a mahogany slab conference table

this slab has been 'around the shop', looking for a home for a while now and it finally found one recently.  it will be going to a local financial firm, and will be a conference/meeting table 

in their about to be remodeled offices.

as you might imagine, any conference table in 2015 will require lots of wires and power outlets, in fact there will be four cat 5 cables, an hdmi cable, and 3 duplex outlets, all recessed into the bottom of the slab so that there are no holes poking up through it.  we will likely add some small simple wire retainers to support the cords where they loop up and over from below.

some early drawings and revisions of the plan above.

and we made a couple small scale models.  this one is 1" = 1'.

lots of hand routing by trevor as the slab was too big and heavy to go upstairs to the cnc.

the electrical layout

while you can't see it here, there are holes in the bottoms of the hollow legs and the wires will exit through the top of the leg and into the channels to the boxes.  in the end, the table will be bolted to the floor as it is installed and the wires will come in from the cellar below.  we had it 'on its feet' earlier in the week, but i somehow missed that photo opportunity .., we'll try that again later ...

some fancy cnc work

a while back, we worked with our neighbor, steve holman, on two large conference tables, one 9' x 26' and one 8' x 20'. we had to set them up in my garage as neither of our shops was large enough to hold them ... this fall he got a commissions to build two more 'smaller' tables, a 16 footer and a 14 footer. those both fit in his shop and were simpler in design, but we still helped by cutting the table and base pieces on our cnc.

one of the other parts of this project was a fantastic reception desk, designed by steve and paul molinelli, that was full of curves and different levels and was pretty complex as you can see from the photo above. click the pictures to enlarge them ...
so, how did we get from there to here ... it was easy for us. all we had to do was the full size templates, curved plates, and bending forms ... steve and his crew did the rest. i'm sure it could have been done without the cnc, but you would have needed some pretty big french curves to lay out the full size pieces. and then, the small adjustments ... it would have taken some time and some really intense bandsaw work ...
we started by scanning the scale drawing actual size and then drawing over it in our cad programfrom there, trevor imported that into the cnc router program and he added the elevation sections shown above ... next step was the 1/4 scale model you saw in the photo at the top. trevor constructed it by stacking layers of mdf of the proper thickness to correspond with the section drawings at each slice.from there it was a simple matter for him 'scale it up' to full size ... (increase; proportional) and then cut the full size patterns, counters to be veneered and their curved solid wood edges, and the plates from which steve and his crew created the curved walls and curved laminating forms.here are the walls, 'unskinned' ...
in some cases they were covered in wacky wood and veneer panels made with the curved forms, and in some cases, vertical 'siding' of 5/8th" thick solid lumber
next paul carved the 'car element' (this project went to an automotive company) and added the hood element from, i think, a 1937 ford or chevy ... cool ...
and then there was the other part to the project; the two conference tables. one 14' long, and one 16' long ...
this one is makore veneer and cherry. after i did the cad drawings, trevor programmed and cut the vertical elements of the base and the 'outriggers', the horizontal elements that receive the cross bars that support the top. he also cut the top sections to shape and the matching solid wood borders, as well as the holes for the power/data fixtures.
this is a section of the walnut and walnut burl table. ditto for this one except for a little adjustment to the thickness of the inlay panels. for whatever reason, the pockets trevor cut in the top sections were a little too shallow (there were two sets of burl panels made as the first one was 'too dark and burly', so, i suspect that was part of the problem. anyway, it was a quick, though somewhat nerve racking fix. after milling pockets in the spoil board he took a few thousandths off the backs of the panels so that the 1/40th inch veneer panels were just a shade below the surface of the 16th" veneered main table panels ... i'm glad i wasn't the one to level them up ...
but level them up they did ... and below, the solid wood edges are added to the top panels ...
the tables are probably finished by now, and maybe we'll see them before they go, or maybe we won't. anyway, we always enjoy working with steve and his crew. their projects are inevitably a rewarding challenge.

