PROJECT: Padauk coffee/conference table

[Joe Unni]

Hey all,

I've finally completed my first real commission for a regional magazine. Thanks to many of you I learned a ton during it's construction.

Yes, it is in fact a coffee/conference table. The customer wanted it for their sitting area and wanted it taller than a coffee table, but shorter and less formal than a conference table. See we settled on 21" high.

It's were the staff not only does their brainstorming, but where any visiters may come and sit. The only really requirements where its height, padauk top with light base and an inlay of curly maple. The rest of the design was all up to me.

Details:
- 44" square (well, not really square) 6/4 padauk
- coopered soft maple base with black enameled, aluminum stand offs.
- each half of the base is made up of 6 blocks of 12/4 soft maple, joined with biscuits and beveled at 7 1/2 degrees
- 1/2" padauk sandwich between halves
- halves joined with loose tenons
- top made flat by way of a Steve Knight smoother, scraper and sandpaper
- profiles formed with right angle grinder, LV LA spokeshave, rasp, file, scraper and sandpaper.
- finish - top is sealed with shellac and has about 7 coats of General's oil/poly and a coat of wax. Base is bleached and has 4 or 5 coat of the oil/poly.
- logged 345 hours

I do have some progress images if anyone is interested, but I just don't have time tonight. Let me know and I'll post them another time.

Here are the highlights:

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More in the next post...

[Joe Unni]

Some details:

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Any and all comments are welcome.

Thanks for looking.

-joe

[Jim Becker]

Wow...that's OUTSTANDING, Joe!!

[Gary Keedwell]

That is a real " that a boy!" . ;) Can you give us a hint on what Magazine?
Where in Massachusetts are you from?
Gary K.

[Dennis Peacock]

Pat yourself on the back Joe for an EXCELLENT job well done. :cool:

[John Fry]

That's pretty special, I really like it.

[Chris Fetting]

That is one great piece and very unique. Please post the progress pictures when you get time.

[Craig D Peltier]

Nice table, you have some good design sense.I also like that purpleheart table design you have, I see your from Lawrence.
I was born and raised in New Bedford area but moved west when I was 21.


Good Job!

[Mike Cutler]

Very nice work Joe. I really like it.
I'll keep your finish in mind. I have a Padauk table on deck.

Once again, nice work.
Mike

[Art Mulder]

- logged 345 hours

:eek::eek::eek:

looks gorgeous, but man, that is a lot of hours!

[Joe Unni]

Thanks for the kind words everyone and as mentioned below, I'll try to get the progress images together over the next few days.


That is a real " that a boy!" . ;) Can you give us a hint on what Magazine?
Where in Massachusetts are you from?
Gary K.

Thanks. It's Merrimack Valley Magazine (I've no affiliation). It's inaugural issue came out this past November and its current issue has Tom Bergeron of Dancing With The Stars, Americas Funniest Videos and Hollywood Squares on the cover. Apparently he's from this area - who knew!! Oh, and my shop is one of the old mills in Lawrence.


That is one great piece and very unique. Please post the progress pictures when you get time.
Thank you Chris. I'll try over the next few days.


Nice table, you have some good design sense.I also like that purpleheart table design you have, I see your from Lawrence.
I was born and raised in New Bedford area but moved west when I was 21.
Good Job!
Thank you. I've actually got another purple heart project coming...if I can get the customer to pull the trigger.

[Russ Massery]

Another "Most Excellent" Love the unique design. I don't think the next costumer well have trouble "pulling the trigger" after selling this.

[Rick de Roque]

Beautiful work. Love the design.

Rick

[Jack Ferrell]

Fantastic work Joe. I'm really impressed with the design. I like the finish also.

[Mark Singer]

Joe,
Excellent! Nice work and very nice design... This requires a lot of different techniques and they all came together quite well!

[Don Bullock]

Joe, that is simply beautiful. The craftsmanship and an eye for design are very evident. You sure produced a complicated piece of furniture for first real commissioned piece. Bravo!

[John Timberlake]

Very nice work. All the woods go really well together.

[Rob Blaustein]

It's awesome Joe! Of course I'm not surprised. Rob

[Bill Huber]

What can I say that has not been said..... just awesome :eek: :eek:

To me the base is what really sets the table off, I love it.

Great work !!!!!

[Craig D Peltier]

"coopered soft maple base with black enameled" It looks synethetic very nice.

So are the legs hollow with a veneer coating and then coated with enamel?

Anyone else know?

[Joe Unni]

Milling the padauk created quite an interesting shop hue. Do you think I need dust collection? The orange stuff was everywhere.
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I had to glue up the padauk top in two sections. Here is one - I didn't have the camera for the 2nd.
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Once the sections where separately glued up, I glued both sections together. Note the clamp extensions.
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A bit of clean up with cabinet scraper and card scraper. Note the different sized shavings for each. I thought this might be helpful if you're just learning. You really need to know what things feel like and look like. The shavings are different for each tool. Same if you're cooking, you need to see, hear, and smell your food. I don't know if that's a very good analogy, but I'm trying :o
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Here I'm laying out the curve for the top.
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...

[Lars Thomas]

Joe, this is amazing work! Great job. I love the 'heft' of the table, yet it is till floating on the base. Very well done. lars

[Joe Unni]

Here is some of the 12/4 soft maple just milled.
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To figure out the bevel angles, I just layed out over a mock up curve some plywood cutouts. Once the cutouts matched the curve, I recorded the angle and cut.
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Once the maple was cut, I stood everything up. Note the center blocks are a bit thicker. This was done so the meeting surface could just morph into one another via shaping.
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Here is my padauk sandwich glued up. I don't have the whole glue up, but here is a quick synopsis:
- the leading 4 blocks (on each side) biscuited and glued
- half a sandwich glued up (shown below)
- once dried the whole sandwich was glued
- then the trailing blocks where glued to the sandwich
- once primary shaping was complete, all sections where glued up. Sorry, no photos. It was a most complicated glue up and patience was running thin.
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This was the fixture I built and screwed to my bench for shaping the top.
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...

[Joe Unni]

Here is the template used to shape the top profile.
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The positive and negative templates to keep track of material removal on the concave/convex sides of the base.
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Here I've had to move and rearrange drilling capabilities to drill for the stand offs.
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This is after bleaching the soft maple. You can see a corner of my test piece that was the original color.
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I hope these where helpful.

-joe

[Joe Unni]

"coopered soft maple base with black enameled" It looks synethetic very nice.

So are the legs hollow with a veneer coating and then coated with enamel?

Anyone else know?

Craig, the coopered soft maple base is a solid glue up. The black enameled stand-offs are what hold the padauk top away from the base.

Does this answer your question?
-joe

[Craig D Peltier]

Thanks Joe, pictures helped alot. Great table, I also think its an amazing finish job.Looks so smooth an glossy.

[Roy Wall]

Joe -

That is a Beautiful table.....lots of work...and you Nailed it!! Awesome!:)

[Earl Kelly]

Joe,

Really nice Design. I can see where the hours went. Looks like you should invest in some Hargrave Bar clamps.

Did you shape the edge strictly with hand tools?

Again. Great job!!

Earl

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Man oh' man is this table ever so sweet! What a neat comtemporary design! I really like padauk and the way your top shows it off. All those curved surfaces scream creativity and skill.

I made a contemporary coffee table and a couple of end tables about 20 years ago from maple and padauk. A nice combination, I must say! :) I'm jealous that you had a source for 6/4 padauk stock. I had to resort to making the top out of thick maple stock and the legs from padauk. I would have preferred it to be the other way around if I had found some thicker stock in those pre-internet days.

Again, well done!

-Jeff :)