Shaker Table with Pekovich Legs, and Lewis Curve in Top


Shane Jimerfield

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I'm going to journal my build of a Shaker Window Table. This table will feature several interesting design features that where showcased by Fine Woodworking, and some very interesting wood.

 

The top will be made of quarter sawn coastal redwood. Some really ancient stuff. I got some boards a few years ago from a guy down in Northern California. He pulled a few logs out of the Eel river that had been resting on the bottom for over 100 years. These logs still had the saw marks from the hand saws that were used to fell the large tree. The grain is very tight, with rings at over 30 per inch. Due to it's ancient age and respite on the bottom of the river the wood is quite dark - not your typical lumber yard redwood. The wood had become somewhat mineralized, and has a beautiful resonance when tapped. Some guitar makers use this type of wood for soundboards because of its beautiful resonance.

 

To tie the top to the base I will incorporate a white oak ribbon down the middle. This ribbon will be made of 4 laminated layers. This design feature was featured in Fine Woodworking a while back where Scott Lewis showed us how to do it. I've made several cutting boards using this design and love. For this project I will be sticking with just a single 1/2" curvy lamination.

 

The base is characteristically Shaker, and will feature the leg design that was just featured in FWW that Pekovich designed. I will be using white oak that I got from another guy who salvages wine barrels. They are nearly quarter sawn. This oak comes from the large barrels - the staves are 12' long and 2" thick. Check out the crystallized wine deposits (photo below). I've resawn these to get the skirts and legs. There are some nice medullary rays that have presented themselves in the resawing.

 

FC_Iso.jpg

Here is my drawing.

 

Top_1.jpg

Here is the top (already routed the groove before I got the camera out).

 

Top_2.jpg

Here is my router template/guide for the Lewis curve.

 

Top_3.jpg

Here are the four oak strips that will be laminated in the curve.

 

Top_4.jpg

Using my new Supermax 19-38 I was able to get these strips - oh, perfect!

 

Top_4_5.jpg

Test fit, looks good.

 

Top_5.jpg

And the glue up. Got some nice squeeze out across the joint and lamination.

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You said the redwood has a beautiful resonance when tapped.

I believe that shows the hardness of the piece.

Your finish might sit more on the surface then penetrating.

Even so, it isn't hydrophobic. it absorbs linseed oil greedily. I'm just not fond of finishes that don't let you feel the wood. So, I was wondering if there might be a way to give it a bit more hardness.

 

As Steve said, it is harder than what you might expect, but it is not a hardwood. In fact, I'd even say more brittle than hard - if that makes sense - which is why it seems mineralized.

 

I was just scanning through the pics. Wow, what a difference the lighting and flash makes on the color. The first and second image are more realistic color representation.

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Nice looking table. Did you design it in Sketchup?

I wouldn't say designed. I already had the design in mind, then drew it in Sketchup. I don't find Sketchup to be a good design tool. It requires too much thinking about how to do things in it which takes away from my ability to think about the actual design. So, when designing I am old-skool - grid paper, pencil, straight edge and dividers. And lots of books for inspiration.

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I quit subscribing to several woodworking magazines years ago, but an annual online subscription to FWW gets you the new issues and the ability to search every article from issue 1 to current day. I have many years of the magazine on my shelf but it can take hours to index and find an article. The ability to search online and download a PDF of the article to my IPad for reference in the shop is worth the cost of the subscription.

 

FWW's search feature is outstanding, as well as the ability to save what you've found!    For the cost of the access, I don't think it's worth storing all the mags.  A few years ago, I realized that I have very rarely looked at the magazines I had shelf after shelf of, but all the real information I used had come from the online search.  I gave a way the magazines and reused the space for more important things.

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