Old Flooring Table, Copper Banding

Messages
438
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
20170419_092940.jpg20170419_092952.jpg20170419_093002.jpg

Hi all,

I just delivered a table today that was made from the customer's old oak flooring. They have copper elements in their kitchen, so at their request I added a copper edge banding. 'Twas a fun build!

-Hutch

P.S. The table base was not of my choosing.
 
That banding does look sharp!

Hopefully it was OLD oak flooring and not the AlOx coated modern stuff otherwise my sympathies for your machines (and hopefully you'd price in a new set of planer blades ;) )

How did you deal with the ends? A slot to tuck them into or something?
 
Hi Ryan,

This indeed was made from old hardwood oak. You know, solid 3/4 of an inch tongue and groove. The photos don't exactly show the glue up, but there are four quadrants at diagonals pointing to the center. The solid wood is only about nine sixteenths of an inch thick, and it is screwed to a 1.125" MDF substrate to give it thickness as well as stability.

The copper banding is inset so it is flush with the hardwood surface edge. By that I mean I used a my router table to spin the assembled top against a spiral bit to remove a fat 1/64 of an inch for the copper to set into. Where the band meets itself around the circumference I used a piece of extra wood edge banding to wrap around the table to determine the length that I needed to cut the copper. I left the copper a little long so that I could trim it to the exact length needed. I used spray contact cement, like what you use with laminate, to hold the copper banding in place. Then I trimmed it to length after I drilled the holes for the nails, installed the nails, and was content that the banding didn't compress or expand during this process. Thanks!

Regards,
Hutch
 
Last edited:
Kudos! Nicely done. The banding makes it quite unique and I don't even want to think about how difficult it was to get those quadrants to come together.
 
Thanks all, it had some interesting moments. (I love learning on the fly.) Turns out this glue-up orientation isn't the most stable idea for wood thicker than veneer. All of the cross-grain movement is on the outer edge of the top. It's probably gonna be fine now that it has finish on it, but a section of it tore open this winter. The split was 3/16" at the edge!! I had to carefully take out that area and replace it, all the while refitting the 45 degree joint/point in the center. I was pleasantly surprised when it only took me a few hours. A perfect "real life" example of why knowing how to use hand tools is essential. Good 'ole shooting board to the rescue!

-Hutch
 
Top