Slices of Maple Coffee Table

We made this table for Open Studio this year. ( See post below) We usually try to have at least one thing kind of out of the ordinary for people to see. I bought the slices at a local tag sale about 3 or 4 years ago for not a lot of money, stuck them in the basement of my shop and waited for them to dry. They had the matching splits when I got them and, while they got a little wider, they didn't change all that much. The slices came from a branch of what was, at the time, the largest registered silver maple in Vermont. According to my neighbor's daughter, this branch had 77 growth rings. When I asked Betsy, from whom I bought the slabs, why she didn't have any slices from the trunk she said they would have been 'too big'. I bet .... Anyway, we milled them flat on the CNC, belt sanded them smooth, shuffled them around til they fit, made a quick model, gathered some pieces of firewood, cut some notches out of that, welded up a steel connector piece and finished the finish just as people were coming in the driveway... It turned out to be a good conversation starter. However, it didn't sell at the show and now it's looking for a new home. Contact me directly for a price ....Click the photos to enlarge

The two slices in the raw with the chain saw marks

Shuffling for the 'fit'

The slabs and the model

Close up of the model ... photo glued to 1/2" mdf and cut to shape

Slightly fuzzy picture of the finished table
+/- 54" x 30" x 17" high