transforming a big claro wlanut slab ... into a coffee table

well, the verdict is in ... the slab i wrote about back in april is now a coffee table ... on its way to aspen, colorado this week sometime ... it was almost a desk, and then it was almost a dining table. but this client came up with the both the idea and the bucks and now it is his coffee table ... looks great and i hope he has a big couch ...
4/29 ... on the wall ... waiting to be something ... +/- 50" x 108"
top view
seated view

first step in sam making the legs .. cap the open bottoms of the 3.5" pipe and tap it for adjustable levelers ... then he added the plates that attach them to the table top and painted them black. simple, direct, cost effective and they look great ..
desk concept with slab below before it was finished ...
table concept ... this client switched to and elm slab .... which was also nice ..
the finished elm slab ... arrived in chicago yesterday ...
more slabs, ready to go ... get em while they're hot ...

4/29/11
i bought a nice claro walnut slab last year about this time and the client i bought it for changed her mind to english elm at the last minute ... it's been gathering dust in the finish room for the last year and this week we decided it would be easier to sell if folks could see what it actually looks like ... duh ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
the photo above is from a post about a claro walnut slab table last summer. it shows me and my trustly (25 years), puny 3.5" makita power planer that we use as a first step to quickly remove the rough stuff and flatten it out ... just like a hand plane only louder and less tiring ...
the next step after the power planing is to scrape away the 'tracks' . in the video clip here, you can see the progress will and trevor make on removing the power plane tracks in the 21 seconds of the clip. it's why we don't much believe in belt sanders for table tops and panels. they probably spent about 5 minutes total, including short breaks, to completely prepare the slab for final sanding with our porter cable 505 sander. typically after scraping we start with 150 and finish with 180 ... i have written briefly about the two handled scraper in the past and i still think it is one of the essential tools a furniture maker should master ... with the grain, across the, against the grain ... if it's sharp, it doesn't care ... it leaves a most pleasing hand smoothed, 'ripply' surface similar to a fine antique ... try it !
you probably already have one of these gathering dust somewhere ... learn how to tune it up and get it working. you'll be glad you did ... in this photo, trevor lays out cuts that could straighten the slab somewhat to show a potential client it's 'mellower' shape .. inside the tape it measures +/- 48 x 102.
first coat of finish yesterday .. open studio is coming, and for that, the slab will be hung on the wall using temporary french cleats as on the bed we finished recently ... as i mentioned in this previous post, it is hard for a client to visualize the finished look of a slab in the rough ... more photos later next week ...