The Trestle Table

We delivered the trestle table the weekend before Christmas ... It fit right in and replaced a table we had built in 2001 or so .. Their previous table was narrower and shorter and has been moved to their new guest house ...
The chairs are by Nakashima Studios and lower than my typical chairs .... The new table is 28" high instead of our typical 29.5" ...

Original post below ...
11/18/2010 ......... We're working on a new trestle table design ,,,, The trestle is one of my favorite forms .. it can be light and airy or substantial and weighty ... In the end, the base of this one has a kind of 'bridgy' feeling ... it seems to be on eof my influences lately ... I like the tapered verticals and it was fun figuring out how to make them efficiently and accurately. If it looks a little low, it is. The clients Nakashima dining chairs are only 16.5" to the top of the seat .. We dropped the table about 1.25".... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
We glued up the top from three beautiful 16-18" wide 8/4 planks from Irion Lumber ... Spectacular grain below ... Can't wait to see them finished...
They'll have one of our 'aged cherry' finishes when we're through ...
After lucking into an 18 " wide 16/4 plank, (again from Irion's) we next had to figure out how to make the tapered solid verticals. The jig above consists of a carrier with half the total taper for the first shim and them twice the total taper for the multiple passes. We had to add the sacrificial ply rails to allow the planer to 'pull' the wood through and engage the tapered cuts smoothly ... We tapered the ends after we tapered the 18" wide thickness.
One in, one out of the jig right before the last pass.
We made a full size drawing below and added the plinths and 'skids' above ... In the photo above there is also a mini stretcher that we made to check the final angle cuts on that ... We hit it pretty much right on using the angle from the cad drawing ,,,
The finished verticals and the full size layout ...
Will got it all together Friday and we put the top on to check it out ... We have literally no room in the shop to set it down on the floor right now with the 16' 'big island' in the works .... Maybe later this week ... We can't deliver it until Christmas so there's no real rush ... More later as we progress ...
We have done extensive work for these clients including the small room library featured in my 'Libraries We Have Built' post (5th and 6th photos down). Here Jim is checking out a ship model case we built about 8 or 9 years ago ... It's a fantastic model with extraordinary detail ... the story is my client's father was a specialist in arthritis and 'cured' the model maker enough that he made this model in appreciation ... It is spectacular ...