Myrtle Anniversary Shaker Table

[DoctorDan]

As a gift for my wife for our fifth wedding anniversary I've been slowly working on a Shaker inspired dining table. Although it needs a final wax the table has already found its way into our home. (7 months after our anniversary...)

(Thankfully I've upgraded the dust extraction since then...)

The table is made from Tasmanian Myrtle (supplied by Boutique Timbers) with Indian Ebony accents. The top is 1m x 2m. The central boards are of 20mm fiddleback the edging 40mm of the more straight grain. The top is stabilised with a two large breadboards and two braces beneath.

The feet are angled 40mm Myrtle joined together by a handcut sliding dovetail, and to the central post by a twin wedged tenon. The leg stretcher holds to the legs by a ebony keyed through tenon, allowing the legs to be removed and laid flat for transport.

The benches can cater for eight diners in comfort or ten on a squeeze. The 40mm timber is joined by halflap joint, screws and glue. Solid. The curved table legs allows foot room for people sitting on the ends and the central stretcher keeps well away from anyones knees. The is a single 10cm back support for the lumbar region. The sit depth is limited to 300mm (due to my planner width) which I wish her 400mm for more thigh support.

For more photos and detailed documentation of the work in progress check out my blog -the love of wood - Shaker Table #2: Tasmanian Mrytle.

[Beechwood Chip]

I like everything about this table. I especially like how it manages to be both rustic and modern and still have integrity. The one thing I don't like is the ebony accent on the feet. To me it looks like the feet are made in two halves with an end grain butt joint, and will break apart under load. It was the first thing I noticed about the table. I'd rather see a horizontal accent, like strap reinforcing the joint, or maybe four Green & Green square accents, as if there was a pegged floating tenon. Or maybe a butterfly accent, like a butterfly dutchman reinforcing the joint.

But overall it's a great piece! Nice work!

[bgrella]

I really like this piece! The 'only' thing I would have been more careful with is getting a better color match on the feet. Because the left and right side are split with an accent (dark wood), you've really highlighted a 'plane of symmetry' (mirror image). It would have been nice to see a bookmatching here, but with timber that thick it's probably not possible.?.

By the way - I think your sliding dovetail joint should be plenty strong under load.

[DoctorDan]

I like everything about this table. I especially like how it manages to be both rustic and modern and still have integrity. The one thing I don't like is the ebony accent on the feet. To me it looks like the feet are made in two halves with an end grain butt joint, and will break apart under load. It was the first thing I noticed about the table. I'd rather see a horizontal accent, like strap reinforcing the joint, or maybe four Green & Green square accents, as if there was a pegged floating tenon. Or maybe a butterfly accent, like a butterfly dutchman reinforcing the joint.

But overall it's a great piece! Nice work!

Totally agree. If the legs were joined with a butt joint, predominately on the end grain, it would fall apart under the weight of dinner!

Functionally it's stronger than that. The two pieces are joined together by a sliding dovetail. Then they are joined to the vertical with aymmetrical twin tenons which are wedged. Glued first with titebond III. Then when dry, west system epoxy was poured in to fill any gaps and provide further strength.

Aesthetically, I thought the vertical ebony matched will with the key for the stretcher.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Beechwood Chip]

I really like this piece! The 'only' thing I would have been more careful with is getting a better color match on the feet. Because the left and right side are split with an accent (dark wood), you've really highlighted a 'plane of symmetry' (mirror image). It would have been nice to see a bookmatching here, but with timber that thick it's probably not possible.?.

By the way - I think your sliding dovetail joint should be plenty strong under load.

I wasn't saying that the dovetail wouldn't be strong enough, I was saying that, to me, the ebony accent made the joint look an end grain butt joint, which looked like it would pull apart, and that made the piece look "wrong", to me. It wasn't that I was analyzing the loads - I just looked at the foot and thought, "it's going to break apart at that vertical joint!" Then I looked at the rest of the post and realized that it was a sliding dovetail and would be fine.

It's probably just me - don't worry about it.

[DoctorDan]

I really like this piece! The 'only' thing I would have been more careful with is getting a better color match on the feet. Because the left and right side are split with an accent (dark wood), you've really highlighted a 'plane of symmetry' (mirror image). It would have been nice to see a bookmatching here, but with timber that thick it's probably not possible.?.

By the way - I think your sliding dovetail joint should be plenty strong under load.

I totally agree. The matching in grain but more so in colour could be improved.It's soemthing I had already noticed, and I think the lighting in that photo emphasizes it. From memory I had limited stock left and despite making 6 (halves) to pick the best four two were damaged by wandering jigsaw blades and weren't suitable.

Next time I will be intentional about book matching the legs.

[duckkisser]

Very nicely done but to simple for my taste never cared for shaker furniture always thought it looked rather stiff. Only thing that i realy dont think works are the bench legs.Your table has thin slightly curved legs but you benches have prity strait lined legs. The inside curve of bench is strait 90 degrees but table looks like it might be around 70 degree. And i know a broad legs is more stable but a slight curve the bends back on itself matching the feet of the table just curving on the inside It would flow better as a whole if the bench legs matched the style of the table legs. Also i think you ebony embelishment need to be more promident or i would buy a set of black dinner set to bring the black pegs out more.

[DoctorDan]

Very nicely done but to simple for my taste never cared for shaker furniture always thought it looked rather stiff. Only thing that i realy dont think works are the bench legs.Your table has thin slightly curved legs but you benches have prity strait lined legs. The inside curve of bench is strait 90 degrees but table looks like it might be around 70 degree. And i know a broad legs is more stable but a slight curve the bends back on itself matching the feet of the table just curving on the inside It would flow better as a whole if the bench legs matched the style of the table legs. Also i think you ebony embelishment need to be more promident or i would buy a set of black dinner set to bring the black pegs out more.

Thanks for the feedback. This is the second shaker table I've made, this one with quite a different bench leg design. The first (see below) was a scaled modified version of the table leg. The first design had some failing I was hoping to fix. The joinery with people getting up and and down became weak and needed fixing. and it was near impossible to add a nice looking back support.

(Having trouble with the photos... try link to original blog post.)

This design is a traditional shaker style but with thicker wood (1 1/2 vs 3/4) and more curves.

The front is curved in ~3/4 inch, the back curved in 1", using a metal ruler bent in the centre. The bottom curve was a ~8cm radius circle extended down. In retrospect this curve could be higher (removing more wood) and the curve continued with increasing gradiant to the ground.