Solid Cherry (partially reclaimed lumber) Dining Table Build

  This is a dining table that was commissioned a while back by a couple of very good friends of mine. It had been in the family for a while. It had definitely seen better days...The top was made up (as most solid wood tops are) of many planks laid side by side and glued up. The wood had moved a lot over time and was warping and splitting and generally coming apart at all the seams.  What they wanted was for me to salvage the top and re-use it for the new build, using only new lumber for the base. They are much more like me in the respect that they prefer modern style furniture, so...What they wanted me to do was build this (and I already had design ideas brewing for one of these) in the same style as our Handcrafted Modern Reefbreak Series...This was a pretty huge project, but I was pretty excited about the prospect of building a dining table.

I started by de-constructing the whole table and ripping all the joints on the table saw, creating another batch of planks to start a top with. Lots of these were severely warped and cracked, so I basically had to re-mill everything to get it flat and get all of the edges jointed so they would be able to be glued up as one again. Once I got this done, I cleaned it up, sanded it flat again, then cut out the shape. I then shaped the edges of the table to get the proper roll over, or somewhat of a knife edge, sanded again to get finish ready, then set that aside to start the base. Here are a few pics of that process...

Table Top Milled and Glued Up Again

Top with Shape Rough Cut

Bottom Side of Table Top after Shaping Edges

Top View of Shaped Edges of Table Top

I started the base out with rough sawn lumber. I rough cut everything to size (leaving a little space for mill marks/snipe) and then milled it all here at the shop to get it flat and true. Once that was finished, I cut everything to exact size (apron and legs), leaving the tapers on the legs for after the joinery was done.

Laminations Glued up for Legs 

Parts of Apron and Legs with Joinery Cut

Another View of Apron Parts

Tapers being cut for Legs

Base Being Glued Up

Base After Glue Up

Table Pre-Finish

      I stained this to look the proper aged color. I was pretty happy with the results. These will be available from Handcrafted Modern. Since this was salvaged lumber for the top, the grain orientation was not an option to change, but I can orient the grain either width wise or length wise depending on your preference.  I can obviously do variations in size, just wanted to use as much as I could of the old top here. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished piece.

 Now, I suppose I will have to design and build some dining chairs...
 (I have Actually had those  in the works for a couple of  months now and am trying to get them more refined before I do any sort of mock up design. Also have been working on some case goods designs but That will be for another posting.