Table Making
I have always admired fine wood furniture. I am captivated by one-off artist designs that are hand made from premium quality hardwood timbers that you find in niche art galleries around the world. A joy to look at, wonderful to touch. Practical art that you can enjoy visually as well as tactilely.
When Eric and I divided the list the items for our sailboat refit, one project I volunteered to do was to rebuild the navigation station area. It was old, tired, and really dated the boat. Being very busy at work, no real experience doing fine woodworking, and living in an apartment led me to search for someone to build the unique cabinets and frames for our new navigation station. I did the drawings and design for the new navigation area, and created mock ups with MDF while I searched for a cabinet maker. Google took me to Perth Wood School. www.perthwoodschool.com.au
A quick call and owner David Howlett told me they'd take on the project, source the materials and even let me do as much of it myself as I wanted while they coached me through it! Perfect! In the end, too busy to make cabinets myself, but David and team produced just drop dead gorgeous teak cabinet faces from my MDF mock-ups that fit and look beautiful.
One conversation lead to another and the next thing I was dreaming of table making....just for the sheer joy of it! This time, I was going to do it myself. Even if it took a month of Sundays due to my schedule, I was determined to make it myself...
So over the course of 4 months, working a few hours most weekends, I drew plans for and made this table with the help, guidance and encouragement of Dave, Lynn, Brianna, and Tracey at Perth Wood School. There were some great "value adding" suggestions made by a colleague, Matthew, also a woodworker. I also was fortunate enough to meet and receive assistance from the king of routers in Western Australia, Tom O'Donnell aka Tom n' Jarrah.
My time at Perth Wood School has been an absolute joy, a highlight of my time in Perth. If you live in the Perth area, and are considering woodwork, you simply must stop by to meet David and his staff and see what they have to offer. You too will find yourself building what ever you have been dreaming of. They provide a very professional and yet safe and nurturing learning environment.
The
table is based on a picture I found on the web: I drew it up in Adobe illustrator to the dimensions I
wanted, roughly 120cm x 120cm x 76cm (44in x 44in x 30in). The drawings
were then printed up to full scale to work from and create templates from
MDF where necessary. It is made from Australia hardwoods Sheoak and
Jarrah. It was created from raw rough cut lumber, run through the
joiner to get two flat 90 degree surfaces, then through the thicknesser to
get boards of the same dimensions. The table top is 30 mm thick as are
the rails. The table top is made from sheoak and the legs from Jarrah.
There are two sets of cross rails, right beneath the table top (jarrah) and
the lower cross rails of sheoak which are about 1 ft off the floor (30cm).
The cross rails are 'half lapped' where they cross.
Links to drawings are here:Top top drawing, table profile drawing, table profile on diagonal with top
Here is the project in Pictures: If you click a picture it will start a slide show. (You may have to 'allow active-X controls')
