Thread: More Commissions - Dining table

Love the look of the base, will you be joining a spanrail between the two side rails for support?

Hi Springwater, Sandow, yes I will slip one accross the middle there to stablise the two rails.
Ok, off to do some more glueing.

Originally Posted by Claw Hama

Hi Christos, which stuff is that? modeling clay

O I get it now. Like putting a cork in the bottle to stop the liquid from coming out.

Originally Posted by Claw Hama

most of my tables take about 50 hours start to finish .

Looking good so far Is that 50 hours just working on the table, or 50 hours, say starting Monday morning and finishing it 50 hours later with sleep, eating etc in between?

Coming along nicely. Great work

Hi Woodies, yes Lig, 50 man hours or these days person hours, if I could turn them out in 50 flat I'd be making some good money Thanks John, it is coming along nicely, I did a bit more glueing and sanding on Saturday but got interupted by the 15 year old and forgot to take pics. So more pics on Monday. It will be starting to look more like a table by Monday afternoon. (I hope) Oops just checked the clock its Monday now. I have been going through the Super fund and opening a online trading account, it takes for ever to chase all the forms etc up.

Ok a few more tit bits, I put a prep coat of Estapol dilluted with turps, about 15 - 20% turps on the top and bottom of the table top to seal it up. Once I start the actual finish most of this surface coat will be sanded away and the full strength top coats will go on. The dilluted mix soaks into the surface rather than just sit on the top. Started filling and sanding the legs. Mixing wood fillers to get the colour you want is the go, the suppliers only have half a dozen flavours on the shelf but go nuts, you can mix any colour you want. For the Red Mahogany I had roughly a third of Jarrah, Hardwood and Wallnut a dribble of water to soften the mix, quick stir (I'm good at that) and fill the gaps. I have a packet of paddle pop sticks that I use for many of my mixing and applicating jobs. I bought a pack of 300 or something about 2 years ago. Sanded the top to 400 before prep coating.

Hello Claw Hama,

That table is coming up beautiful.

Great work.

Claw Hama, I notice you've got grain running in both directions - how do you find that when wiping on/off the finish?

You've got growth rings alternating from one board to the next, is it the the luck of the draw which way the grain runs, dependant on the rings?

Hi Waldo, I brush the Estapol so grain direction won't matter on this one. I will apply about 4 coats of Estapol sanding between each with about 250, then the final coat is cut back with 1200 wet and dry with oil and then with 0000 steel wool and oil. One side is has growth rings "in" and the other "out", it wasn't what I realy wanted but this layout gave me the best match on for patern on the top. The boards will be secured to the rails very close to the end and sides so they shouldn play up, I hope.

Just learning how others work.

Oooooo! Oooo! Stop it!!!

Fan-bloody-tastic.!!!

Dear Diary, last two days have been a little slow too, it's like being stuck in low gear. Have had late starts getting to the workshop, then picking sick kids up from school, quotes to do, bla bla bla. In short not enough production. So yesterday was strengthening up the legs and rails, it all seamed a little too flimsy so I made some Blackbutt corner blocks which were glued and then screwed into the corners. Also did a final adjustment to the squareing up with a strap sling and a tiedown strap, these give you lots of length, they don't bruse the timber and give you quite fine adjustment(only needed a tweek while the glue went of on the blocks). Then I put the center rail accross, glued and screwed a couple of blocks to the side rails and then glued and screwed the center rail in.
Today, more sanding, final touch up with a little filler, final sand, both with the random orbital and then by hand and on with a prep coat of Estapol and turps. Then back to the top, a bit more filling with some 5min apoxy, wait 15min (cup a tea) and sand back to bare wood with the random orbital, final rub down by hand to 400 and on with the first top coat of Estapol while Lotty Long fights with Jack on the radio (Castlereigh Line). I did put a drop of turps in too, once again to help it soak into the bare timber.
God "this" is almost a soapy

Looking ship shape I was going to ask after your last lot of pics how you'd go about clamping the side rails to the leg sections but didn't as I thought that might be included in the next lot...noop. So you've got long bar clamps? Draw pins? Rely on the glue? You don't need to clamp? It doesn't look like it's going to come apart without a lot of persuasionn anyway