Table Finished

[Bob Opsitos]

My brother packed up the table and took it home Friday evening. Hopefully he can wait long enough for a full cure of the poly before beer gets spilled on it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/ropsitos/P6080010.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/ropsitos/P6080014.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/ropsitos/P6080017.jpg

Top is cherry, 1-1/2" thick x 34-3/8" x 8ft. Made in two peices so he could get it into his car.

Base is black dyed poplar, with the stretchers held to the legs with LV bench bolts. 2-5/8" thick legs and 1" thick for the stretchers.

Finish is wipe-on poly for the base and shellac and reg poly for the top.

I did get to put the new jointer plane and my new knight smoothers to use leveling the top. Didn't get to plane it as smooth as I would have wanted because of my brother's impaticience to being finishing so I let him loose with the random orbit. Given the workout I got from the planing I did, I can understand the value of the apprentice. Those old builders must have been ripped. Hell of a workout.

He also applied the finish so there are some imperfections that bug me, but he's very happy with it. he kept chanting the "spectrum of quality" that he wanted to work within.

Glad it's done as it sucked up most of my time for 3 weeks. Time to get back to my regularly scheduled programming.

Thanks for looking
Bob

[Jim Grill]

Nice table. I very much like the look of the base. That's quite a load of cherry for that top! I'll bet you did have a quite a time working with it. Nice of your brother to help. ;)

[Greg Cole]

Hi Bob,
A trestle table is on my to do list.... yours or should I say your bro's looks pretty good. The top on that one should help keep seasonal movement to a minimum too.
I too am not one to enjoy having someone over the shoulder while working, especially trying to hurry on the last surface prep & finish!

Cheers.
Greg

[Jim Becker]

I also really like the base....great job!

[Kyle Stiefel]

Bob, very well done. I am sure your brother and those close will have many fond memories around your hard work.

[Joe Unni]

Very nice Bob!

I too like the base. I see what appears to be some type of cleat system to hold the top halves together. Can you please tell us more?

-joe

[Brent Dowell]

Very nicely done. I love the massive top, and nice clean lines...

[Terry Hatfield]

Bob,

Super nice!!!!! I like hefty looking furniture and your table certainly qualifies for hefty. The dyed base is a nice contrast.

t

[Dave Ray]

Bob, you created a piece of furniture that will be a family heirloom. Great job, even though you'll always see flaws. Your family and the rest of us will see beauty and love of one brother for another.

[Bob Opsitos]

Thanks for the nice comments, guys.

Design inspiration came from the last months FWW (the one with the lathe comparo) design galley. A similar table but with a claro walnut top. We did the design in a couple hours the first time he came down. About three weeks from design to finish.



...some type of cleat system to hold the top halves together. Can you please tell us more?


Joe the cleat system is 4 blocks, a pair on either side of the table and one of each pair on either side of the stretcher. They are screwed to the top (two screws, #10's or 12's I think) and then the cleats are pinned to each other with a 1/2 steel dowel and two 3/8 bolts in each cleat. It's not as rigid as I would have liked, either due to me being too cautious with torquing the cleats to the tops or the cleats to each other. Could also be that I should have used larger screws (or better lags) to hold the cleats to the top.

Thanks
Bob

[Brent Dowell]

Design inspiration came from the last months FWW (the one with the lathe comparo) design galley. A similar table but with a claro walnut top.

That's really funny. I just bought that edition of FWW in the grocery store yesterday. Earlier in the day, I had emailed this thread to my wife to look at, because I liked the table so much.

Later in the evening I was looking through FWW, Saw that (much smaller) claro walnut table and we both commented how it looked like a 1/3 scale version of your table!

While I like the claro on the smaller table, I really like the cherry glue up you did. What's even more important, is that my wife really liked it too, and I think I'll be putting together something similar someday.

[jason lambert]

Nicely done, like the base. Good lines and nice contrast in color adds character.

[Henry Cavanaugh]

Very nice design and work.I especially like the subtle taper to the center on the legs. Is the attachment slotted to allow for top expansion?

[Bob Opsitos]

Very nice design and work.I especially like the subtle taper to the center on the legs. Is the attachment slotted to allow for top expansion?

Yep sure is. The top is held to the legs via a tapered dowel in the center of the table and center of the legs. Then there is a screw on either side of the upper part of the leg in a slotted hole.

The cleats are pinned to the top with one fixed screw on the inside of the cleat and one in a slotted hole on the outside of the cleat.

Thanks
Bob

[jeremy levine]

Really nice and I love the drawers you added to your lathe.

[Bob Opsitos]

My brother sent me pictures of the table in it's new home.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v705/ropsitos/table.jpg

thanks
bob