Final Pedestal Table Photos

Here are the final photos of the dining room table I recently completed. Thanks to Jay Paul for these terrific shots!

Pedestal Table: Photo Tour

Anything I may have posted this past week would have amounted to watching finish dry, I'm afraid. In fact, the table is not completely done just yet, but I thought I'd offer an update all the same.

Here's the top with its low-luster finish.  I wash-coated the raw maple with 1 lb-shellac then water stained the top.  Several additional wash coats of shellac followed.  I rubbed out the shellac with 0000 steel wool, removed any steel residue with Naptha, and applied a coat of Minwax Antique oil.  A day later I applied a second coat of oil.  Two days after that I rubbed out the oil with steel wool, buffed with burlap and achieved the final desired sheen by buffing with a soft cotton cloth.

Detail shot of the apron with its vertically-oriented 

quarter sawn maple veneer and small cockbead.

The pedestal.

A view from above with the table in its extended position.

The underside with the table in its extended position.

The underside with the top closed.

Traditional table yokes hold the two halves together.  The leaf also has keepers so that the same yokes hold it in position as well.  Note how the keepers are at a very slight angle off parallel with the seam.  This pulls the halves together as the yoke is inserted.

Pedestal Table: Beginning the Finish

Over the weekend I got started on the finish for the pedestal table I've been working on. The clients and I decided on a light honey color for the piece. At the point pictured, the table has been wash coated with a 1-lb cut of shellac, stained (with a water-based aniline dye), and topcoated with a few additional wash coats of shellac. I expect to build up enough shellac on the base today so that I can rub and wax it tomorrow. The top will be receiving a few coats of Minwax's Antique Oil, which I think creates a wonderful, tough, low-luster finish.

Pedestal Table: Final Sizing of the Top

This morning I cut the three top pieces for the pedestal table to their final sizes and shapes. Whenever I am making a top with multiple pieces, even if the pieces are rectangular, I like to complete whatever method of attachment I've chosen while the pieces are still only rough-cut to size. For example, when making a drop leaf table of any kind, I complete the rule joints and install the hinges before the top pieces are cut to final size and shape. The reason for doing it this way is that no matter how well one measures for hinge mortises or leaf pins, tiny amounts of slop in the marking, mortising, or boring can lead to misaligned tops. So in the case of this table, I got the leaf pins and sleeves set before cutting the top to size. The first shot below shows the pins I used for this project.



After I was satisfied with the alignment of the leaves, it was time to cut the three pieces to final size and shape. I used a router compass to cut the radius along the perimeter of the two outer pieces. The specific rig I used allowed the compass to index from the same lines I made for boring the center pin and sleeve. That way I knew that the two pieces would create a perfect circle when slid together. If I failed to use the exact same center points, I could have ended up with two outer leaves which aligned perfectly along the center (thanks to the pins and sleeves) but which were off at the ends.

After ensuring that the two half-round leaves were aligned the way I wanted, the next step was to cut the center leaf to its final length. To do this, I simply placed it between the two outer leaves, slid everything together so all the pins and sleeves were aligned, and used my Festool circular saw to cut a straight line across the center leaf between the ends of the outer leaves. In the past, I've used a variety of methods to make this crosscut, but this was by far the easiest and most foolproof method I'd employed so far.


Here is the table where I'm leaving it today. Tomorrow I'll veneer the curved aprons, finalize the attachment of the slides to the undersides of the outer top leaves, and begin the process of flattening the top. Hopefully by the day after tomorrow I'll have all the woodworking completed and can begin on the finish process.

Pedestal Table: Days 1 & 2

I'm two days into the building of a single-pedestal dining room table, and it's going well so far. I spent half the day yesterday driving out to lovely Zion's Crossroads, Virginia to buy lumber. Check out this giant heap of logs I saw along the way.



Once back in the shop, I glued together the blank for the column and dressed lumber for the legs. I sawed the outline of the legs which now need to be tapered along their length. Once the glue had set up on the column blank, I got it on the lathe and started roughing-in its shape. It was the first project I've ever turned on this particular lathe, a Craftsman from somewhere between 1939 and 1941 which originally belonged to my grandfather. The lathe wasn't in working shape when I got it, and it's been alternately trying and fun finding parts for it and getting it all together. I'm pleased to report that it handled a 6" diameter column quite handily.



Below are a few shots of where things stand at 4:30 in the afternoon on day two. Next week I'll create the sliding dovetails that attach the legs to the column, taper the legs, and get started on the top and veneered aprons.

Final Table Drawings

Here is the final set of drawings for the single-pedestal extension table I'll begin building tomorrow.

The trickiest part about designing single-pedestal tables is ensuring that the diameter described by the feet's end-points is sufficient to balance the weight of the top. What a nightmare it would be if the first time one's clients placed a roast turkey towards the edge of the table the whole thing crashed to the floor.

I consulted Harrison, my woodworking mentor (he's a life mentor too), and he reported that he usually aims for the base to be sized between 2/3 and 3/4 of the top's diameter. He did point out, though, that back in the day most cabinetmakers chose from one or two pedestal patterns and just stuck whatever size top was required on top of it. I guess they just kept their fingers crossed that disaster would be averted. I need more assurance of success than that, which is why I spent part of the day making a scale model. Unfortunately I don't have a set of scale people and scale place settings to give the thing a truly scientific test, but one can only go so far!

Here's a drawing of the table in its closed position, which will seat four diners quite comfortably.



This one shows the table with its leaf installed which allows for the addition of two more diners.



This third drawing is a detail view of the pedestal's column. Like the Biedermeier designers, I favor the simpler orders of classical columns, Doric and Tuscan, over the more elaborate Ionic and Corinthian forms. This example is basically a truncated Doric column.



Next is a detail of the leg.



Here's a detail view of the apron showing its vertically-oriented quarter-sawn maple veneer and simple quirk-and-bead.



Finally, here is a sketch of the table's "works." I'll write more in another post about the system I'm using to ensure that the ends move smoothly without changing the pedestal's position.



Tomorrow morning I'm off to the Charlottesville area to pick up the lumber for this project.

UP NEXT: SINGLE-PEDESTAL DINING ROOM TABLE

Here are two initial sketches of a single-pedestal dining room table I'm working on for clients in Philadelphia. They're looking for something simple, unadorned, and light. I'm thinking that the pedestal will be modeled on a doric column, though I'm not sure it will include entasis on so short a length. If anyone has a point of view on that, please weigh in. In any case, I'm looking forward to turning the column on my grandfather's old (ca. 1939) lathe, which I hope to have operational next week.

The table will be made mostly from maple. I'm planning on using quarter-sawn maple veneer with the grain running vertically on the apron. I'll include a small quirk bead along the underside of the aprons. Because the bead will have to be in sections along a 170" circumference (diameter of the table without its leaf is 54"), I was thinking I'd include some ebony accents at the breaks rather than using a scarf joint and hoping nobody notices.

I'm getting to where I'm pleased with the basic massing of the piece, but am not yet settled on a final leg design. This is where I turn to the books. I'm pretty certain that the inspiration I'm looking for can be found between the covers of Angus Wilke's definitive text on Biedermeier, recently reprinted with amazing improvements to the color photographs.

More on this project coming soon.