Greetings all, I'm a first time poster here although I've been a lurking member for the last half year. As a brief introduction, I'm very close to the end of a 40 year career as a general contractor, started out in residential construction and am ending in the commercial public works end of things. I've always enjoyed woodworking and am looking forward to doing more of it in my upcoming retirement. Fortunately my career allowed to me accumulate a decent assortment of tools (at one time I was making cabinets for the houses I was building) so I'm not starting out from scratch.
Along with some other recent upgrades to my home that I built almost thirty years ago, I figured it was time to replace the 42" x 72" dining room table that I made when I moved into the house. The old table had a ceramic tile top that was picture framed by 2x6 red oak; the construction details were a bit rough compared to some of the truly outstanding work I've observed on this forum but at the same time I really liked the functionality of the ceramic tile. No worries about spills, hot items, UV degradation, etc. So my goal was to make a table that 1) would have a top that would be as maintenance and care free as possible, 2) be sturdy enough to last the remainder of my lifetime if I'm fortunate enough to hang around for a reasonable number of years, 3) be a bit larger to better match the size of my dining area, and 4) be unique from anything else I've ever observed.
So to get to the point of the story, I planned on making a wood base for the table and have a natural stone top fabricated. Originally my wife and I were looking at rainforest green marble but couldn't find a slab that had the right tones of green (most nowadays are brown), but then found a green quartzite top in the local stone countertop fabricator's shop, and coincidentally it was almost exactly the size we were looking for. So I purchased the slab from them and made a cherry base to fit. I wanted the base to appear very sturdy to match the heaviness of the table top look, so the angled legs are 4-1/4" square and have 2-3/4" tenons going into the 5-1/2" wide x 4-1/2" tall feet. Hidden under the table top and behind the cherry aprons is a 3/4" plywood base supported by a ladderwork of doubled 3/4" x 2-3/4" supports. The finished product is very solid so I'm happy with that. I have a CAD drawing of the construction details around somewhere if anyone is interested.
Net size of the table is 48" x 99". The quartzite is 2 cm material with a laminated edge to give it a visual thickness to match the size. Net weight of the table top is around 400#, so it's pretty well planted where it is. The stone top is not attached to the base but the laminated edge keeps it from shifting around; if need be I (as in me and three or four husky friends) could lift the top off and move the base separately; I'm really hoping that doesn't have to happen.
To finish off the project, I ordered ten cherry chairs from one of the multitude of Amish fabricators; it was really convenient to be able to match stain colors between the table and the chairs as well as have a huge selection of styles. My wife and I both thought it best to keep the chair style simple because the quartzite table top is the main attraction.
Hope you enjoy my little saga!
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