Coffee Table

[Vindingo]

I picked up these black walnut slabs about a year an a half ago for a steal on Craigslist @ $1.30/bd.ft.  I have been itching to make sawdust out of them, and an opportunity to make a coffee table came up this past week.   

The boards were roughly 8/4 and pretty twisted so I decided to rip them with my TS55, join them, then use a router sled to get the top nice and flat.  I used dowels in the glue up to keep everything lined up. 

After flattening both sides, I was unhappy with the amount of powderpost beetle holes in the top, and the murkiness of the sapwood on the inside seam.  TS55 take two!   

After taking out a 2" chunk from the middle and rejoining the boards, the book-matching lined up better and I was pleased with the decision to re-cut the top.

I had a small scrap of teak from a deck I built about 8 years ago waiting to be used. 
Teak butterfly inlays

   

Some fun with the lights

One coat of finish so far (tung oil, varnish, thinner)

The top looks bigger than it is in the photos.  For reference, that is a 30" door being used as a work bench.  I think I'm going to snip a few more inches off of the far side tomorrow and the final dimensions will be about 20" x 60"
I am having some steel legs made for the table, they should be in tomorrow. 

 

[JLB builders LLC]

My buddy (old boss) has a 15,000 sq ft house and we stocked his basement (about 65%) full of Walnut and a few other species, on wooden rails to about 5 feet high and set up a commercial de humidifier for a year. He has a 4 car garage with a Felder 700 series table saw and jointer/planner. He wants to build a dinning room table with some of it. Sad thing is he has all of that stuff and it has been just sitting there un used for years.  [sad] Im the only person he will let use his equipment.

Anyway I would luv to get a few boards and do the same as you. Nice chisel and inlay work.   

 

[nydesign]

That looks amazing, awesome work. Walnut is one of my favorite woods to work with.

I like how you kept the outside edges live, and the book matched effect looks as good or better than if it was one solid slab.

cheers,

- J

 

[CDM]

Do you have any photographs of your router sled set-up?

Also, what size router bit did you use for the jointing?

 

[jtwood]

Do you have any photographs of your router sled set-up?

Also, what size router bit did you use for the jointing?

There is a great article with a plan for a routing sled in the current Fine Woodworking magazine.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

That's gonna make one sweet lookin' table!

Noticed the LN chisels.  How do you like them?

Have you decided what you'll be doing for the finish?  I thought I spotted the Waterlox in the background.

 

[bruegf]

Nice table!!!  I'm curious what you did about the powder post beetles to ensure that they weren't still in there eating away at the wood?

I've got a bunch of oak that I had milled, but a quite a bit of it had holes and am wondering if there's some way to be sure to get rid of the beetles or if I should just cut it up and burn it.

Thx

Fred

 

[Vindingo]

Do you have any photographs of your router sled set-up?

Also, what size router bit did you use for the jointing?

I will snap some photos of it for you. I used an 1 1/4" mortising bit for flattening the top.  I have read that a bowl bit with a radius edge does away with some of the lines you get from a flat bit, but I didn't have one.  Just a little extra sanding involved.  

The TS55 was my jointer.  I hit some of the rough spots with a block plane before glue up and that was it.  By "join them" in my first post I meant "glued them together."  The glue joint is pretty tight, almost invisible due to the striations in the wood.  A TS75 would have been nice for the extra power, but jointing with the TS55 on rough stock is a  breeze.          

 

[JLB builders LLC]

Do you have plans for a base yet? Are you going to use some teak in the base to visually tie the base and top together?

 

[Vindingo]

Noticed the LN chisels.  How do you like them?

Have you decided what you'll be doing for the finish? 

The LN chisels are really nice.  I received a couple Japanese chisels as gifts that blow the LNs out of the water, but they cost about twice as much.
The handles on the LNs are much more comfortable though, and they hold an edge well.

That can of Waterlox was just hanging around, no plans for it on the table.  The finish is going to be a tung oil and satin spar urethane mix thinned down so I can wipe it on.  I chose the spar urethane over interior poly for a little bit of added water resistance, but I really have no idea if there is a benefit to that.          

 

[Vindingo]

Nice table!!!   I'm curious what you did about the powder post beetles to ensure that they weren't still in there eating away at the wood?

Thanks Fred, don't burn the wood!  I heard a Borax solution will kill them.  There were no new holes in my wood, same ones for over a year an a half.  No powder near, around, or under the stacks either.  

Do you have plans for a base yet? Are you going to use some teak in the base to visually tie the base and top together?

I had some metal legs made.  They are pretty modern looking.  Rustic top + thin modern legs is the look I am going for.  

I wish I had more teak, the wood for the inlays was a scrap from the wooden mallet handle I made, which was scrap from a deck board... It was on the floor waiting to be thrown out.  The head of the mallet was from a pallet I cut up.  I guess I'm a pack rat recycler with wood.     

 

[JLB builders LLC]

Small "scraps" are great for practice,setup,testing stains and you are kind of being "Green" recycling lol

I have a bunch of small pieces also  [big grin]

 

[bruegf]

Maybe I should stack the suspect wood away from my main pile and see what happens with it.  Just don't want transfer any beetles into the rest of the oak.

I wish I had more teak

Boy do I have a deal for you.   I have somwhere between 500 and 700 bd ft of teak I bought for a project on a boat that I ended up selling before I got around to the project.   That would make a lot of butterflies

Fred

 

[Vindingo]

Do you have any photographs of your router sled set-up?

Mine is a dumb'd down version of this: http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/flattenaworkbenchwitharouter.aspx
Because I screwed my rails to a flat table, there is no need to level everything as they say to do in that article.  I also didn't have rails long enough to span the entire piece, so I had to slide them down the table as I went.  I sunk in some screws at the ends so the sled wouldn't fall off the rails.  The setup is fairly crude, but it worked. 

 

[peter halle]

Maybe I should stack the suspect wood away from my main pile and see what happens with it.  Just don't want transfer any beetles into the rest of the oak.

I wish I had more teak

Boy do I have a deal for you.   I have somwhere between 500 and 700 bd ft of teak I bought for a project on a boat that I ended up selling before I got around to the project.   That would make a lot of butterflies

Fred

I forgot you had that!  Hang on to it.  I can only imagine what it will be worth in 10 years.

Peter

 

[JLB builders LLC]

That Fein looks like a beast  [big grin]

 

[Vindingo]

Here is a pic I snapped of the finished table before it went into storage.  The room it will live in is currently being renovated. 

 

[Jay Knoll]

Great job, will be fun to see it in place when the room renovation is done!  Are those hull forms I see hanging on the workshop wall?  What kind of boat?

Jay

 

[honeydoman]

Awesome looking table  thanks for sharing

 

[greenMonster]

Got a pic of the bottom?