Black Walnut & Curly Maple Hall Table

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
I had a friend stay with us for about 2.5 months. We decided to build a project together, it was his 1st woodworking project and a custom design.

I had some thick curly maple that we resawed for the top.
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Flattened one face using the planer and a sled w/ shims
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Milled up some black walnut for the base after resawing the curly maple
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Glue up for the curly maple top
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Built a form for some epoxy fill. This piece of wood with the live edge will be used to make the four legs of the base.
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Edge profile on the top
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I made a cutout in a piece of cardboard so we could choose the grain we liked best
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Glue up for the bookmatched aprons
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Final aprons for the table base. Both of the long pieces have a Left/Right bookmatch
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Mortise and tenon joinery for the base. Cutting some mortises here.
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Table base glue up
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Applied Rubio Monocoat to the base as a finish. It was REALLY easy to apply without imperfections. The walnut looks good, but I think the epoxy could benefit from a bit more sheen. I like the live edge + epoxy look on the leg. A bit different from what I typically see.
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Thread continued in next post due to picture limit.
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
I applied water based poly to the top (sprayed with HVLP). The water based finish really muted the figure in the curly maple. You could still see the figure with the right light and angle, but I'm used to the finish accentuating the figure not reducing it. We sanded off the finish and applied some dye (transtint + water). Then the top warped like a potato chip. By applying more water to one side only, I was able to flatten it out a little bit, but not all the way.

After applying dye to the top. Most of the dye will be sanded off.
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After sanding off most of the dye and re-spraying with General Finishes Polyacrylic (water based poly)
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I used threaded inserts for attaching the top to the base (elongated holes for expansion/contraction)
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Final pics of the completed piece.
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It was a fun project and made more special to build with a friend. He left the other day and there was a moment when we didn't think the table would fit in his car! :eek: Luckily we were able to get it into the car.
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Jeremy, the table is beautiful! I like the design and the mix of woods. Was your friend a woodworker prior to arriving at your house, or did you start him on his woodworking journey?
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
Nice job Jeremy! What kind of epoxy and coloring agent did you use and how much of the color per pint?

I used Stone Coat Countertops Casting Epoxy. It was the first deep pour epoxy I have ever used/bought and I'm still using up the 1.5 gallon kit that I bought well over a year ago. For the color I used a purple metallic pigment (Amazon.com: 42g/1.5oz"Purple Haze" Mica Powder Pigment (Epoxy,Resin,Soap,Plastidip) Black Diamond Pigments: Arts, Crafts & Sewing). I'm not sure how much pigment I used, I might guess somewhere around a tablespoon per pint.
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
I like the cardboard cutout to select your best grain pattern.

What is the red substance on the tyvex in the fill box?

I saw that cardboard cutout trick in a video a long time ago and have never done it myself until now. I ran out of tyvek tape and used some leftover construction seaming tape for the rest of the form. The construction seaming tape was leftover from the shop build where it was used to tape seams in the rigid foam insulation I laid under the floor.
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
Jeremy, the table is beautiful! I like the design and the mix of woods. Was your friend a woodworker prior to arriving at your house, or did you start him on his woodworking journey?

He had never done any woodworking before, so it was all new to him. He did a good job learning/applying the techniques and putting up with me at the same time. :)
 

Jeremy Scuteri

Moderator
Jeremy
Thanks for the kind comments everyone. There were trials and tribulations, mistakes were made and lessons were learned, but in the end I'm happy with what we ended up with.
 

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