another claro walnut slab coffee table

we finished another in our series of claro walnut coffee tables this week.  it was a perfect slab for a coffee table and the rainbow leg from sam's metal shop go perfectly with the color of the wood.  click the photos to enlarge them

 

the raw slab

 

1.5 x 3" welded steel tubing

 

above is the bottom of the slab,  below are a few other coffee tables from the past ... 

 from the dorset artists show last summer

 the last coffee table slab i have on hand at the moment, though i have three new ones arriving sometime in the next two weeks

 2009?

 

2009 .. blog post here

 

 this one had a good story

 from  the art and industries show last summer

a big one to aspen

another claro walnut slab table

up next, another claro walnut slab table.  this one will be about 52" wide by 102" long after i make the final cuts tomorrow. the base will be welded steel, similar to the one on the desk we made in july  and the dining table we sent to aspen in august.  click the photos to enlarge them.

sam is ready to weld the base pieces tomorrow, and the jig is ready to go too.

the process of moving these tables from the rough slab to the final dimensions is one that we approach very slowly, a bit at a time.  once you cut something off, there's no sticking it back on again.  and, a lot of the time, we disagree amongst ourselves what is the 'best' cut to make.  we try to involve the client as much as possible, but it's often hard to portray in photos what exactly it is that we see in front of us. 

 in this case, we started by trimming off the 'legs', and obvious choice.  we did leave a little bit of the crotch showing on the face side, and we may go back and trim that a bit more before we finish.

 we then cut some of the cracked portion off the far end as the table wants to be around 102" long when we finish it.

we then did some rough planing and splashed a little alcohol on it to check the figure .. looks good.

we then made a 2x4 mockup of the base and checked the proportions ... now, as you can see from the top photo in this post, we've moved the slab down to the shop now that the pool table and the oak table are gone.  it'll move right along now ... updates as we go ..

the wood that you have ...

we finished this unusual coffee table last week. i never would have come up with this design on my own without having an unusual shaped piece of wood to start with. you work with the wood that you have ... it's actually a very cool piece in person, and everyone who has seen it so far has had some kind of positive comment to make about it. of course, it's hard not to like wood like this ....
it's vaguely nakashima influenced with its simple, square legs, but the box originated with the project that involved the other half of the original claro walnut slab.
that project involved one of the 3 original claro walnut slabs that i purchased from goodhope, oh, back in about 2006. in 2010, one of my clients purchased the last of those slabs to use for an interesting console that had to be notched around a carving from bali that hung over a wall hung heater. the design was driven by many factors, and i can't find a photo of the finished piece, but when we were finished, we were left with the half slab you see below with a piece missing on each end. click the photos to enlarge them. more photos of claro walnut can be seen by clicking on the 'claro walnut slab tables' category below the archive
the cut for the console table marked out in tape ...
the leftover has been standing in my office closet since and the project has been on again, off again for a couple of years ... i am glad it's finally finished.
above is the cad drawing from the console project and you can see the shape of the coffee table slab in the negative space of the plan view ...
no date on the sketch, but i'm betting it's from 2009 sometime ..
and here's what i did with the left over, though i now see i somehow got the notch for the box in the wrong place from the sketch ... we somehow got past that though, and the table will be delivered soon ... it will be a cool story if it ends up in the same room as the console ...
not much to detail on the process ... the box is mitered play with a ply top with 1/8" thick veneer, rabbeted and dropped into the open end so only the veneer was left and then flushed off and beveled. looks like solid wood, though you know it can't be ... fun project ...