Thread: Tas Oak/Jarrah table

Hi all,

It's been a long time coming - I joined this forum 2.5 years ago after acquiring my first giant hunk of timber (which is still drying in the carport...) - but I've finally made my first real piece of furniture. A change in circumstances meant I needed to make a dining table sooner rather than later, so I dove into my pile of recycled timber.

The tas oak came from the forum, having been recovered from bed frames somewhere in Tassie and shipped over to WA at some stage. (Wongo may remember the drama... ) I figure it had to be from a hospital or something, given that there was about 150 lengths of timber. Bolt holes, nail holes, very old varnish - the works. The jarrah was a bargeboard from a reno job in a nearby suburb that I rescued from going to the tip - in excellent condition once I stripped off the horrible white paint.

I decided to keep as much of the random features of the TO as possible, without making a table that actually looked like crappy timber. Each length had matching tapers at both ends of various designs (see second pic), so I cut four lengths in half and glued them to make nice chunky legs with similar, but individual, 'feet'. M&Ted the stretchers into the legs to make the frame - turned out much better than I'd hoped, there is no racking whatsoever in the frame even without bracing on the corners.

The deck was a bit more problematic. I didn't check my jointer very well, and my previous efforts at replacing/realigning blades bit me on the ass. The two TO panels ended up a tad curved thanks to non-square edges, and then I kept going with glue-up beyond when I should have stopped, re-ripped and done them properly. This gave me a fair bit of angst towards the end.

The original design was just going to be TO, but found I wanted a bit more width so I added the jarrah centre and edge pieces. It looked a bit odd with three dark stripes, so jarrah breadboard ends got added to the mix as well - glued in the centre and dowelled at each end - third pic has the long tenon on the end of the deck in the background.

Flattening was actually easier than I expected, with some judicious use of a power planer on a very shallow setting - my jointing crimes early in the piece meant it was never going to be perfect, but I got it close enough that it's far from obvious to the naked eye.

Final pic is just after its final coat of oil - I can't get a good photo of it assembled, the lighting is bad in that room and my phone camera is crap. Very happy with the result, particularly given my early pig-headedness. The random holes in the TO and the feet work really well to give it some character without taking over the whole piece.

Anyway, less talk more pics - because I know you guys are only here for the pretty. Learnt a lot during this job...and my jointer is now very, very square.

- Paul