Pictures of the Big Tables

I got these photos from Steve a while ago but haven't taken the time to post them until now. It's summer. The weather has been pretty near perfect. I have been playing golf and tennis .... I have requests for new work that I have to address and new projects starting up. We had friends in from Taos ... Anyway .. Here they are now ... Click the photos to enlarge them ... I didn't take them and I know they were not easy tables to photograph, but here they are .. There is a list of all the relevant blog post links at the bottom ... See the whole story; start to finish by following the links in order ...
The 26' x 9' table
From the endThe 'small' table ... 20' x 8'
From the beginning ....
post #1
post #2
post #3
post #4
post #5

The 'Small' Table ... 20' x 8'

Well, after a rainy weekend, during which I got to catch up on some emails, drawings, bookkeeping, (ugh), shopping, and reading, I've actually got a minute to do a little writing here. May was quite a month, with two show openings, Open Studio, some smaller projects, and work on two big tables, which, if you could find a place to put them end to end, would stretch 46' from one end to the other .... Lots of cnc files, (like, probably more than 100), lots of engineering and problem solving, lots of mdf and lots and lots of moving parts around, some of them 3cm thick and solid granite ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
We've had to move most of the work now to my 28'x 30' garage, where they just barely fit side by side ... In the foreground is the working base, made from Timberstrand, which allows us to work on both the bases and the tops in our separate shops ...
Surprisingly, one of the unexpected problems was swelling mdf ! We tend to think of mdf as a totally stable, man made, inert material, which was one of the reasons we chose it for the substrate .... Turns out, over 48", mdf can expand by as much as 1/16th of an inch as humidity rises and moisture is absorbed ... It doesn;t sound like much until you consider that the solid wood edging expands in width, but not in length, so molding pieces that once butted tightly together no longer fit quite so tightly together. Our solution was to take off the moldings and joint the sections (that's the smallest section of all of them in the photo above), so that the cherry now touches, but the mdf doesn't. No problem, as the substrate is covered with granite and other, curly maple veneered panels.
Thursday last week, for the first time, we set up the completed base for the 20' table in Steve's shop, after disconnecting a few tools and dismantling some of his dust collection system. The open center sections are for electrical access and will later be closed in with veneered panels held in place by super magnets.
Next, we added the steel. The entire outside two feet of both tables is Canadian, 3cm thick granite, at approximately 150 lbs per piece, hanging out there in space. There are 18 24" wide pieces in the 26' table and 12 24" wide pieces in the 20' table ... The substrate, with it's cherry moldings, is bolted to the steel. After load testing, we decided on 2.5" x 1.5" rectangular tubing with 1/4" walls. Those pieces are of diminishing lengths to follow the curve of the tops of the tables and 8" less in width than the table at all points.... They were cut on a sharp, 67.5 degree angle, drilled, tapped and capped by Sam.
In Steve's shop, we were able to assemble the sections temporarily on their permanent base to be sure that once the table is finished and assembled on site, everything will fit together smoothly.
That's Steve Holman in the center (it's actually his project and we're just the 'helpers'), his assistant Kevin is on the left above, and Trevor, my cnc guy, is on the right. Trevor has done an amazing job figuring out how to cut all this stuff, including the solid wood edges, bolt holes, holes for the electricals, and the granite patterns on our (second floor) cnc. It's been a lot of hauling....
Trevor was at Steve's shop to deliver the 'outriggers', the pieces that hold the steel supports for the 26' table, which we will test assemble in my garage when that base is completed, later this week. After we checked the granite templates for the 20 footer, we disassembled everything and Steve will start the finishing process on that base this week as he finishes up construction of the base for the 26' table.
I then drove to Proctor to deliver the templates for the small table to Herb Johnson at Johnson Marble, and got a little education on granite cutting. The straight lines are cut using a beam saw that appears to be from an earlier era, but still chugging along fine ... The templates are traced onto the slabs of granite with a scribe, and the straight cuts are lined up with a laser that is 'pretty accurate' but checked after setting with the actual blade of the saw before they are cut. Then, Herb's assistant, believe it or not, cuts the curves freehand with a diamond blade on a right angle grinder, a truly Olympic display of hand eye coordination. He says he's been doing it that way 'for a long time' and it is amazing to see how the finished granite pieces fit against the curved cherry moldings. By the way, the miters, which are about 30+ inches long fit as well as the templates. Herb told us that we did 'the hard part' by making the templates .... well ... maybe ....
While I was dropping off mitered end templates for the 'small table' I was also picking up the cut pieces for the 26' table and we now have 10 of the 16 pieces in place. After some truly small adjustments to the 6 center templates, they will go to Herb when we pick up the 6 mitered granite pieces for the 20' table ...
The 20' table with it's missing end templates is now assembled on the working base in my garage, next to the 26' and my convertible is out in the rain. The center mdf panels for both tables will be final fitted after we have all the granite and then veneered and finished in Steve's shop.
The granite is beveled and raised about 3/16ths above the cherry moldings and the center sections. I wish I had taken this photo looking down the miter as the fit (all of them so far), is perfect ... The granite has these wonderful blue flecks in the right light, but reads mostly as black ... More later in the week I hope .... Two other posts HERE and HERE ...

