A Dining Table Top

[John TenEyck]

I built this dining table top for an arborist who gives me logs. I do projects for him occasionally as payment. The red oak for this table came from logs he gave me last Summer. The Sapele was my contribution and was leftover from another project.



The top is 42 x 95 x 1-1/2" and weighs 160 lbs. It's so heavy that I was afraid we wouldn't be able to carry it up out of my basement shop, so after I had the boards milled and biscuits slots cut we carried the individual boards up, took them to his house, and I glued them up there. The alignment was so good that it only needed a couple of hours of sanding to get it ready for finishing. I cut the ends square on site with a circular saw and straightedge and then ran a simple chamfer around the edges. He finished the top with Minwax oil modified WB polyurethane using a foam brush. He did a really good job. You can't see the base but it's a pair of old steel lab bench legs that he sand blasted and painted. Nothing special, but it's plenty stout.

John

[Clark Hussey]

That is beautiful!

[Phil Mueller]

Wow, very nice, John. I have a smaller kitchen table build on the list for my son. I hope it comes out looking half that good.

[Bill Carey]

the combination is great John - the sapele really looks great with the oak. Simple clean lines let the wood be the star of the show.

[David Lageman]

Beautiful table John...great job. I love the clean lines.

[Paul F Franklin]

Gorgeous! Nicely done!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Well done under some unique circumstances!

[Prashun Patel]

Well done. Can you talk more about your decision to do the sapelle asymetrically?
I find this compelling.

[John TenEyck]

Well done. Can you talk more about your decision to do the sapelle asymetrically?
I find this compelling.

Thanks. I really like the asymmetrical layout, too, Prashun, but it was not a conscious design decision. I had 3 pieces of red oak about 11" wide and one piece of Sapele about 12". I wanted to keep the boards as wide as possible so that precluded putting the Sapele in the center since there is no center with 4 boards. The Sapele board had a crack in it about 2" from one edge so I had to rip it along that crack to get rid of it. After I had the two pieces I started playing around with the layout rather than just gluing it back together. I liked what you see in the final tabletop. My arborist friend originally wanted the Sapele to be centered but when he saw this layout he agreed that it looked good, so that's what we did. Serendipity at work.

John

[Micah Puscheck]

That is gorgeous. I really like the asymmetric look.

[Steve Jenkins]

Very very nice

[jim sauterer]

Beautiful john love the contrasting woods.

[Dave Mills]

I too love the asymmetric look of this table. I need to remind myself to do this once in a while, as my tendency is never to do it.

[Prashun Patel]

Don’t take this badly as I mean it as a compliment. I can’t decide if I like it asymmetric. But it does compel me to look long and draws me in. I suspect that was not your intention, but that’s kind of what I always strive for. It’s clearly designed with intention and is an informed choice.

Your end products always seem to be very thoughtful.

It’s bold. I’m glad u sold your friend on the concept and admire the quid pro quo relationship. Is there anything better?

Blah blah blah. Well done again.

[Patrick McCarthy]

JTE, pretty sure your future supply of logs has been secured. Nicely done.
At first i was also surprised by the asymmetry, but like it. The other alternatives seem less pleaseing. Oak, sap, oak,sap and oak would look like a circus tent. If the 3 oak were together and the sapele glued and split in half, and then added to the outer edges, it would look like someone tried to stretch it. To me, this seems like the more artistic and aesthetic solution. JMHO,YMMV