a double pedestal oval table

djoko hardiyanto | Wednesday, February 6, 2013

this table is heading to california tomorrow. it's been in the works for a while and we had a small glitch when it came to the final finish color . it's a totally new color and today, will said ' we've got to get more of this stain' ... it was hard to photograph, and how it reads is sensitive to how your monitor is set. it's a really warm orange brown color .. click the photos to enlarge them.

close up

'earthquake handles' .. i did mention california, didn;t i?

the client's original photoshopped image

this project started with an inquiry from a prospective client who had taken a image from my blog or website and photoshopped it himself to make it into something that better fitted the dimensions of his dining room. basically, he stretched out the table below and added another pedestal. brilliant, imho.

even though it was early in the corresponding stage and no money or commitments had changed hands, i was intrigued by the concept. since we still had the drawings for the original table, and its model, it was a simple matter to create the new model.

bird's eye view

there was some talk about earthquakes, (the client lives north of san francisco), and 'earthquake handles', which turn out to be something to hold onto if you have to get under the table in the event of the earthquake, the design work proceeded and eventually we struck a deal.

above is the cad drawing showing the origin of the curves for the base elements and the seating and plate layout. room for 12 good friends at least.

handle and base layout

even though the table is over 50" wide and about 10.5' long, trevor managed to create a clever pair of interlocking 1/4 oval templates that allowed him to lay out the wood for the glue up below.

one of the boards was just about, but not quite, long enough and we lost about an inch in width and length creating the 'revised' oval. not bad. 11' walnut matched sets are hard to come by, even from irion lumber.

after a rough cut with the jigsaw, trevor used the template and a top bearing flush cut bit to rout the table to final shape and add the aprons and stiffeners

then, using the cnc, he cut the patterns for the base pieces. on the original table, the pieces that ran the length of the table were longer than the ones that ran across the table. after some study though, we decided that with two pedestals, the bases should be all the same.

bandsaw, sand, bandsaw, sand ... repeat as necessary.

then the pieces have to be mitered and dowels inserted to give the end grain of the curves some cross grain material for the lag bolts that attach the horizontals at the floor. i missed it this table, but you can see photos of how that works in the post about the previous table, back in august 2010. there is also a discussion there about strengthening the short grain where the top is attached also ...