Charlie Plesums
Member
- Messages
- 1,523
- Location
- Austin, Texas
I posted this on Facebook (where I hope to attract customers) and had a huge reception, including many from this forum. But I am feeling guilty for not sharing with my woodworking "family."
Last weekend I delivered a solid Mesquite dining room table that expands to 4 feet wide by 18 feet long. Too big. I will never build another one like that. It over-filled my shop, with final assembly in our living room. At one point, I had to call the neighbor to help turn it over. The basic table is 4 x 8 feet, with 5 leaves, 2 feet wide apiece. The customer plans to have one leaf in routinely, and add more leaves as required.
Note that at this point there is only one leaf in the table - overall length 10 feet, or just over half size. I used slides from Osborne Wood Products - great slides, but when they are this large they probably added about 60 pounds to the table.
The legs were two layers of 8/4 Mesquite glued together and turned. I do occasionally turn spindles and bowls. There are middle legs that fold down when the table is fully expanded.
The customer wanted their initial inlaid in one of the leaves, with turquoise granules. The customer specifically requested that the wood grain in the leaves go the opposite way from the main table. Whatever!
The usual cracks and gaps in mesquite were filled with black epoxy - I estimate over 50 batches mixed and applied over several weeks.
The finish was quite simple... Target EM1000 sanding sealer, sanded with 320 or 400 grit, followed by Target EM8000cv gloss conversion varnish, rubbed out with Mirka synthetic steel wool, Maroon very fine (about P360) followed by Dark Gray ultra fine (about P1200), then rubbed with an old T-Shirt. All rubbing done with a Festool 6 inch sander, except the legs which were hand robbed with an almost dead Mirka dark gray pad.
Last weekend I delivered a solid Mesquite dining room table that expands to 4 feet wide by 18 feet long. Too big. I will never build another one like that. It over-filled my shop, with final assembly in our living room. At one point, I had to call the neighbor to help turn it over. The basic table is 4 x 8 feet, with 5 leaves, 2 feet wide apiece. The customer plans to have one leaf in routinely, and add more leaves as required.
Note that at this point there is only one leaf in the table - overall length 10 feet, or just over half size. I used slides from Osborne Wood Products - great slides, but when they are this large they probably added about 60 pounds to the table.
The legs were two layers of 8/4 Mesquite glued together and turned. I do occasionally turn spindles and bowls. There are middle legs that fold down when the table is fully expanded.
The customer wanted their initial inlaid in one of the leaves, with turquoise granules. The customer specifically requested that the wood grain in the leaves go the opposite way from the main table. Whatever!
The usual cracks and gaps in mesquite were filled with black epoxy - I estimate over 50 batches mixed and applied over several weeks.
The finish was quite simple... Target EM1000 sanding sealer, sanded with 320 or 400 grit, followed by Target EM8000cv gloss conversion varnish, rubbed out with Mirka synthetic steel wool, Maroon very fine (about P360) followed by Dark Gray ultra fine (about P1200), then rubbed with an old T-Shirt. All rubbing done with a Festool 6 inch sander, except the legs which were hand robbed with an almost dead Mirka dark gray pad.