Sycamore Table

[Stephen Stokes]

Finished sycamore table.



I am not certain I would repeat the base the same way; nevertheless, I think it works.



Please tell me what you think.


Stokes

[John Timberlake]

Very nice. Love the grain of sycamore. You did a good job on the top. The base looks fine to me.

[Kyle Stiefel]

The natural edge, floating top, the bevel underneath, what is there not to love? Great work.

[Jim Becker]

I like the table, Stephen. The sycamore looks wonderful, too. (I just did a cabinet top after resawing a piece of SQ and spalted sycamore...my first time with the species)

I like the idea of the floating top. I think it helps to highlight the split feature of the table.

[Jim Newman]

Beautiful Stephen and the raw edge look is designer! How did you finish your sycamore? I have some quartersawn sycamore that has dried in my basement for 19 months now for the bookcase on the cover of Fine Woodoworking a few years ago. Your joint work looks wonderful as well! Great job!

[Cary Swoveland]

Interesting piece, Stephen. I especially like the way the top meets the base, and your treatment of the outside edges of the top.

I'm a little undecided about the rough edges down the middle. I keep going back to your pics. It is growing on me, but I'm still not sure about that. I guess I would have preferred the rough edges, if kept, to be a little gnarlier, and I find the view of the base though the gap in the top a little distracting.

Cary

[James Phillips]

I love the design. Great Idea

[Roland Sherman]

Stephen, Great looking table, I love the way the grains are flowing, What I really like is the design...can you tell me what the finish is.

[Keith Beck]

Stephen,

Beautiful table! I don't know if anyone's brought it to your attention, but there's a huge crack right down the middle! :D

Keith

[julie Graf]

stephen,

how would you do the base differently? what don't you like about it?
I'm curious.

- julie

[Ralph Okonieski]

Stephan,

Beautiful table ! Base looks fine to me. The entire design seems appropriate and goes together well.

[Stephen Stokes]

Thank you for all of your comments!

Jim & Roland, The finish is Waterlox, six coats. First four coats were left thick, final two coats were wiped off.

Cary, you do realize the gap is the live edge of the tree? I did not cut that myself. These are bookmatched quartersawn boards, with the inside of the table being the outside of the tree.

Keith, funny thing is my 8 yo son said that if his 10 yo sister spills her drink he does not have to worry about it getting on his side of the table! :cool:

Julie, I think I would chamfer the edges of the support arms and try to introduce some curvature in the legs. Do you have any suggestions for tying the leg design to the top design to a greater degree, or do you see them as working together as is?

Thank you all,
Stokes

[Cary Swoveland]

Stephen,

I did realize the inside edges were the outside of the tree. My "gnarlier" reference was that I think I would have preferred the bark to have been left on. Maybe it's there--I just don't see it in the photos.

The idea of putting the raw edges on the inside is novel, and has practical merit as well.

Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous table--interesting design, beautiful wood and great build and finish.

Cary

[Warren Clemans]

I think it's a wonderful piece of work. I wouldn't necessarily change anything, but since you've invited nit-picking...if you had tapered the ends of the cross-pieces that the table top rests on, they might have been less massive looking and let the eye focus more on the slab.

I'm curious about the method that you used to attach the top to the base. Could it stand the weight of a kid putting his/her weight on the edge? I always worry about that, no matter how well behaved the kids.

Beautiful work.

Cheers,
Warren

[julie Graf]

Stephen,

I think i would try playing around with the placement of legs and supports - it seems like there are 5 things going on down there when there could be 3. Do you know what I mean? perhaps move the outer supports to line up with the legs. not sure if you could still get that floating effect.

i like the top, and it's a really nice table over all. nice finish too.

cheers,
julie

[Stephen Stokes]

Thank you all for your comments.

Cary, I removed the bark. I wanted a sleeker smoother look. Not certain I accomplished that, but I tried.

Warren, the cross members are screwed into each rails with a single screw through each cross member into each slab. The length of the rails was due to my concern over the weight capacity of the slabs. My 70 lbs. 8 yo son can put all his weight on it with no issues. I have also momentarily suspended myself, 190 lbs., with no failure. I do agree, I should have chamfered the ends of the cross members.

Julie, thank you for the feedback. I do understand what you mean by the 5 things. I started with the outer cross members over the legs, it definitely did not work. The cross members are bit shorter than the width of the legs. One point I should point out, the vantage point of these pictures is just above the table height. The cross members are not as obtrusive as they might seem. The curl in the top is not represented in the pictures very well either.

Thank you all again!

Regards,
Stokes

[julie Graf]

It looks great - very nice job.

there's always some thing you can change, play with, whatever. at some point you gotta call it done, right?

[Stephen Stokes]

Agreed. Thank you for the comments. For now, this one is done and it is on to designing the chairs.

Stokes

[Mark Singer]

Stephen,
I really like the design! It is simple, a bit like a few I made, yet distinctive and original. The workmanship looks excellent!

[Stephen Stokes]

Thank you Mark! You may not have noticed my earlier message, http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=65099, where I sited the inspiration from your table. I know many people posses a large amount of creativity, as I do in my own way; however, I rely more on the compilation of others work with my own twist. There are some works I value purely for form, but as a whole I prefer all works that I create to be functional. That standard drove some of decisions on this table, but I attempted to add a creative element to the form of the top.

Thank you again,
Stokes

[Charlie Plesums]

Your table is very attractive, and appears well made and finished. :)

Your post hints that you aren't satisfied with the legs. They look fine in the pictures, but the flat boards (1x6?) might flex a little, and might not look traditional enough. If I were doing it, I might rip those boards in half and face joint them to get a 2x2 or 2x3 leg. My love of shaker furniture would probably make me taper the inside of the legs from 2x2 at the top and through the apron down to perhaps 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 square at the bottom. Of course my boring traditionalism would also "fix" the crack in the center, and in the process destroy your interesting table. :confused: So at least part of my advice, if not all of it, should be avoided. ;)

[Jon Lanier]

That is sweet! ;)

[Jim Dunn]

The natural edge, floating top, the bevel underneath, what is there not to love? Great work.

What Kyle said. I like it as well.;)

[Stephen Stokes]

Thank you all!