Lightening the Hayrake table?

[Ken Platt]

Folks - The currently requested design for a dining table is the Hayrake table. There are plans online via the Pop WW site: popularwoodworking.coverleaf.com/popularwoodworking/200902/?pg=62

However, the table as pictured is a bit heavy for our tastes, so I'm trying to lighten up the look a bit. Here are my ideas so far:

First, the biggest/hardest-to-do change - Instead of the triangular hayrake at the ends of the stretcher, I'm wondering about a single curved piece. This would probably need to be a bent lamination for strength. I would be intending the arc to be more like the top of an ellipse rather than circular, so that there would be a flat surface for the stretcher to be mortised into.

Second, make the tabletop thinner than the 1 7/8" that the plans call for, maybe more like 1 1/2 or so. Also, I'd bevel the underside.

Third, maybe a very slight taper on the legs, just the outside face (the legs are turned 45 degrees from usual orientation so there's only one truly outside face).

I'd really appreciate thoughts on those or other modifications. I've never done a bent lamination, although I've read plenty of articles so I get the basic procedure. I think that the stretcher/bent lam combo will still give enough structural strength, but I"m really guessing here, and so would appreciate thoughts on this aspect of the change also.

Ken

[Chris Friesen]

That table is modelled after farming implements, wagons, etc. It's *supposed* to look heavy and somewhat crude.

That table has no long aprons, it's just a top, two trestle ends, and the stretcher. This has a couple implications:

1) It needs a fairly beefy stretcher because that stretcher is handling all the racking loads that would normally be handled by the leg/apron joints. Imagine giving one end of the table a big push.

2) With a big stretcher, you need a thick top to visually counterbalance it even though it may not be necessary structurally.

[Rob Fisher]

I agree with Chris. You are trying to take away the main design element of this table, its heavy, its supposed to be heavy. I would consider finding a different design to start with or using a design wholly your own.

Just my humble opinions,
Rob

[Ken Platt]

I really was trying to make the Hayrake into something it isn't. I think we are going back to a simpler Shaker-ish trestle design....with two posts each side so I can make it wider than the usual Shaker one. My wife liked one I found on the Moser site. Thanks,

Ken