Monday, September 19, 2016

a spalted maple coffee table

we are wrapping up a spalted maple coffee table later today ...
i've had this piece on the wall of the finish room for about 10 years now, and surprisingly, the log stacked up in the first photo is from the same tree.  a locally renowned artist/woodcarver, porter brown, gave me the piece above and some other slabs before he died about 6 or seven years ago.  recently his daughter offered to sell me what was left, which is what you see in the top picture ... it went through hurricane irene and was covered by water and mud, but has dried out nicely in the last 5 years.  we've got a dining table that is nearly finished too and i'll post photos of that later this week.

i've got another coffee table slab left, and it's looking for a home ..

cad drawing
first coat of finish .. dramatic change

1.5 x 3" satin steel tube base by sam
i will post pictures of the finished table later ... in the meantime, here is a photo of two pieces i made about 10 years ago from the original slabs that porter gave me.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful work as always. I'm just curious how the expansion/contraction of the slab vs. what looks like a tightly screwed steel base doesn't cause all kinds of cracking issues. Is there some allowance for movement there that I can't see?
Byron H
Winnipeg, MB

Dorset Custom Furniture said...

hi byron .. the holes in the steel are 5/16th, the screws are #12s. i admit in the photo you are referring to it looks like the base is screwed down tightly, but after the slab is finished, and the base is attached for final, washers are added so the top can move a bit, probably a quarter inch or more in overall width. you can see we routed spaces at the ends of the steel for that to happen ...

Unknown said...

Figured there was something there...
Thanks,
Byron