Friday, June 10, 2011

Black Walnut Dinner Table




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. 




No comments:

Post a Comment