woodworking downdraft table | New Claro Slab Table is FInished

woodworking downdraft table

Well OK ... Another big claro walnut slab table. Weve made quite a few of them now and there is more information about them on my blog than a person could likely want to read. (If not, be sure to scroll to older posts). But, we like them. They alchoices seem to have this mysterious sense of substance to them when they are completed. The wood is dark and deep and totally unpredictable in its grain and color. We like the steel bases too. This one looks a little shinier in the picture above than it is in person. There was a little sunlight sneaking in the door when I took the picture and, reflected off the floor, it made the base look pretty impressive. Actually, its clean, but not real reflective and is meant to match the zinc counters in the clients kitchen ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....
A birds eye view of this 48 x 120 x 3" thick slab ... We figure conservatively that the table weighs at least 400 pounds assembled and I am unable to pick one end off the floor without feeling like I might hurt something ... For shipping to Montana, the slab will unbolt from the base and the 5 part base will be disassembled.
This project has been going on for a month or so so I reloaded a few of the relevant pictures of the process. You can see the other posts in the claro slab tables category to the right. Above is the raw slab before we trimmed it to width and length.
First step was to use my trusty 25 year old 3.5" Makita hand held planer to smooth the rough sawn top.
Then since we had other stuff going on in the shop, the preliminary planing and cutting was done at my garage. Easier than loading and unloading, and, with my old truck on its choice to the graveyard, we towed it merrily down the drivechoice with Sams Saab, whistling while we worked.
We laid in a few strategic butterflies
And worked on the chairs that go with it at the same time ... They are a version of our contemporary ladderbacks with a Danish cord seat by Sandy Sherman chair caning. Danish cord seats were popularized by Hans Wegner in the 50s and 60s and are friendly and comfortable, though a bit labor intensive. The chairs are, like Windsors, more about the silhouette than the grain of the wood ...
Our typical base installation
A close up of the finish
The chairs in two views ...
The 160 nails per seat that it takes to organize the weaving. Fortunately for Sandy, Trevor was able to layout and rout the holes on the cnc so all Sandy had to do was hammer them in.
And in contrast, an updated photo of our skinny console for comparison ... You can pick that one up with one hand ...

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