Multi-year Table and Chairs Project

[Perry Holbrook]

About 5 years ago, I bought 3 maple logs about 5 ft long and 20-24 in dia. Sealed the ends and put them outside for 2 years, hoping for some spalting or other grain enhancement. Chain sawed the largest one in cross cut slabs about 4" think, cut on about a 30 deg angle. Sawmilled the others a heavy 6/4, then airdried for about 2 years. The slabs were dried in a make shift dehumidification tent for a cfew weeks, then air dried for about 2 years. Was very surprised that none of the slabs ever split, don't really know why.

Last year I completed this table and chairs. The base of the table and the chair backs are steel pipe. The black lines in the table top are epoxy resin, tinted black. Finish is Boiled Linseed Oil followed with a General Finishes oil base top coat.

First time I have taken a project from tree to finish and had the patience to see it through.

[David Publicover]

That is a very cool looking project! The table top is beautiful. You are clearly a patient man and I’m glad it paid off for you.
Congratulations!

[Dave Anderson NH]

Very nice and innovative.

[jim sauterer]

Love the wood and design.great work

[David Utterback]

Nice project with great design. Thanks for sharing.

[Jim Becker]

Perry, that set of chairs and table are true works of art!

[Bill Carey]

Nicely done Perry - you have more patience that I do for sure. The chair stretchers are pipe as well, yes? How are they and the back splats joined? epoxy?

[Phil Mueller]

Nice work, Perry. Your patience paid off!

[Frederick Skelly]

Your "grain enhancement" clearly worked! That's the most interesting tabletop I've seen. I love the finish!

[Perry Holbrook]

Nicely done Perry - you have more patience that I do for sure. The chair stretchers are pipe as well, yes? How are they and the back splats joined? epoxy?

The back slats are just epoxy joints. The stretchers are epoxy plus I pinned each joint by drilling through the pipe and using a small finish nail for the pin. Nail holes were filled with sawdust/glue mixture. Because of the character of the wood they are pretty much invisible.

[Bill Carey]

The back slats are just epoxy joints. The stretchers are epoxy plus I pinned each joint by drilling through the pipe and using a small finish nail for the pin. Nail holes were filled with sawdust/glue mixture. Because of the character of the wood they are pretty much invisible.


clever - I like it

[Adam Herman]

how was the top achived, im thinking lay out, jig saw to make them fit together, dowels or dominos between? epoxy pour the whole thing? very unique look. i have some 2 yo silver and norway maple logs stacked up right now.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Nicely done Perry!

[Mike Henderson]

Very unique and inventive. Congratulations.

Mike

[Perry Holbrook]

how was the top achived, im thinking lay out, jig saw to make them fit together, dowels or dominos between? epoxy pour the whole thing? very unique look. i have some 2 yo silver and norway maple logs stacked up right now.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit the amount of time this took. But I took it as a challenge to see if I could do it. Since it's all cross grain I was concerned about the wood movement and thought if I had the pieces pretty much interlock, that may help. I also only had 16 irregular shaped slabs and although they had not split, most had a pith that could not be used.

I've forgotten some of the steps, but here goes.

I traced each slab on paper and scanned the outline. I then spent hours on the CAD software of my CNC to design the table top so it all fit together and produced a 42" dia top.

I then cut the outline of each piece on the correct slab using the CNC and a 1/2" bit about 1/2" deep.

Using the bottom of the grove as a guide, I cut out each piece on the band saw on a 5 deg angle.

With all pieces cut, I assembled the top, leaving a gap between each piece and then taped the gaps tightly, used a band clamp and turned the top over.

The groves on the bottom were more of a v grove because of the angle cut on the bandsaw.

I poured Black epoxy resin in each grove about 1/2" deep. This provided the "glue" to hold all the pieces together. The taped joints kept the resin from leaking.

After sealing the bottom side, I screwed a piece of 3/4" OSB to the bottom with MANY screws, taking care that each piece had several screws. I had cut a recess in the bottom of each slab piece so the OSB was flush and not noticeable.

After sanding and many coats of BLO and top coat it's pretty much 1 solid slab that has shown no signs of wood movement.

I've not attempted to explain this to anyone else, especially a non wood worker, I've just said it took some time and was a little complicated.


Thanks for all the comments.

Perry

[Jim Becker]

Makes sense to me and clearly it worked really well!

[Jim Dwight]

Looks Great!

[Charlie Jones]

Beautiful. I know your proud of it.

[Patrick Kane]

That is incredibly unique and well done. I dont know that ive ever seen so many unchecked cookies. Your work is fantastic and i dont want to discount it, but really, the most impressive part of the table is the method you used to dry the wood without flaw.