Progress On The Giant Tables

That's Trevor down there on the end of the table .... about 30' away ... Click the picture to enlarge it and see him smiling away down there. He's allowed to smile as this table has been pretty much his baby. He is our CNC man, and I don't think we could build these tables without one. I mean, how would I even make a template for the 1020" (85 foot) radius edge of the table? Beats me .... Below is the assembled top of the 26' x 9' table we have been working on. I have described it in a couple of previous posts here and here ... check them out for the full story ... Let me know what you think
Here we are (again) working on the table. That's Steve Holman (on the table) below of Holman Studios and his assistant Kevin helping us get it together ...
We're still on the temporary base here, and Steve is working on the real base in his shop just down the road ... We're planning to assemble the whole thing, granite and all, at least once here in my garage before we ship it all to New Jersey, along with its smaller (8'x 20') cousin that we started work on yesterday.
Yesterday, we assembled the temporary base for the 20' table in the adjoining bay of my garage and Trevor started cutting the mdf parts for that project ... If I built these all the time, we would definitely need a MUCH bigger shop.
This one is only five four foot wide pieces, but it still takes up half the shop ...
Yesterday, Herb Johnson of Johnson Marble and Granite, of Proctor, Vermont came to get the first five granite templates. That's his shop above. Herb has done much stone work for me in the past including the marble vanity top in this post, and all of the marble tops on this page here.
He'll do the 10 end pieces with the miters and their neighbors and see how they fit with the rest of the templates and then finish up with the six center pieces. He claims I've done the hard part by making the templates .... Glad to hear that ....

The Biggest Table Yet ...(For us) ... 9' x 26'

I just cut and pasted the info from the previous post below rather than rewrite the whole introduction ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
Well, so far, for a refreshing change, it's been a pretty busy month ... Last week, we finished what I thought at the time was a pretty big claro walnut slab table, 3' x 10'. Turns out, it's not so big. We'll be able to put four of them, with chairs, on one of the tables we are designing and building with my neighbor, Steve Holman of Holman Studios ... The first of two tables in this commission is getting under way below and will be 26' x 9'. Then we have another slightly smaller one to build that will be only 8' x 20'. Steve's shop is just down the road from ours and we often collaborate on projects like these tables and like this project we did last year.

Here's the cad drawing ... The top is divided into seven sections with a 2" cherry border on the outside edges, around a 24" band of black granite, with veneered curly maple center sections. There will be a bunch of flip up power and data ports in the center sections. As you can see from the drawing, there will be some engineering involved to support the cantilevered stone. The base will break down into about 10 separate boxes for shipping and assembly on site. We've opted to use 1.5" x 2.5" rectangular steel tubing with 1/4" walls to support the granite. We'd probably prefer to use something taller, like 4", but than we get into a bump your knees issue. We wouldn't want that, for sure. Anyway, we've done a couple of tests and we think it will be ok. We'll know more when we get the actual steel from Melanson's next week. We can't cut the steep angles easily with either of our saws.
The steel has to be cut on a 67.5 degree angle like the timberstrand in the temporary working base above that we set up in the driveway ... It's hard to see, but the lengths of the steel pieces follow the curve of the table top. That's the base for half of the table you see above ...
Trevor and Sam sitting at the end section ... you can see about half of the 44.5" wide second section in this photo too ... It's seven feet across the narrow end where they are sitting and curves out to 9' in the middle ...
Here we've assembled two of the middle sections on the table saws to check Trevor's routing for the Norse connectors and some plywood butterflies we'll use to level the surfaces of the table where they butt together ...
There are a lot of operations to get this thing into shape ... Plus, only one section is less then 8' so we have to index the pieces, cut one end, and then shift them 18" to cut the other end on the cnc. That, actually, worked really slick.
Here's the view of the boys from the halfway point ... The raised sections are templates for the granite cutter ...
This is the drawing for the second table in the commission, a somewhat smaller 8' x 20', 5 piece table ... same deal, different dimensions ...