This is without a doubt my most involved woodworking project yet. While I have built more complex pieces of furniture, this table required a lot of resources to be called on. It started as a request from a good customer, inquiring about having a table built. It's purpose was to be a feature piece in a cabin that they where restoring. Along with this trestle table, I also crafted a 8 foot farm table and benches as part of the same order. While I had about 4 months to complete the order, I literally sprayed the lacquer finish on the base about an hour before delivery.
This table is made from white oak, sourced from a local tree service.
The tree yielded 3 nice logs. Lumber was milled from the logs using a
band saw mill, with the majority being quarter-sawn. This is a very
labor intensive process, even with a fully hydraulic mill. First the
log is sliced length wise into four even pieces, like a pie. Then
boards are taken off each face of these quarters alternating between
faces. This yields some of the most beautiful and stable lumber
available with growth rings running straight down the board. It is
stable in that it expands and contracts across it's thickness, not
it's width which reduces cupping and warping.
The lumber for the
table top was dried in an electric kiln for about 2 months. While the
larger dimension lumber for the base continued to dry, I got started
with the table top. I planed the heavy boards with the help of the
sawyer and my father in a helical head planer to about 2 inches. The
top is so large and heavy that I could not make it in my small
basement shop. I ended up renting out space in a warehouse for one
week, and boy was it a good idea. For jointing the boards in
preparation for gluing them into a 12 by 4 foot slab, I “jointed”
their edges with my Festool track saw. To get a perfect cut, I used a
brand new blade and it did indeed come out perfect. The table top was
first glued up into two halves, then joined into the final slab. For
aligning the boards and two halves I used 8mm domino tenons, cutting
the mortises with my Festool XL 700 which was specifically purchased
for this project. Luckily it has made things much easier and faster
in the shop since on a variety of projects. After picking up the
lumber for the base, I jointed and planed the lumber with a jointer
and planer in the rented space but built the structure in my own
shop. I built up the center post of the trestle out of two pieces,
this was done to make sure the lumber used would dry faster with less
chance of splitting. All the joinery in this piece was fairly simple
thanks to my domino joiner. The balance of the joints were
traditional mortise and tenons, a saddle joint of sorts and large
screws. While simple using the domino joiner, the joinery for this
project would have been massively time consuming and complicated if
it would have been done totally traditional, I can't say enough about
how great an asset XL-700 is in my shop. With all the pieces and
parts of the base fabricated, I glued them together using Tightbond 3
wood glue. I used a variety of clamps throughout this project, from
quick grips, pipe and band clamps. Thankfully the glue up went
smooth. I stained the table using Minwax Jacobean. After staining the
base I added bracing to the trestles, this was more decorative than
structural, even though it does add a large amount of strength. These
pieces where added after staining for ease of assembly and staining.
I used large counter sunk wood screws, lubricating the treads with
Vaseline. This keeps the screw moving and avoids snapping off the
head. Both the base and the table top where finished with M.L.
Cambell Pre-Catalyzed Lacquer which dries almost immediately. I
sprayed on 3ish coats sanding in between with 220 grit paper. Once
fully dry I rubbed out the finish to an even satin sheet with 3M
finishing pads.
This was quite the project and one that
I would question doing again. With that said, it was a great
experience and I happy I built the table. The customer was very happy
with the table and the fact that they got it in time for the cabins
debut.
Here's The Full Video!
Amazon Affiliate Links for Tools and Products used in this video, click for prices and details.
Festool XL 700- http://amzn.to/2ldxmL6
Festool Tracksaw- http://amzn.to/2mc09nu
Knockoff Festool Blade- http://amzn.to/2lKjmeX (36 tooth)