Saturday, December 10, 2011

a walnut trestle table

jim and i took a road trip to stowe, vt, yesterday to deliver the walnut trestle table we've been working on . we also dropped off the 'x' table while we were there. whatta place! ..right at the base of the mountain with a shuttle chair to the main base of the mountain literally right outside the sliding glass door. the dining table went in the great room, which was pretty great. the 10' table seemed a little lost for now without the rest of the furniture, but once the house is complete, i'm sure it will be right at home ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
they were installing the pavers in the driveway, which at first we thought would be a problem but they let us back right in over their completed work and we went in through the garage door.
it was too heavy to carry in one piece, so we assembled it on site.
there are 9" flip up leaves on each end which add 2 more people to the mix. the supports we designed for them worked pretty well. sam milled up some metal supports on his new milling machine and the way they work is they have a notch on the face side. you push the support in until it hits wht stiffeners, fold up the leaf, then pull out the support so the notch supports the leaf. total view of the underside below.
sam made the twisted metal bracing which added a really nice handmade dimension to the design.
in place, more or less. i think it will actually be turned 90 degrees when the room is finally finished.
the 'x' table downstairs ...
and the process is below ...
rough lumber from irion lumber
glued up
routed on the ends for the leaves with sam's steel bracing in place.
early stage of the leaf installation and figuring out.
routing for the breadboard ends ... the taped together file folders on the table top raise the breadboard ever so slightly without changing the router setting ...
the breadboard is clamped to the bench to rout, and the clamps are leapfrogged until the groove is complete ... we then fill the slot with short, long grain loose tenons and the breadboard is secured with square peg covering long screws in ovalized holes ...
and we had a nice, tbough gray, ride home down the champlain valley with the adirondacks in the distance ...

5 comments:

Rob said...

Looks great. On the rough boards it looks like you marked out the knots, just wondering if you cut them out and infilled them with clear walnut or what exactly you did with them. Congrats.

Jeff said...

Handsome work. Love the walnut.

Brian Q said...

Looks like a nice table for a nice location. What is the reason you want the breadboards a tad proud of the table? Just curious. Thanks

Dorset Custom Furniture said...

ok rob ... we cut around all the knots but one, which we filled with some epoxy, and since the table was distressed, it added a nice texture ... regarding the breadboards ... i like them just a tiny bit higher than the table surface rather then, if you try to get them perfectly flush and miss and the table is a lilttle higher than the breadboard, well, not good ... we start a little thicker and hjigher and plane them down after routing to get them just a hair above the table surface ... short answer; that;s the way we've always done it ...

Brian Q said...

Understood. Easier to take off then put on. Table looks great and not many people in the world have such a view out of the dining area. Just gorgeous.