a couple of restaurant tables

well, here's a fun project ... two large english elm slab tables with metal rebar bases for a restaurant in bethesda, maryland. we've been working with amy krol, a competent and responsive designer at aria group architects in oak park, illinois. her concept sketches are above and we have gone back and forth with her over the last two months, refining the construction and material selection details. we're on the home stretch now and aside from a column location question (the column hasn't been built yet) we're ready to wrap them up and ship them out. click the photos to enlarge them ...
we started at berkshire products in sheffield, massachusetts, a great source of amazing and unusual wood for woodworkers the world over. we picked these three slabs from their photos on the internet. the one above for the single long table ...
and this matchinig pair, which will be butted end to end and notched around the column as shown in the drawings below.
next came the model stage. i drew them in my cad program, but in the end, the random, 'this looks good' placement was the way to go ... some things you can overplan.
there was some concern that the skinny rebar (actually, it's 5/8ths and not that skinny) would flex, as in theory, rebar gets its strength from the concrete surrounding it ...
sam said it would be 'no problem' but just for fun, we loaded the unglued model and applied a little side pressure ... solid as a rock, even with 1.8th inch rubberwood dowels and no glue ...
we trimmed, smoothed and stiffened the single slab ...
cool top ... and started construction on the real bases in the metal shop.
sam came up with the great concept of temporary pipe and threaded rod through the corner holes where the table bases will be bolted to the floor and to the wood tops, which held the two 1/2 x 12 steel plates parallel, and, when the bolts were tightened, completely square. he tacked the rebars randomly and checked them out, then welded them securely ... very cool, but when we figured it out, the long base weighs +/- 450 pounds !! fortunately, we were prepared and actually constructed all the steel bases on dollies.
base #1, 'resting' in the driveway ... this dolly was a touch under built...
the double table is wider at +/- 42" and we built those bases upside down, using 1/4 x 20" steel plates for the base tops to give the wider wood tops more support.
we bolted them to some timberstrand on the floor of the garage ...
and built a two piece mock column the appropriate size for the full effect.
view down the 17 footer
the column 'top' is shown here moved off center to its approximate location. the final column location will be determined with cardboard templates by the job foreman on site and we will cut them to the templates before shipping ...
the single slab table ... 9'8" x +/- 30"

loyal readers will note our upgraded garage 'extended workplace' we thought we were done up here after the 'big tables' last year, but noooo ... so, now we have a painted floor, full insulation and sheetrock, heat if we need it, and today, a commercial dehumidifier arrived for summer work ... we're officially ready for 'the big ones' ...