dining table

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472
Location
Goodyear AZ
Well, Ihaven't been around much lately because I had a couple of large (for me) flat work comissions to do. One was two sets of library cabinet/shelves made from alder and delivered unfinished (sorry, didn't get any pics) and the last was a dining table for a lady that nearly drove me crazy...the table and the lady both:eek:. She put so many specs on it that I began to think it would be impossible (at least the mechanics of if) but I finally figured out an acceptable solution. I was so anxious to be done with it that the only pictures I got was some my buddy took before it went out the door. The lady required that the table have 4 drop leaves that would fold up under the table when not in use. She reqired the legs be curved as shown, and the top inlayed, and was very particular, yet indecisive, about the colors for the inlay. BTW, a big THANKS! to Mike Henderson for his excellent tutorial on compass roses, it saved me a lot of head scratching. The main wood is white oak, the compass rose purple heart and bloodwood, the background is mesquite crotch, and the rings are bubinga. Unfortunately, there is no pic of the underside to show all the aparatus to make it work. The legs were glue-lammed in a form. the dimensions are 31" tall, 56" diameter, or 40" square with the leaves folded up. Oh yea, another thing she wanted was for the top to have a bar-top finish; the two part epxoy stuff, what a pain. It was so hot here when I was trying to pour the top that the stuff would start hardening before it had self leveled. I ended up scraping and sanding the stuff till it was pretty level, then coated it with some semi-gloss poly. The top is certainly not perfectly smooth, but fortunatly she wanted a bit of a rustic handmade look so it worked. The good part was that the finish ended up looking much more natural that the "plastic wet-look" that bar-top normally produces. Thanks for looking, have a great weekend! Barry
 

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Way Too Cool.... When I looked at the first pic. I thought "he ruined the corners..." then when I saw the drop leaves lifted, it all made sense. Great job. :thumb:
 
I just saw this post. Great job on the table. Putting in that inlaid ring around the outside of the table is not easy.

Did you use commercial veneer for the rose inlay or cut your own so that it would be thicker?

Mike
 
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WOW and REWOW! Barry.

That is a great looking table,:thumb::thumb::thumb: I wish I can make something similar one day!
Veneering is on my "to learn" list, and I've bookmarked Mike's tutorial as well, but I haven't got enough confidence to try it yet. Maybe I should start with something small like a box for instance:dunno:
 
That's a great looking table. I can imagine how big a pain getting the hinges right on the leaves was. The shop I work at has done several tables of this sort. We use hinges like these:

www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=1691

They work really well. They lock the leaves in both the open and closed positions so you don't have to use any other mechanisms.

Thanks for sharing.

Mark
 
Mark, that was exactly what I was hoping I could find, but couldn't. it would have saved me soooo much hassel! where were you a month ago:(:D.: Well now I know what I will use if I ever have to do it again, Thanks!
 
Mark, that was exactly what I was hoping I could find, but couldn't. it would have saved me soooo much hassel! where were you a month ago:(:D.: Well now I know what I will use if I ever have to do it again, Thanks!


Sorry man, I've been meaning to come over here from another forum for a while now, but didn't until today. Still, you got it done and it looks great.:thumb:
 
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