Floating-Top Table

[Coop]

So some of you may remember that a while back, I posted about having bought a couple of 15” x 3.5” x 9’ long chestnut planks that my neighbor found while visiting a friend in Ohio. The reason she knew they were chestnut was because a cardboard sign stapled to them said they were and were from a 200 yo log cabin. Proof enough, right? She agreed to buy them for me and tote them back to Houston. The two planks at one time were one and someone sawed them length ways in half down the middle. They each weighed about 90# and had hewn marks on one side. After cutting a slice from the end of one and posting a pic, @phinds quickly confirmed them not to be chestnut but probably white oak. 

This is what one side of each looked like.

Having no idea what I was going to do with them had they been Chestnut, I was really at a loss as to what I would do with them as white oak as I didn’t need another fireplace mantle or bench. So I took them to a small sawmill to become more manageable. After taking them off the saw, I was more depressed than before I had them cut. 

With encouragement from some of you on here, I decided to try and separate the firewood from any salvageable pieces.

One of the boards off the mill was cut a little over 2” thick and the other 4 @ 1”. 

After having said all of this, I thought I had enough workable wood to build a table for our patio. I found this in FWW by Michael Pekovich and decided I would give it a shot.

Hopefully the rest of this build is not as long winded as this has been.

[wtnhighlander]

That's a perfect solution, Ken! I bet that table looks awesome in that vintage white-chest-oak-nut. Given any thought to finishing it, yet? Gonna do the ammonia thing, or some warmer tone, like the one pictured?

[Coop]

One of these days I will stick my neck out and try the ammonia thIng! As this is going on the patio and although covered, I have reservations on using any conventional finishes. The bench I just built was finished with Starbrite Teak Oil as suggested by Matt Cremona. A couple of other outdoor pieces were finished with Penofin but it turns the wood an orangish tone. Although this wood has a bunch on wonky checks and cracks, it’s actually really nice looking. My first time working with chestnut, er uh, white oak! 

I’m certainly open for suggestions on the finish. 

[Chet]

I am looking forward to this journal especially considering the lineage of the wood and its un-known history.  I have no problem with long winded descriptions thats how I learn that I have been doing it wrong in the past, or maybe you will provide a technique that will require the purchase of a new tool. 

[Coop]

The legs, being 1.5” square, had to somehow come out of the 2” thick board. This board had a huge crack down the middle so I made my first cut, separating the two halves and as one of the pics above show, I used my handy dandy Milwaukee Fuel jig saw and a heavy duty Bosch blade ( thanks Chet) instead of my old unconventional method, risking life and limb, with the circ saw. I then cut these in half length ways, using the same saw. From there, it was back and forth from the band saw to the jointer to get them close to dimensions and using the planer, got them to the desired 1.5”. 

The legs are attached to the rails via bridle joints so I laid these out, scribing the baseline of the slot.

I then cut the sides on the bs, flipping it 180* to insure that the slot was centered. Using a 1/2” Fortsner bit at the baseline, released most of the waste.

I then squared the base of the slot with a chisel. 

All four done.

[wtnhighlander]

@Coop, what is that blue thing in your drill chuck? Looks more like a router bit, than a drill!

[Coop]

My wife paid more for my Fortsners bits to match my eyes!

[treeslayer]

I’m in @Coop, I’ve had a picture of that table on my computer for 6 months waiting for someone to show me how to build it ! Looks like that “firewood “is going to be a beautiful table 

[Chestnut]

You keep tagging me in your post but I don't see a question direct at me ... .

This is an excellent use of the lumber. Yeah it may not have worked out as planned but I have a feeling that you'll make something beautiful out of it. I'm excited to see how this turns out.

[Mark J]

Coop, what brand are those Forsteners?  How do you like them?

[Coop]

They are made by Roman Carbide and yes, I really like them. Someone on here recommended them several years ago. 

[Coop]

Since this will go on the patio and be used as sort of a buffet serving table when we do cookouts, I will be putting a shelf below made of slats. There will be 4 end rails and these will attach to the legs with thru tenons. I cut the mortises with the dedicated mortiser.

There are some cracks on a couple of the legs that I thought I had better address. Instead of cutting a bunch of butterflies, I decided on bandaids. I notched out the areas on the ts and cut the filler strips to fit. With a block plane, I shaved them down and lightly sanded them flush with the legs.

There are still a few problem areas and I will fill them later with epoxy.

 

[treeslayer]

Looks great @Coop nice fix, quick question, the similar table I want to build would have to be bigger to hold a desktop computer and printer, do you think it would be out if proportion if it were bigger ?

[Coop]

Thanks Dave. I’ll give you a chance to find out. Mr. Pekovich’s table top is 26” x 14” and is 27” tall. Mine will be 43” x 22” and36” tall. Aside from the bottom shelf, the only construction change I’m making is to add a third top support. Hopefully these changes don’t affect the proportions. 

[Coop]

On my last bench build, I had to add a 2” long piece to the legs for a comfortable fit. It was from contrasting wood and I kind of liked the look. So on the table, I added the cuffs by design by cutting the legs 2” shy of intended. As the legs were too long to be drilled in the dp,  I used a dowel drilling jig from Rockler. This jig was set up for 3/4” stock so, I cut a spacer to center it on my legs.

