Harvest table

[mshel]

Finally finished this yesterday and the new owner picked it up today. Whew, glad it's outa my shop. That thing tied up my shop for the last week. 10' L x 44.5" w. This will reside in a beach house at Morehead. Must be some kind of beach house. :gar-Bi

I made this one out of old pine salvaged from a warehouse here in Wilson (so I am told). It started out as 2x8's and after planing the heck out of it, it ended up around 1 1/8" thick (top). I only had 7 boards from which I could use to make this and the last one had to be resawn in order to make the two long aprons. The legs were made by glueing up some real old heart pine (tight grain). Folks think exotics are expensive, try buying some decent heart pine. Most places want $15.00 and up. No, I didn't pay that much for this. A customer had it and he agreed to barter it out.

Lots of sealing, staining, sealing some more, staining some more, sealing and finally putting two coats of lacquer on everything. Whew, I am out of breath just typing that. :rotflm:

Wish I could have gotten some better pics but trying to stage this big boy was not in the cards.

Mike

 

[DaveO]

Mike you do amazing things with pine. If you hadn't mentioned it was pine I would have never guessed it. Beautiful work :eusa_clap:eusa_clap

Dave

 

[WoodWrangler]

Beautiful table ... love the color and finish ... very warm and comfortable. That must be one happy customer!:icon_thum

 

[JackLeg]

Mike, that is truly beautiful! Your client must be extremely pleased to have that in his house. Can you share with us what something like that would sell for?

Met a guy today who sells wood down in Wilmington. His clients are folks building on Baldhead, Figure Eight, etc. Says they compete to see who can spend the most money on paneling, doors, flooring, etc. Beach houses costing 4-5 million!! Not in my circle!!!:nah:

:wwink:

 

[TracyP]

Simply Beautiful:notworthy::notworthy:. Excellent finishing with a very warm glow.

 

[Canuck]

Excellent, Excellent work Mike!!!!:eusa_danc:icon_thum:eusa_danc:icon_thum:eusa_danc:icon_thum:eusa_danc

Someone will need to be really, really careful transporting this wonderful piece to its new home.

You have worked wonders with that old heart pine!!!:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

Wayne

 

[Bas]

Wow, you really brought out some color in that piece! I like pine, it has gotten such a bad rap because of all the lousy white pine they sell at the Borg.

Great looking table, simple, functional, and wonderful finish.

 

[lwhughes149]

I can see why you were glad to get it out of your shop. It is huge but beautiful, love the color. I wonder what kind of chairs they will use. How many will it seat? Now benches to match would be nice.

 

[4yanks]

Man, what a table! Great work. Like Bas, I also like pine. You've certainly brought out its best qualities.

 

[ScottM]

:eusa_clap Beautiful table. :eusa_clap I love the look of pine.

 

[Mike Callihan]

Beautiful Piece. Handling pieces that large is always a huge challenge for me, being a one man shop. If you wouldn't mind sharing how did you finish it? I too love the look of pine but the staining has always been problematic for me. Uneven color always drives me to distraction. You have do an amazing job with that top.

Thanks for sharing; Mike. :eusa_clap

 

[CaptnA]

What a GREAT table. Nicely done!
I love pine. Not the twisted scrap they sell at the big boxes as 2 by's but PINE. Heart pine, southern yellow pine. The stuff I grew up with.
Growing up our house had pine paneling throughout. Knotty T&G random width marvelous stuff. When mother sold the house several years ago I happened to know the man that bought it. He allowed me to pillage a few(?) pieces. One was the family growth board in the kitchen. An unsightly cut/scratched/markedup/written on old 3/4"x8" 8' long eyesore to anyone not in my family I'm sure. Wouldn't sell that thing for love nor money! I also managed to scarf some shelving boards - 12" wide from built-in bookshelves in the living room. Added them to what I salvaged when mother had built on years earlier. 2X' 4/6/8/12s that are straight and tight grained. Building materials from the 50's
We all felt odd about somebody living in OUR house... My dad built it. We lived in it. We loved it. They built 116 condos where I grew up.
The guy who bought the house and moved it - how odd to see your house move down the road in huge sections. He moved it to live in himself was almost finished with it. It caught on fire and was effectively destroyed. I was there. Talk about mixed emotions~
How amazing that I got to salvage some of the old home place before it was destroyed.
I've got pieces of my childhood and have from time to time made things for some family members from their past. Sometimes I tell them, sometimes I haven't. They always wonder...
Yep, I love pine! Almost as much as memores...

