Wood choice made - what do you know about Brazillian Cherry?

[Vaughn McMillan]

...how many people will it take to add a leaf or vacuum under the table.

Kind of off-topic, but last year when I was installing artwork, we had a client with a concrete-topped round table in the foyer of their house. The tabletop was about 3" thick and 9' in diameter (large foyer in a house costing tens of millions of dollars). By my calculations, the tabletop alone weighed about 2300 pounds. The lady of the house told us it was such a project getting the table moved into the house, it would be staying right where it was if they ever sold the house. Needless to say, they vacuumed around the table base.

[Rob Keeble]

Yeah Vaughn i guess you absolutely right about those sleepers. Rennie you could always ship some in. Vaughn its good to see you around been missing you.

[Ryan Mooney]

Yeah Vaughn i guess you absolutely right about those sleepers. Rennie you could always ship some in. Vaughn its good to see you around been missing you.

I saw some cut offs (6"x6"x1') a fellow had down the street (this is in Oregon) that were maple - turns out they were from the local RR tie plant (also had more Doug Fir). I'm with everyone else on the chemicals though, the stuff they use here is scary.

[Art Mulder]

Rennie, I'm with you, it's not to my style either.

I have not seen this table in the flesh, however, I have been at a cottage that had a long table with an almost identical mechanism for adding leaves at either end. In that table, the mechanism slides in and out of a wooden slot in the end and over the years they wear. The leaves on that table were loose, and had a tendency to pop up if you lean on them the wrong way. I really did not like them.

If you go with this design, find a way to latch the leaves in place!

[Don Baer]

The description says 253 lbs. Don't know if that includes the leaves. I had thought to use 3" thick at the sides and 3/4" in the field. Just a thought.

That's how I would do it and also on the leaves use pins like a traditional leaf to help keep them aligned when in use.

[Don Baer]

I looked at the weight of Birch and found depending on species and moisture content the wood when dried weighs between 38 and 44 lbs/cu.ft. I calculate the top alone with no leaves as be 6.27 cu.ft. (86x42x3). I get between 238 lbs and 275 lbs just for the top. hmm what about the legs, stretchers and hardware ?

[Bruce Haugen]

I agree with the creosote business. I wouldn't have a creosote treated anything anywhere near my house, and definitely not indoors.

You know, what seems to be popular for workbenches, especially the Roubo style, is southern yellow pine, which can be found frequently at one of the big box stores. The stuff is relatively hard for a soft wood, can be found in big dimensions and finishes well. It also comes in the thicker dimensions.

[Toni Ciuraneta]

It seems that each country uses different wood for rail sleepers, here in Spain they are from oak. And yes, creosote has been proved to be carcinogenic, specially for those that were working on industries that were treating sleepers, telephone poles and so forth, but so are solvents, certain glues, varnishes, epoxy glues and paints and so forth, and we use them don't we?

I made a garden bench out of a sleeper that I peeled off with an axe, no dust only big chips, rather pleasant smell I must admit ( although I may be a freak), when I finished the bench was still about 3 inches thick of beatiful oak.

Don't get me wrong I'm neither selling the idea nor pushing anybody to do it, but from my experience, faking rough or used/abused furniture, scratches and so forth is not an easy task if you want them to look right. There are other ways to make something look used or rustic.

[Rennie Heuer]

Well, appearances, and descriptions, can be very misleading. I went to the local Pottery Barn today to check out the table.

Here's their description from the website:

• Tabletop: 3" thick
• Legs: 4.5" square, 27.5" high

Here's the facts:
The tabletop is 3/4" thick with an apron down the sides to make it appear 3" thick. The only part of the table that is actually 3" thick are the breadboard ends.
The legs might be 4" square, but they are hollow.



This is going to be a lot cheaper to build than I first thought. I will also try and convince my daughter that that it should look a little less distressed and more refined as I agree with Toni - it's hard to make something really look old and not just beat up..

[Toni Ciuraneta]

(snip) .... I agree with Toni - it's hard to make something really look old and not just beat up..

A master carver I know, made a lot of romanic (not roman) virgins imitations, to start with he used salvaged old pine beams with worm holes, then he carved the virgin copying it from pictures of the original one, policromated it following the original color pattern, and the final touch was beating the figure with a chain. The result was pretty impressive, however he had been doing and refining the technique for years, I think he made about 500 of them, he was very fast, he could make one each 4-5 days with no copying machine at all. True worm holes give a lot of autenthicity to a carving or piece of furniture. I've seen simulated worm holes that are so clearly made with a spike made out of nail that they are square.