The cuffs were drilled out on the dp.

Using some 3/8” stainless steel rod as dowels, I epoxied them into place with blue tape to secure them.

After the epoxy cured, I used a block plane and sanding block to bring them to the right dimension.

I think the next step will to build the table-top base. 

[Chet]

The cuffs look good Coop.

[Coop]

The remaining 4 slabs of wood will hopefully produces enough wood for the remainder of the table. I concentrated on getting the boards for the top first and hopefully the off cuts will produce the thinner pieces. After several layout tries with a piece of chalk, I think I will have just enough for the top. I rough cut these boards and jointed and planed them to 1” and stickered them. Using the same method, I milled the boards for the rails and supports to 3/4” and cut them to rough lengths. 

The front and back rails will receive an arch but for reference points to cut the mortises for the thru tenons on the support rails, I will cut them later. As I didn’t want to go back and forth from a standard blade to the dado stack, I notched the tenon thickness and the shoulder lines of the front, back and end rails on the ts using a flat tooth blade. That was a chore and I wish I hadn’t been so lazy. Shown are the end rails.

Then I dry fitted the front, back and upper end rails to the legs and drilled them for the draw bore pins. This dry fit also allowed me to get the exact shoulder-shoulder length of the support rails. 

After breaking these pieces apart, I laid out the mortises for the thru tenons for the three top support rails.

I removed the majority of the waste with a Fortsner bit and used a chisel to square up the mortises.

The cove on the tops of the supports was originally cut at 1/2” radius but as my table is several inches taller than the original build, I cut mine at 1 1/8” using a hole saw and removed the waste on the bs. I cleaned these up on the oscillating spindle sander.

With the edges of the front and back rails still straight, I referenced off of the bottom edge to locate the tenons on the supports and cut them with a backsaw and cleaned them up with a chisel.

More to come.

 

[wtnhighlander]

Coming along nicely, Ken!

[Coop]

 

There are several top boards that need some serious epoxy fills so I did that next after cutting them to final width. Two of the legs were included in the epoxy treatment. 

After using a scraper and sanding down the epoxy, I laid the boards for the top out to give me the best look and glued them up using Dominos.

After the glue dried, I cut the ends to length using my poor man’s track saw. 

This mother is getting closer to fruition, thank goodness! 

 

 

 

 

[wtnhighlander]

@Coop, that top is going to look like it came right out of the Alamo. Pefect mix of craftsmanship and slightly imperfect materials.

Can't wait to see it all together!

[Coop]

Thanks Ross. I was cussing this stuff big time at first and now, I wish I had more of it! Like the next to last pic, the layers were separating and the block with the two clamps were holding a glue up to hold them together but the stuff has character! I believe the off cut scraps hold a spurtle or two in it’s future! 

[Chet]

On 11/7/2021 at 7:48 PM, wtnhighlander said:

Pefect mix of craftsmanship and slightly imperfect materials.

I was thinking something along these same lines when I was looking at the picture of the epoxy fill.   Sometimes we can try and be to selective with lumber and don't realize that something beautiful is staring us in the face.  I am really looking forward to the outcome.

[Coop]

I liked the looks of the table top of the one I’m building off of in the initial pic with the squared edges so I chose not to do a bevel on the underside. With the top cut to final dimensions, I cleaned the edges with a block plane and a sanding block. I am sanding everything only to 150 with the idea that it will absorb the Teak Oil better than if I went to a higher grit. I may be way off base, only an assumption. 

I put a slight bevel on the ends of all the thru tenons and assembled the top support rails to the front and back rails. Sorry, forgot to take picks. 

Next up is the bottom shelf. I definitely like Mr. Pekovich’s simple design without a shelf but as mine will be used and not viewed, I chose functionality over beauty. Also, where this will live will be against an outside wall of the house, under the patio, there is our only receptacle. I had to choose to raise the shelf to a desired height or lower it for accessibility and I lowered it. 

At this point, I was out of any usable wood and had to go to the lumber super market to find that flat sawn white oak was $12 something a bf. Hard as hell hickory was $3 something so, I picked up a few bf of it. Not a bad choice color and contrast wise but ruff on cutting blades. After milling these pieces down to desired, I attached the slats, outside vertical and inside horizontal, to the bottom end rails, using Domino’s 

When the glue dried, I needed a schedule of events for assembly. I found that if I laid the bottom shelf on a couple of saw horses and attached a leg to it, it would clear the floor. Doing a dry fit, I attached a leg to the shelf, added the upper end rail and then the second leg, that this would work. I did the same to the other end. The upper front and back rail assembly with the support rails would drop in nicely from the top into the bridle joint mortises on the legs. I disassembled the parts and with TB III, I put it all back together with appropriate clamps.

The upper front and back rails were attached to the legs with draw bore pins. I saw no reason to do the same with the end rails and added simple thru dowel pins to attach these.

I inverted the whole assembly and with a dam formed with blue tape, I added a thin layer of epoxy to the bottom of the legs for good behavior! 

[wtnhighlander]

Looking good, Coop! That old lumber realy does have a unique character.

[Coop]

Thank you sir. I kinda wish now that I had revealed more of the “bad” sides out but I would have been out of epoxy a long time ago.