[Woodworkers] A real project

Dave Heitstuman via Woodworkers woodworkers at lists.sawdusters.org
Tue Nov 3 16:04:29 PST 2015


Whoa! Slow down all the questions are making my head spin ☺  I’ve tried to answer all the questions here, if I missed some ask again.

To back up slightly.
I had nothing to do with the metal work, that is all my young friend Josh’s doing.  He is my neighbors adult son.He originally came to me for help with an oak top for a table he did years ago.  I’ve helped him off and on with some other wood parts but the big one came 2 years ago when he wanted to do his dining room table, (the first one in the link).  This table was for his wife’s aunt and uncle who had seen his.  There is a possibility that another one maybe 2 are in the works.  I have told Josh that the buyers need to understand that we both have day jobs and he has young children, they will see the table when they see it; be it 6 months or a year.

He uses some old time method for metal finish he read about.  As I recall it is part bees wax and mineral spirits or some sort of thinner product.  The metal is heated with a big torch and the wax/thinner mix is lathered on.  It really is a neat finish.  The butterflies are just raw metal if they look black it is only from the finishing process.
The butterflies as we call them are all laser or water jet cut along with the template for the router.  They are 3/16” thick as I recall.
I have mixed emotions about the metal template.  After the first table I ended up having to sand it smooth with fine sand paper and wax the bejeezes out of them for the router to glide easily over them and to keep them from scratching the crap out of my clear base. On the first table I just taped them to the table and routed away.  Sometimes the tape would roll up and cause some issues but it all worked out.  After I waxed them the tape wouldn’t stick.  After a few trial and error experiments we determined the best way to hold them was to use masking tape and pieces of wood slightly thinner all the way around.  It burned up a roll or two of tape…..

We kicked all kinds of ideas around on how to best secure them, and it finally boiled down to roughing the backs up with a grinder with a 36 grit disc. They are secured using and industrial 2 part epoxy.  In the big scheme I’m not convinced that they are doing anything other than looking really cool, but maybe they will keep the cracks from expanding.  Only time will tell.

In one of the pictures you can see where there is tape all over the table.  Josh found this 2 part industrial epoxy repair stuff that has metal flake in it.  We mix it up and push it in to all the cracks and to fill all the big voids.  It is a really cool albeit expensive product but the look is worth it.

The lag bolts, I did some digging around on the innerweb and found a place in Portland Oregon Blacksmith Bolt that has all kinds of old hardware.  The bands also have rivets in them which are just for show, they are welded in and ground flush on the back.

The legs are metal I-beams and I would assume the other stuff is welded to them.  They do have Black PVC guides that are screwed to the bottoms so the floors won’t get scratched.  Look closely at the bottom of the bench on the saw horses.

As for moving it.  It took all I had to lift it to flip it over etc while we worked on it but when it came time to move it we had more help.  First I purchased a sheet rock cart, I’ve threatened for years to buy one and moving the table out of the shop to get it loaded on the trailer it was needed.  I actually bought an aluminum one and it was worth every penny.  We then got my daughter, my future son in law, my wife, and Josh’s oldest son and we got it off the saw horses and on to the cart.  When it came time to load it on the trailer Josh got a fellow he knew to help and the three of us, (ok maybe the 2 of them) got it on the trailer.  I have no idea how Josh got it into the cabin.  It was assembled in the cabin.

I think that answers all of the questions.

2Dave



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