sapele dining table

allen levine

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new york city burbs
started to make a simple dining table, but this one will have a 24 inch extension .

Im not having any luck, I jointed and planed a lot of stock yesterday to get ready to do glue ups in sections so I can handle it better and get better alignments and seams.

today, it was just ridiculousy hot out there, humidity up near 100%, I just wanted to get some glueups done.

while the sweat was pouring into my eyes, with a headband on, I wiped it and got some sapele dust into my eye. It burned badly, and my vision in that eye went blurry/cloudy.

rinsed it, but vision was still blurry and I called the eye doc, she said come in..

the outcome was its like a very mild chemical burn, nothing much to do, she said it will heal by itself just to use some tears to keep it moist.

Ive spent more time in the doctors offices between the episode in my right eye the past 5 weeks, then I ever had in full year of illnesses or checkups.

cant catch a break. like Im cursed. I almost decided to junk this project, maybe Im through working with sapele, it just never agrees with me.


anyway, can never have enough clamps, well in my case, I don't have enough clamping space. I cant lift the sections with the clamps onto the floor, so I have to do it over a few days.

still have a lot to clamp up, plane down 1/8th, then reglue together.

table will be 60 inches long, 40 inches wide, with one extension of 24 inches.

final top thickness hoping to get around 1 and 1/16, tapered legs approx. 2.75 inches at top tapered down.
 

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Sorry about your word. I don't think that is much fun at all. This heat is a killer take it easy!!!! Worked this morning bush hogging then changing the mower deck on tractor. Heat finally got to me before finishing. Figured take it easy and don't push it. Thursday can finish putting on mower deck in the cool of the morning. Then mow as can handle the heat.
Can't beat this heat.
David
 
Table is coming along nicely, glad the eye issue wasn't worse, but still sucks that it happened.

Been doing a lot of pool time around here to stay cool, of course the water is evaporating as fast as I can put more in. :doh:
 
Sounds like that's going to be a beast of a top when it's done. Bummer about the bad reaction to the sapelle. Especially since it looks so nice when finished. Don't overdo things, Allen. It's not hurting yourself over.

Heat's been high here. Yesterday we got up in the morning to find the indoor temp was in the mid 60s and the swamp cooler running. It's on an electronic thermostat, but the thermostat had failed and gotten stuck in the "Run" mode. Even after we turned the switch to "Off", it continued to run. I had to physically disconnect the power to stop the swamp cooler. Fortunately we also have refrigerated air, so we just turned that on and let it keep the house comfy until yesterday evening when I could replace the thermostat. First world problems, for sure.
 
first thing this morning, I ran over to dicks sporting goods and bought 2 heavy terry cloth type head bands. not making that mistake twice.

it was brutal again today, only managed to get another 3 glue ups. tomorrow the same is expected.

I realized I didn't have a large enough surface to glue up the sections to make the top, so my neighbor was kind enough to drive me over to the yard to pick up a sheet of mdf so I can have a temporary surface to glue up.
now that my pickup is gone, running to get one piece or a sheet is going to need a little better planning.

I felt bad asking, hes a guy who is dealing with a rare form of leukemia, he just had heart valve replacement and had kidney failure for 6 months.

he told me if I don't ask him hed be insulted, he needs to do something and get out , so I asked him. hes the best neighbor anyone could ask for, (not the one next to me)
 
61 ozs of water and 20 ozs of plain seltzer after 1 pm, until 3:30,
I managed to keep the AC on in the garage, elen says it was still stifling in there, but I felt the humidity was way down, and I was comfortable enough, its around 93 here today, with dewpoints in the mid 70s, ridiculous, this isn't florida.

anyway, got the two halfs of the top glued up today, final glueup. I ran outside to answer a phone call from dr, and when I came back in, I couldn't move the last board, it was a tiny bit off, not a real problem, one swipe of a plane, and then the drum sander will even it all out. I have more than enough thickness, I ended up leaving it almost 1/8th thicker and not 1/16 for my final thickness.
its gonna be one real heavy table. Ill make the legs close to 3 inches wide, and aprons an inch or more thick.
Im sorry I purchased enough sapele to do a few more projects, its not fun nor easy for me to work with. And with the humidity and heat way up there, who knows how its going to move while Im working on it.

Ive enlisted my daughter for the week after next(next week is infusion week, no work time) to help me run the tops and the extension thru the drum sander, it will be too large and heavy to handle alone, she doesn't mind. (I think she thinks this table is for her, boy, is she in for a big surprise.)
I clamped the mdf in 48x48 squares to my surfaces to give me a larger area to clamp the top pieces.

Im sorry about mentioning the ongoing health problems, but my health keeps kicking me back 3 steps whenever I take 2 steps forward. I dropped a few lbs, my sugar is under control, and now this nonsense.
I see the ophthalmologist next Thursday after my infusions, and from there I think Ive had enough. no answers, my neurologist feels the bouts of temp blindness in the eye might be something like seizures, with triggers like a migraine, I really didn't understand what he said on the phone, Im working out here in the 100 degree temps, so Ill let them all hash out my results and give me a better answer. Im vertical, and working hard, Im happy with that.again, sorry about bringing it up, but its the main reason Im going to be dragging this project on a lot further and a lot more time than it deserves.
 

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That's going to be a great looking table Allen.

I haven't even been up to my shop for about a week since the only area with AC is my office. Should be a little cooler this weekend, but still not fun working in a big metal oven.
 
It was 96 here in South Central NC today, but in my shop it was 75 and much lower humidity. Since we need AC much longer here every year almost everywhere is air conditioned.

