update on the 60" claro slab

all in, all done ... i had to take pictures of this one three different times before i finally got it right, but it was worth it ... this is a really wide piece of walnut and it's kind of unlikely i'll get one like it again. click the photos to enlarge them ...
you can see a little more of the base here ...
and in this shot, some of the natural defects (ant trails) that we left in the finished piece ...
and here's the photo from my supplier, good hope hardwoods, that i sent to the potential client to seal the deal.
and here is sam's fabricating/welding jig that he used when building the trapezoidal shapes for the base verticals ... those he connected with 2.5" angle iron which gave us a rigid, independent base structure which we will remove for shipping ...
this table top had some miles on it before we finished, and it was no picnic to move it .. it started in california somewhere, went to pennsylvania, to dorset and the woodshed at my house, moved to the garage, from there to the shop for final smoothing and sanding, and then to the finish room on a special cart we built to get it out the door .. going down the 2' high 8' long ramp from the front steps of the shop was 'thrilling'.
across the driveway was a piece of cake comparatively ... jim is actually on tiptoes here ...
and here you can see the cart and the more relaxing ramp into the finish room ...
where it went through it's usual paces ... off to aspen this week, or maybe el paso first.

a 60" wide slab of claro walnut

well, we got a big one here. it's going to aspen when it's finished. this is the widest slab of claro walnut we have ever had ... it clocks in at 63" at the wide point ... after we trim it up a bit, it will be about 60" wide at both ends and about 8' long. it will have one of our new trapezoid bases. click the photos to enlarge them....

couple close ups of the rough slab here ... we're working on it in my garage as we're a little jammed up at the shop at the moment.

here's the cad drawing

will and trevor wheeled it out to the shade by the woodshed yesterday to begin the flattening process. fire up the makitas ...

the slab was astonishingly flat for something so wide ... a tribute to skip and norman at good hope hardwoods and their ability to dry this stuff so we can work it up. it's truly amazing. that really is a four foot level there on the right end. the winding sticks are about 45" i think.

time ran out before they could completely smooth the face, but the bottom side is pretty much ready to sand and they should be able to finish this side today ... more later as we progress.

today we finished the rough smoothing of the top of the slab, did some rough sanding and mocked up the base with some 2 x 4s we had from when we picked it up at our friend's loading dock.

just like this only in 'natural finish steel .. all for now