 

[Glennbear]

This is truly inspirational for me Michael I have a woodrack full of old 5/4 heart pine that started life as gym bleacher seats 40+ years ago. I have seen the prices you spoke of and this stuff is not cheap. I plan on furnishing my house with projects from my stash and it is nice to see what I could end up with. Excellent work ! How were the breadboard ends fastened to allow for wood movement ?:wsmile:

 

[RandyJ]

Beautiful table, Mike! That is an heirloom for sure. I hope the customer appreciates the time and talent that went into creating it.

 

[sapwood]

Mike, that must have been a challenge. Don't think it would fit in my shop :roll:
The finish really brings out the character of the wood. You are a true craftsman and I always look forward to seeing your projects :icon_thum

Roger

 

[DavidF]

I would never have believed that was pine until the last picture! great colour, how did you achieve such perfection???

May be just summarise it to Bas and he can write a book......

 

[mshel]

In answer to some questions,

The finish schedule was:

1. Seal all surfaces (2 coats) This is to prevent the stain from getting soaked into the softer wood thus causing the grain to be very prominent.

2. Apply Burnt Umber stain to all surfaces (light coat, just to get some color on the wood).

3. Seal all surfaces again and when dry, lightly sand all surfaces to remove any nibs, etc.

4. Apply stain again to all surfaces to get a richer color.

5. Seal all surfaces again and when dry, sand to remove any nibs, etc.

6. Apply lacquer to all surfaces ( 2 coats)

I mixed in some orange tint with my lacquer just to give it some pop. I was really hesitant but that is what the customer ordered so I just added a little. I really didn't want to mess up the finish and a little went a long way. I could tell the difference after putting the lacquer on and it did give a touch of pizzazz ( yea right). :gar-La;

Breadboard ends:

I used a router to make a tenon ~ 1/2" thick on both ends of the top, centered on the thickness. The tenon was 2" long.

I then marked out 4 tongues spaced across the width of the end of the table. I also marked a line across the tenon 1/2" from the shoulder. This represents the stub tenon. I placed two of the tongues approx. 2" from the sides and spaced two others towards the middle.
Using a jigsaw I cut out the waste on the ends and in between the tongues, leaving the stub line intact.

I selected two pieces of pine from the leftovers and made a dado on one side of both pieces which will mate with the stub tenon on the table top end. I made these pieces over length and cut to length after attaching them.

Holding the breadboard piece against the end of the top, I marked the location of the tongues on the board which is where the mortise will be cut. Note: To allow for expansion, I enlarged these marks 3/8" on both sides of the tongues.

I setup my mortise machine and cut a mortise for all the tongues per the layout lines. Some fitting was necessary using my rabbet block plane on the tongues and the stub tenon.

I slipped the BBE on and decided where I would drill the peg holes. I removed the BBE and drilled the holes ( some guys only drill through one side and half way through the other side but I decided to go all the way through on all the holes.) I put the BBE back in place and using the drill bit, I marked the hole location on all the tongues, removed the BBE and marked a point ~ 1/16" towards the shoulder on all of the marks made by the drill point. (Basic drawbore technique) Drilled the holes in the tongues and using a rat tail file, I elongated the two outside holes laterally to allow for expansion and contraction.

I cut some 5/16" x 5/16" pieces out of some very tight grained lighter pine to use for the pins. I trimmed one end round on each peg. This is so the pin will clear the hole drilled in the tongue.

I put some glue in the two center mortises only. The outside edges were left dry. (Expansion & contraction) Put the BBE back on and pounded the pins home and trimmed the excess off.

Sorry this was so long but it's hard to tell how to do this in 20 words or less, at least for me.:gar-La;


Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[Glennbear]

Thanks for the concise explanations Michael :wsmile:

 

[Canuck]

WOW Mike; I didn't realize this amount of detail went into breadboard end's!:dontknow::dontknow:

Sounds to me like you have conquered any issues with expansion in that level of detail. (Just hope that the new owner of the table realizes your close attention to detail!:icon_thum)

Thanks for a good detailed explanation as how to complete a BB end successfully! (I know that I will keep this thread in mind, if I ever try to do one!!:thumbs_up) I read and re-read this post a couple of times to ensure I understood the methodology.:wsmile:

Thanks Mike!!!:icon_thum:icon_thum

Wayne

 

[Mike Callihan]

Michael

Thank you for the finish schedule. I suspected that you had sealed the wood well before staining. Your finish is uniform and blotch free. Again great job.

Mike