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 ..

a dozen big ones

in case you are not familiar with it, the guild of vermont furnituremakers has a blog going also. i hadn't posted anything on the guild blog for a long time as i have been too busy with my own and it's summer. i recently wrote the post below there to 'sum up' the run of big tables we have been making in the last few months. i have included the appropriate links to each of our posts with the photos below. at those links, you can see more photos and process comments on each piece.

in the last three months,we've had the opportunity to build a somewhat amazing series of large tables, and, since i have all the photos organized, i thought it might be nice to collect them in one place so here they are ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

this is a 10 footer we delivered to stowe last week. (7/30) it has our standard 'shaker style' steel base that we offer in 'natural' steel, the 'blackened finish' above, and a 'rainbow' finish, which is kind of unpredictable, but generally 'bronzy' in color.

this is a view of the base routed into and bolted to the bottom of the slab top ... we have the steel pieces waterjet cut from 1.5" plate steel and then we drill, tap, grind, polish and finish them ...

and here is a desk with a 'secret' compartment and our new 'trapezoid' steel base with a 'natural' finish in 1.5 x 3" tubing ... 44 x 66 x 29 high.

cool view from the end ..

and a secret compartment, accessed using this folding brass, sam made, tool in it's own 'secret' compartment.  currently it's on view and for sale at the art and industries show in housatonic, mass.

this 40" x 12' table went to the chicago area about 3 weeks ago (4 or 5 weeks by now) and also arrived at its destination last week.

it had a new for us, 'expresso finish', which was expertly top coated with magnamax lacquer by steve holman of holman studios, another guild of vermont furniture makers member.
here's one that went to london this past spring ... we crated it up with the legs disassembled and arranged flat on the bottom of the crate and shipped it via truck to an international agent in new york city. it arrived about 20 days later and costs only a little more than it would cost to have shipped it to say, seattle. pretty amazing ...

and this one we made for our show at the southern vermont art center back in february. it sold
at the show and is now happy in its new home in guildford, connecticut.

this was an unusal one that we made back in may. the slab was split completely into two pieces when we bought it with the slab for our show, above, so we got a deal on it ... will and trevor stitched it back together with about 20 butterflies, most on the top, some on the bottom ... good as new .. this table has a base with polished 5/8ths" rebar, a funky new thing we have been fooling with. it's currently with six chairs trolling for clients at the vermont visitors center in guilford on route 91. no takers yet.

this is what the slabs look like when we buy them on the internet ... the client gets to see them (sort of) before we buy them ... #3 here is currently in the shop being turned into a 9' table, headed to the boston area next week now that it too is finished.

so far, so good

ok .. all finished now ... we had to move it to the garage so we could finish and photograph the 60" wide slab detailed below. i was pleasantly surprised by what a good photo studio the garage can be ...

i was able to sit on almost the top step of the stairs to the upstairs of the garage and shoot down on the table top. something i've not been able to do anywhere else. it's a nice perspective that also minimizes the reflections ...

and now, the widest one yet ... +/- 63" wide in the rough, cut to 60 x 96 ...

the boys are at it here with the 3.5" makita power planers ... it's a noisy, tedious job ..

and here it is, in my garage ( the shop is kind of crowded right now) on the mocked up 'trapezoid' base ... it has to be all finished and on its way to aspen at the end of next week (8/14) ... it's gonna be tight ...

finished now (8/20)... time for the formal picture later today ...

 probably we should have brought in the professionals to shoot this one.

tough photo ... big table ... little background paper .... hard to get everything in focus ... GREAT piece of wood though ... 60" wide ... amazing

and we've done three coffee tables too with 'smaller' slabs .. i think this one was 38 x 54" ... you can see the other two at this blog post ... and this one

and then, for one of our original claro table customers who came to us back in 2010, we made this unusual (for us) 3' x 11' copper clad table ... the copper is glued to a thick wood base and then nailed on with 1'5" copper slate nails whose heads jim gently beveled with a drill on the edge sander ... we have a 40 x 60 coffee table version in the shop, awaiting the liver of sulphur patina ...

the base is reclaimed, distressed oak with a gray paint finish

if, after all this, you'd like to see more of our claro walnut pieces, here's a final link that will give you access to the whole 'category' and some of the other tables we have made in the past three or four years..

whew! long post ... time for a guinness ...
8/12/2012 .. ahhh, forgot the one below definitely another 'large table' ... 4' x 8'

our blog post link here

 set up temporarily in the shop yesterday for a final 'test run' ...

 for the test run, we used a piece of blue felt left over from another project so we can stretch the real camel color felt only once when we install it next week ... and, we've got another pool table coming up next month ... lots of stuff here ... thanks for sticking with me if you made it to the end ...

some claro walnut slab tables

well, we shipped out a couple more fine slabs of claro walnut from goodhope hardwoods today. i've been buying slabs from them for about 10 years now and i've never been disappointed. these two were no exception ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

a crotch slab my client found for me in the 'specials' section on their website, a category that comes and goes as needed apparently. this client chose the same simple 'block' base we have used on tables like this before ...

the table above is part of our 'shaker' series with 1.5" thick solid steel bases. this client wanted to have his base 'blackened', a patina process we do with a chemical called 'redi brown' from, i think, triple s chemicals ? in LA. i'll have to look it up.

sam did a beautiful job applying the patina and neutralizing it, and we then sprayed on a couple coats of clear satin metal finish.

we started with two of these slabs ... the one on the wall we previously made into a coffee table and shipped it to aspen; the horizontal one is now the coffee table above, and the one on top of the stack standing vertically became the dining table.

here trevor's chiseling in the butterfly keys to restrain the natural drying cracks.

ready to plane flush ...

off to the finish room for its first coat of gloss ...

and today, jim took off in the town and country for north east hampton, long island. i can't feel too sorry for anyone who gets paid to take six ferry rides over two days, even if it is a long drive ... he was ready to go when he left. you've got to be at least a little amazed that we can get two 7' plus tables and 8 chairs in here and still have room for more, even if there will be 'some assembly required' on delivery ... and, it's a smooth ride to boot ... almost wish i were going myself ... next time for sure ...



other claro walnut tables

50 x 120 x 3" thick

36 x 120 x 2.25" thick

a 5/4 coffee table

36 x 94 x 1/25"