I've been shuffling this piece of wood around to various locations in my shop, garage and finish room for about 3 years now. Enough of that ... I decided it was time for it to be something besides just a cutoff too big to throw away .... The question always was 'exactly what should it be'? It's a bit of an odd size, 40 x 68", and for now it's going to be a coffee table with a steel base
like one Sam made recently. I had plans to do some fancy stuff on the top (recessed squares like on
the bar doors, maybe some metal or abalone inlays), but in the end, it's a big board and I decided to just let it be that for now. Sam and I are working on a series of collaborative designs with
metal and wood and this will be another in the series ... Click the pictures to enlarge them.
The base ... I think we'll blacken and oil it next week when the top is done
Scraping the top ... If you don't have one of these
two handled scrapers, get one... Trevor had milled the board flat on the cnc but there were still tool marks that had to be removed. The #80 made short work of that ...
Joint it straight and rip it to 39.5" wide ... Cut the ends o nthe panel saw ...
Plane the end grain and polish it ... off to the finish room
Origin of the 'cutoff' ... We had a
commission for a 40 x 84" mahogany table about three years ago and when I contacted
Irion lumber, I asked if he had any wide mahogany for the top. When I told him how wide the table was, I think Myron said something like, 'Yeah, I have some that wide.' I had to buy the whole board, but hey, not such a bad thing now ....
I'm cleaning up my back list of unfinished blog posts tonight. Here's another one I started back in March and never quite completed ... It's about a railing Sam made for a house in Peru. I never saw the house, but he said it was a very tasteful 'modern' house with nice architecture. The stair rise and runs were all a little different, and, because of the design, the execution required some extra care to be sure things were centered and spaced correctly before welding welding commenced. It was a big one and it came out well, but I know he was glad when it was over .... On to something a little looser like the doors below ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Rough layout to check angles, rise and run
Assembly jig by Sam and Trevor on the CNC
Various modifications were required as each of the three flights of stairs were different ..
A welded and ground corner ... The railing was finished with a clear coat of penetrol.
The builder finished it off with a wood top cap .... Looks great !
