Maple Slab Coffee Table

[Gaijin Daiku]

The commission?

"I want a low coffee table that looks like you made it for me."

The slab started out looking like this:

I made two angled cuts (with TS55 and a guide rail--each cut in three passes of increasing depth), repositioned the middle piece against the outer two and re-glued to make the board more square.

Then, I cut table approximately square with, you guessed it, my TS55 and a guide rail, blade set at 10 degrees--again, in three passes.

It now looks like this:

 

[peter halle]

Great table!  Hoe did you finish it?

Peter

 

[Gaijin Daiku]

Thanks, Peter--

It was planed flat with a rilly, really, reeeely sharp blade, then tung oil.

 

[Alan m]

im sure that grain made you say a few choice words [wink]

 

[woodguy7]

Gorgeous slab of wood.  What would a slab like that cost you guys ?

 

[Gaijin Daiku]

Surprisingly, it gave me no argument during planing.  I started with a Stanley 605 plane with a Veritas A2 blade (what I used for the edge jointing), thinking I would just clean up the glue joints, flatten a bit, then use my HNT Gordon plane to finish.  Things went well with the Stanley plane, so I chose the path of least resistance.  

However, the glue up was a special kind of fun (not) and that's when my vocabulary was, um...nothing to be proud of.

 

[Gaijin Daiku]

That slab was $120 US.  It was just over 1 5/8" thick and approx 20 B/F.

 

[Steve R]

Nice! It does come back to the wood. All that work on the wrong piece of wood and you have nothing. With the right piece of wood, things are wonderful.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[atogrf1]

Beautiful grain.
Nice work.

 

[dltflt]

Love the grain and that natural edge.

Regards,
Don

 

[Gaijin Daiku]

Thanks.

I am embarrassed to admit it, but I spent hours staring at the board...trying to figure out where to cut/what angle/where to reposition.

Finally, I came to the conclusion that it was a puzzle with no one solution, started sawing, and hoped for the best.

 

[atogrf1]

Looks like you got it spot on to me.

 

[Gaijin Daiku]

Again, thanks--

However, there was some bitchin' figure/grain/spalting on the original slab (center bottom and center left sides of photo) that didn't make the cut.

My apologies for the lame pun.