Thursday, December 6, 2012

Haven't built a dining table in quite some time. Boy did this one make up for that.
It is in the Louis XVI style  12' 6" long with the 30" leaf in 10'0" without the leaf.
We found some fantastic veneer at the Wood Gallery for the top. The idea was for the table to be 120" from the beginning, but when we found this veneer we knew we had to make a leaf even if it couldn't be used at this home. With this fantastic crotch of Mahogany it was now or never so that the pattern would match with the leaf in or out. This was done by cutting 15" off of both ends butting them together to make the 30" leaf.




This is what I found at Wood Gallery to get this ball rolling. Thanks Barrett.


This is the top with the leaf in but not trimmed to length.



Used a MDF template to finish cut the D ends with a flush trim bit. I also used the pattern to lay out and check the apron as it was constructed.



Here is a shot of the cross banding detail.



 I rough cut the packs of banding then trimmed it to the radius with a flush trim bit.
The arrow denotes grain direction very important to keep the pieces all oriented the same way so that you keep the same color once the wood is polished. If one should get turned it will reflect the light as a different color and show up like a sore thumb. Once the wood was glued down a 1/8 " square piece of brass was inlaid at the dividing point of the two veneers.

 This is a pic of the jig I made to make the radius pieces used to build up the aprons of the D ends.
Once they where routed I stacked and glued them together to form the radius.



                              This shows the template I made to mimic the mortices of the legs


                                                           Now how do we cut that?

I put together a jig for my router to ride on






Next I started on the legs. Here is a shot of my Bailey # 8 smoothing and straightening the tapers.
I took a chance doing this as I hadn't received the toe caps or as the Frenchman I ordered them from says "Sabots".  I ordered them from a company out of California who imports from France. Just so happened that all of France goes on holiday for the month of August. So I waited. 10 weeks later they sent my order... no toe caps. So I call.  Oh those have been discontinued was the reply. When where you going to tell me this, was my response. Well I might be able to find some or one that you could use as a mold in another 4 weeks. Great!! now it's mid October the table needs to be done for Thanksgiving and  I have no Toe Caps. What to do... the only option was to have them cast locally. I made a mock up of what I needed and had A&B foundry do them for me. 


This is what they looked like after a lot of filing and polishing. At this point the legs where  fluted and finished and on the table. The good thing was I knew they would work because I had made the template instead of guessing at the aperture of the French ones.


                            



                               This is a picture of the jig I used to rough out the tapered flutes.


A little of the hand work needed to finish the flutes properly.


A little clean up with my Sauer & Steiner K7 Smoother. and they are ready to install.



         A couple of shots of the table with the apron glued up, center legs installed on the rails.



This is the start of the panels on the apron. Lots and lots of spring clamps to hold the pieces till the glue dries.


Detail of the apron with the brass quarter round in place.



At this point the table is basically finished and oh yea those pesky "Sabots" made it from the foundry. I didn't want to flip the table back on its finished top so I raised it up with some blocks the shop has laying around made a jig to rout the leg.









                                                                 Ready for delivery.


                    At its new home.  Thanks To Gentry and Kathryn Beach for the opportunity.


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