffee[/member] I'm looking forward to it. Virtually everything I make is huge, so smaller things and personal space are appealing. Since I am in an open shop, with no walls, I really am limited. Most things are "put away" because of a shared space. Building out my own space that is customized to me has to feel more homey. Not that my space there isn't built for me, but it's not the same.
That is why I have gotten into boxes, small tables, and cutting boards again.

Wait 'til you see what I started next, as this was winding down. This table is still sitting in my space, because it wasn't worth the trouble to move it, but I'm not doing the finishing, and started something else for the same project.

Sensational work! Beautiful!

Thank you

 

[rvieceli]

Very very nice as usual CRG. I love the way ash looks with that high gloss black finish.

Ron

 

[rvieceli]

[member=58857]Crazyraceguy[/member] any idea what they used for the black finish on the ash? thanks

Ron

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Yeah Ron, it was a black stain. I don't know the brand, right off though. Then I think it ended up being 3 coats of a categized conversion varnish, through a pneumatic HVLP gun, rather than the usual airless.

 

[ear3]

That ash looks slick with the black finish.  Brilliant work.

 

[Packard]

In the early 1970s I checked into a historic hotel in Connecticut (Watertown? Waterbury? Waterford?  Can’t remember.)

The hotel was probably a local mansion in the 1800s.  Quaint.

They had a restaurant on the main floor. 

When I showed up by myself, the hostess asked me: “Do you want to sit at a private table or the salesmen’s table?”

The salesman’s table was a large round table (about 96” in diameter) that could seat about 12 people.  This apparently was historically correct as most travelers back in the 1800s were salesmen.  And if a salesman wanted some friendly conversation, he would opt for the “salesmen’s table.

A google search does not find this as a widely used term and might have been unique to that hotel. 

In any case, that is what comes to mind whenever this thread becomes active again.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

That sounds like something that would happen. They would generally travel alone, so seating at a "community" table makes sense. It also saves the restaurant space for other guests. A handful of solo diners would be wasting table space, if each had their own table.
I would guess that this is the same reason for your typical "roadside" restaurants to have counter seating? Truck drivers at the Waffle House.
The local IHOP has a community table where people can sit on opposite sides, not just a counter, in a row.

 

[Packard]

Salesmen’s tables were a rarity, and I believe that was the only one so designated that I came across.

This thread always reminded me of that hotel (I think I visited it 3 or 4 times over 4 years).

When I turned 20 I got a job as a “outside” salesman covering all of New England, plus New York and New Jersey.

The sales manager was supposed to train me, but he ended up in the hospital for about a month, so they handed me a catalog, a car, a company credit card and said, “Go.  You’re on your own.”

The first week I was “on-the-road”, I met an old-timer traveling saleman who gave me this advice.

“Always bring something to read when you go out to eat on your own.  Newspapers and magazines are best because they will lay open on their own.  (Now we have tablets.). Never bring alone a paperback because you need to hold it open with one hand and eat with the other.  If you are going to do that, eat at a Chinese restaurant or an Italian restaurant.  (Almost all selections at a Chinese restaurant can be eaten using one hand and a reasonable selection of Italian food can also.)

I’ve been hooked on reading while I eat ever since.  (And apparently, not being “trained” by the sales manager was to my benefit as I was the top producer in our company the first year I worked there.)

 

[Crazyraceguy]

In a similar scenario, I learned to eat very quickly as a teenager, working in a full-service gas station.
It had 9 pumps, on 3 islands. We had to pump the gas on 6 and run back and forth to manually reset the pumps on the self-service island. At that pace, you eat it now or in an hour, when it's cold.
We didn't get a true "break", just some idle time, here and there. Someone would run out and get food for all of us, hopefully at a slower time, but eating it? not necessarily. Fast or cold, the only choices. That might also explain why I don't like particularly hot food either. Spicy is fine, high temperature, not so much.

 

[texan63]

Thanks

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[luvmytoolz]

In a similar scenario, I learned to eat very quickly as a teenager, working in a full-service gas station.

Same for me, but it was because I was in a family of eight! ;-)

About the only thing we didn't fight over was brussell sprouts, although weirdly I love them now.

 

[Steve1]

Is the center portion solid hardwood ?

How do you avoid potential problems with seasonal expansion of the center portion vs the ash ring ?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Is the center portion solid hardwood ?

How do you avoid potential problems with seasonal expansion of the center portion vs the ash ring ?

No, it is two layers of 3/4" particle board, covered in counter top laminate (as opposed to laminate flooring, which is what some assume when I just say laminate)
That thing is insanely heavy