I recently built a 128" x 38" conference table. The top is quarter sawn walnut and the base is solid poplar.
For the top, I used 3/4" walnut for the field and used 1.5" for the edges. For the ends, I made the 3/4" pieces long, cut them to length, and used the cutoffs flipped over and attached to the underside to give the illusion of a thicker top while matching the grain. The underside of the 3/4" field is strengthened by 2 pieces of 1/2" MDO. The MDO is screwed to the 3/4" walnut with oversized holes and washers. This made the tabletop lighter to move around (office is on the 16th floor of a highrise, so negotiating into the freight elevator was a challenge) since it was in 3 pieces.
The base is comprised of 5 main pieces: 3 pillars and 2 U-shaped troughs. There are also some nailers with oversized holes that screw into the MDO only (not into the walnut). The troughs end up hiding the underside of the network/tv/power ports accessible from the top of the table. Holes in the pillars at the trough attachment points allow all cables to run hidden inside the table to a network switch and power strip inside one of the pillars. From there, a single network cable and a single power cable exit the bottom of this pillar and plug into the wall. There are 4 leveling feet on each pillar which give the appearance of the base floating.
The base is finished with Target's EM6500 and EM9000 in a semi-gloss. The top is finished with EM9000 in satin with CL100 added.
It's my first project of this scale, so I learned a lot about organization when it came time to glue the large pieces together. Talk about stressful!
Thanks in advance for any comments!
For the top, I used 3/4" walnut for the field and used 1.5" for the edges. For the ends, I made the 3/4" pieces long, cut them to length, and used the cutoffs flipped over and attached to the underside to give the illusion of a thicker top while matching the grain. The underside of the 3/4" field is strengthened by 2 pieces of 1/2" MDO. The MDO is screwed to the 3/4" walnut with oversized holes and washers. This made the tabletop lighter to move around (office is on the 16th floor of a highrise, so negotiating into the freight elevator was a challenge) since it was in 3 pieces.
The base is comprised of 5 main pieces: 3 pillars and 2 U-shaped troughs. There are also some nailers with oversized holes that screw into the MDO only (not into the walnut). The troughs end up hiding the underside of the network/tv/power ports accessible from the top of the table. Holes in the pillars at the trough attachment points allow all cables to run hidden inside the table to a network switch and power strip inside one of the pillars. From there, a single network cable and a single power cable exit the bottom of this pillar and plug into the wall. There are 4 leveling feet on each pillar which give the appearance of the base floating.
The base is finished with Target's EM6500 and EM9000 in a semi-gloss. The top is finished with EM9000 in satin with CL100 added.
It's my first project of this scale, so I learned a lot about organization when it came time to glue the large pieces together. Talk about stressful!
Thanks in advance for any comments!
