A good friend of mine asked me if I could make him and his wife a Black Walnut dining table out of a tree grown on their property. They had a walnut tree die a few years ago and had part of the tree milled into 4x4 boards. They wanted a smaller decorative table that could be expanded if needed. So I designed a table top with curvy ends, and decorative, tapered legs. The table is 60” long by 40” wide, with a 21 ½” leaf.
It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed every moment of (well, almost). I was a little nervous when it came time to cut the table in half for the leaf. I worked hard to get a nice, flat, beautiful solid walnut table top, but I
was going to have to cut it in
half with a skill saw!
Making the legs was my favorite part of the job. They were the hardest and most challenging part of the build, but a lot fun. I glued three boards together to get the 3” thickness I wanted. I cut in a 19” taper on two sides of the legs to bring the bottom of the legs from 3” to 2”. With a ¾” classic fluted router bit, I routed all around the legs at the top edge of the 19” taper and at the bottom edge of the 3 ½” skirt. I then used a 45 degree chamfer bit on the four edges of each leg, stopping ¼” before each ¾” classic fluted grove. The legs were mounted with corner braces and hanger bolts. The skirts were mounted with screws going straight through the width of the skirt without using glue.
I would have to say that this has been my best piece yet. I was a little sad to see it go, but someday I will make a walnut table for myself.
