I'm actually glad it took me 2+ years to get this table done. I bought a few things from an online auction March 2015 and went to go pick my stuff up. Pretty disorganized auction company and releasing items one. I was loading my stuff. Other buyer there bought nearly all the wood. As he was loading his truck I saw this walnut slab against the wall. About 53"x20"x3". I asked the girl who was signing us off. She checked her binder and said no one bought and asked if I wanted it Um......YES! Got it for free! The wood buyer came in just as I was came back loading it in my car and said it was easily a $400 slab and we would have had a bidding war if he was in the room.
I had to make a router sled to flatten it. First time doing that. I got a girl friend and engaged during the whole process which put working on it off. Family projects and cutting boards and me finding an old unisaw and other tools happened during the build. I'm glad it took so long because I learned to better make mortise and tenons along the way. Also did my first bow tie inlay, epoxy crack fill, and waterlox finish. I would like some day to 400 grit sand it and add a couple more coats of waterlox. I did 6 I think. First foam brushed, 400 grit, then wiped on a coat every 24 hours for about a week. Let it set another week and brought it in. It looks great but in some areas, the grain took more waterlox than others.
Made a lot of mistakes too like not adjusting the height of my blade for a tenon cut, running the piece through only to watch to the tenon fall off cuz the dado blade was too high. That was a $30 mistake. I guess I can't assume it would come out 100% perfect my first time doing mortise and tenon real furniture building.