Walnut dining table

[andrew whicker]

Hi everybody,

Many thanks for all the help I received on this site while working on this project. It's been done for a while, but I've been busy and it took a while to get pro photos. Then it took a while for me to get around posting them here. Anywho, here is my first dining table.

Three walnut slabs on top, middle one obviously had the sides cut off.
Legs are a bit complicated, but I put a metal in the legs because I was worried about the small tongue and groove relative to the leg size. I wasn't able to go any taller with my dado blade and I think the only other option at that point was to use hand tools, which I was too much of a wuss to try. I would be open to that now.

Epoxy was a terrible experience. Hoping my next one goes much smoother.

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[andrew whicker]

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[andrew whicker]

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[Mark Rainey]

Andrew, the chestnut colored top came out very well!

[Jim Becker]

THAT. IS. Outstanding.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

There is something about the intricate detail of all the joinery in that table, the character and tone of the wood, the finish that just screams "Look at me...I am a beauty!!!!" Well done Sir! Well done!

[John TenEyck]

Beautfiul wood and beautiful workmanship with a design that really works well in all it's elements. I predict many memorable meals around that table. Are chairs to follow?

John

[Carl Beckett]

The design and proportions are just right. Fantastic table!

[William Fretwell]

Those angled legs give it a very stable look and match the substantial look to the top. You have a very fine piece of furniture!

[Mark Daily]

That is FAB-U-LOUS! Great job!

[Lee Schierer]

Super job. It really looks nice, I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated over the years.

[Bill Carey]

Beautiful table - the design is great. The flow of the lines of the legs is terrific. And I second the request for more info on the construction of the legs. Very well done!

[andrew whicker]

Thanks again for the compliments. Alright... here comes the motherload of 'building of the table' photos. Haha, you asked for it.

Legs:
Probably the most interesting piece to the people asking. It is the most complicated single part on the table. All of them had to be more or less duplicates and the geometry was complex.

I had a fabrication company waterjet cut 3 templates for me. One of the steel templates was the dimension of the elbow. Another template was longer and I could use to see how close the leg + elbow + horizontal was to the template. I used the shorter template with a router to cut each piece of wood to shape (after bandsaw work).

After routering, I had 12 of these:
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I made the grain 45 degrees ish to give me the best chance of success with the tenon design / growth (shout out to Sawmill Creek on that helpful tip)

After making 12 of these, I had to glue three at a time up, drill holes for future bolts that would hold the metal piece in place (no glue between metal and wood) and make the groove for the wood, and cut my tenons.

Here is the goal of the metal piece + tenon:
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So the 3rd template is a piece that allows me to router the blank space / negative space for the future metal leg bracket. Set the router height at the thickness of the steel (1/4") and have the bearing at the bottom cutter. I.e. short fat cutter. Cut the negative space on 4 elbow pieces. We have room for these now:

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We're still missing holes for the bolts. Next step is get those ready. Have to make sure there is room for the future wood plug and the head / washer of the bolts. I can't remember if I did this step prior to glue up or after. I believe I did it after, but my memory is fading. Once the contraption was glued up, I taped the template to the leg assemblies again and used my horizontal belt sander to get everything smooth and, hopefully, duplicated. Now we have these:

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This was the first step of the project. I thought it would be the hardest, but it turns out that I thought it over so much that it went smoothly. The table top ended up being the problem child. Probably because I thought: "that part won't be hard".

[andrew whicker]

I think the other interesting part of the project was getting the X shape. The legs are truly 'thru legs', that is the horizontal of each leg does go the length of the table. So I had to cut a slice out of each leg at their crossing point. To keep the legs thick, I also cut a deep slots in the table top to keep the table height correct (see photos).

So at some point, I had a table top and two big legs. I had to get the X right, so I used 8 plum bobs, one at each corner of each leg (see photos). I tried to make these legs sit in the same location at each corner. I only did this measurement step about a million times before finally getting out the router (a big 1/2", 3" or 4" long spiral dude). Finish the corners with a chisel. Boom. You have the X in the bottom of the table top. During this process, you also marked where the legs cross. So you can use your Makita / Fein multitool to cut out the crossing point tenon.

Once the X is cut and the legs are crossing, you add some threaded females to the bottom of the X, drill the legs as needed. Keep enough room for growth in all these cuts / drills / etc.



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Finishing the legs in my living room:

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[Paul F Mills]

That is a great table. Thanks for the additional information on the build.