I was born in Peekskill, NY, so I know how hot and humid the Hudson River Valley can get, bur it cools off at night there, and those hot spells don't last very long there either. We are looking for it to cool off to about 85 here tonight at about 4 AM, I sometimes work in my shop late at night, when the AC in the shop can't keep up during the day. It catches up as soon as the Sun goes down. Our next cool spell isn't likely to happen until late September. From now through August it will be like today or hotter.

The table looks good so far. I'm watching it's progress.

Charley
 
some of my concerns are if the top sections will remain flat and not move much in the heat and humidity out there. Looks good so far, nice and flat,(I lat it on the mdf sheet to see how flat it is) cleaned up the top sections a bit today, then made 2 cuts, final cuts when I can cut the leaf with it so all match.
finished jointing and planing the legs, decided to go with 2 and 5/8th thick, 28.5 inches length(not cut yet) not sure what Ill taper them down to on bottom, haven't gotten to a jig yet.

had to kill this morning once again, dealing with my health insurer, seems they just decided not to ship my infusion meds that I start Monday, and there was little I could do last night.
so I had to work phones this morning, mostly dealing with inconsiderate selfish I don't want to work here people, finally got a fire lit under someone and hopefully, it will all arrive tomorrow.

as mentioned, the tops are very heavy, I can lift them, but trying to run them thru drum sander, my back wont last 3 minutes, so after cutting them all to size tomorrow, they will sit until the 24th, when I have help to maneuver them. Ill update if I any work next week.
 

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Allen, I would consider passing on the drum sander. With really heavy pieces (like you have) it is so easy to move unevenly and destroy your work... I traded my Performax (Jet) sander on a 5 hp 38 inch Woodmaster, and found the pro sander could bugger big pieces as well as the little sander did.

If it were me, I would get a long straightedge (even a precision cut board) to keep track of the high and low spots and do the sanding with an ROS. It may take longer, but can be done gradually, as energy allows, and has little risk of damage. You still need the ROS after a drum sander, so this method eliminates the final sanding you would have had to do after the drum sander.
 
Ive been rethinking the method Im going to use.

I believe Ive cut off a bit more than I can chew.

my shop just doesn't have the room to be able to comfortably spread out and have enough room to work.

Just getting straight edges on these 3 pieces today was quite a task, having to move everything with every cut, and lifting and setting down each piece was a bit much for me. These pieces are heavy, and theres no room to move around.

I almost had a complete disaster today when I decided to cut the final two edges on the table saw on each piece, didn't realize the fence was not 100% straight that far from the blade, just past its limits of accuracy, so I had to compromise the width by 1/4 inch to recut after I aligned the fence properly.
first cuts were made with festool track saw, but needing three pieces to align up exactly I decided uniform cuts with the table saw will give better accuracy.
no one would notice a table top that's off 1/64th or 1/32 of an inch, but pieces that have to butt up to each other and not glued, wont look good.
I think I should have made this solid, and just enlisted help for a few hours different days to move the top around.

Its going to sit now for a week, until Im done with infusions, let me think about the smoothing/sanding process of this heavy monster.

a bridge too far for me.


elen asked me, what happens if Im not happy with the project and I give up after what Ive put into it, simple enough I told her, I have ALOT of cutting boards. or maybe some end tables.
 
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Allen, I would consider passing on the drum sander. With really heavy pieces (like you have) it is so easy to move unevenly and destroy your work... I traded my Performax (Jet) sander on a 5 hp 38 inch Woodmaster, and found the pro sander could bugger big pieces as well as the little sander did.

If it were me, I would get a long straightedge (even a precision cut board) to keep track of the high and low spots and do the sanding with an ROS. It may take longer, but can be done gradually, as energy allows, and has little risk of damage. You still need the ROS after a drum sander, so this method eliminates the final sanding you would have had to do after the drum sander.


IM sure you've worked with sapele, but this stuff is miserable to sand. the fine dust is horrible. I ran a 50 by 20 inch top for the wine buffet through the drum sander, and while I destroyed 2 belts, and got some burn marks, which had to be run through again and again with very light passes to remove, I think with help, and very, very light passes, I can at least get some initial sanding done with the drum sander. Im pretty certain as you mention, the bulk of it will need to be done with orbital, something Im not looking forward to.

btw, if the top comes out ok, and I move on, Im using osbourne table extending pieces. this is all new to me.
 
...btw, if the top comes out ok, and I move on, Im using osbourne table extending pieces. this is all new to me.

I have had excellent results with Osborne table slides. They even have different models for center pedestal (sags at the end) vs. corner legs (sags at the middle) - the adjustment (bend in the pieces) is not apparent but the results are great.
 
thanx for th einfo, heat index of 120 degrees out there today, I didn't do anything yet this week, infusions Monday-Wednesday, and tomorrow same hot humid temps expected.
I hope those tops don't twist on me.

I got more good news today from the ophthalmologist today, first, she let me know I have cataracts, but nothing to worry about yet, just watch it, second, my loss of vision in eye is most likely a form of migraine.

so on I go, one more test in two weeks, then all the doctors will powwow and guess at whats wrong with me.

Id like to cut some aprons and maybe some mortises tomorrow, all dependent on weather, this health stuff just ticks me off.
 
...one more test in two weeks, then all the doctors will powwow and guess at whats wrong with me.

Id like to cut some aprons and maybe some mortises tomorrow, all dependent on weather, this health stuff just ticks me off.

Take care of yourself, bud!

As for the heat and woodworking - the weather is about the same here. The little window air conditioner in the shop can't keep up. I haven't done much more than a cursory clean up out there all this past week.

Messed up an Achilles tendon last week, and now I'm in an ankle brace. I hate wearing it, but at least it's relieving some of the pain/discomfort. I go back to the ankle guy in two weeks.
 
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