8 Foot Cherry & European Beach, Live Edge Farm Style Dining Table
This is definitely one of the larger tables that ive done, and really happy with how this turned out. Bret and his family of four were ready to upgrade their dining table so that having more people over for a nice meal would be a whole lot easier. It was time to toss out their 3ft x 5ft store bought table and get the custom farm style tale that Sarah had been dreaming about for awhile since moving into their house. With a little bit of inspiration and a lot of room to get creative, I was basically asked to conceptualize something that had that farm table look that would be around 8ft x 4ft . Since Bret and Sarah’s anniversary was coming up and he wanted to try and surprise her, this was an extra special opportunity for me to put some of my own ideas into it… i especially really like making table legs, im not a fan of metal legs, so was stoked on the project knowing i could really add my own creativity to this style of table, aside from the live edge, its traditional styling that i am really into. With really no hardware aside for the furniture inserts, all the wood is joined which is an awesome feeling, i was to combine a lot of the things i've been doing over past couple of years in one project.
About The Wood
For the table top, the Cherry was felled near Nathan Hale Highschool and then milled in Lake City near my old shop and then set aside to dry with the Beach for the last 5 years or so.
Since they wanted a live edge style farm table i just debarked but left a live edge profile on the exterior pieces and went right into processing the slabs. After all the boards were all flattened on my homemade router sled table on one side, i then made my way to the planer, then to the jointer, i was happy to see the boards join together perfectly…thank you to my 50’s delta jointer with Shelix cutting head & Festool for helping me make that happen thanks to my XL domino joiner.
The Epoxy
Then you guessed it…i planed and sanded my life away. After i had a nice surface, i started to work on the inlays using some black walnut i fell some years ago from Phinney Ridge, I also decided to fill in the cavity with some epoxy to give it some pop. i cleaned up the cavity a bit and got it ready for the pour using melamine board and Tuck tape over it, then secured it to the bottom of the cherry. Using a deep pour epoxy resin kit from Total Boat i also used some Mixol Epoxy Pigment from Rockler to give the epoxy a nice tint using blue, yellow and a green to make a teal-ish color… once it was ready, it was time to let
Custom C-Channel
One of the last steps with the tabletop was adding my signature Ford blue, custom c-channel to help the table top move properly through the seasons…a lot of folk just buy c-channel precut, but i just cut down some material at the shop and customize it to fit this project. Really happy how this pops even though no one is really good see it.
Finishing the Table Top
Then it was time for sanding my life away….. again…you know how that goes so ill skip that, but i was really excited about the finishing…i thinned down own Osmo 3043 (instead of buying pre-thinned oil i prefer to make my own), did 3 coats of this, then 3 coats of 3043 (not thinned down) top and bottom> then buffed in with my Gem orbital buffer. Traditionally there is not too much detail put into the underside of furniture but i like to spend the time doing it.
The Legs
Bret shared some ideas for the legs but really gave me the ability to design these and first and foremost they need to be sturdy so that was my first priority… at 4ft x 8ft with cherry and beach this table wasn’t going to be light…so i decided to go with farmhouse style legs with a trestle using some left over cherry and maple from northgate . I really liked the idea of an organic look for the legs,, i worked with the flow of the table shape and just let it come together. The whole leg system is removable for transportation. Other than the maple and cherry i used tiger wood for the plugs for connecting things and locking in place, as well i added inserts in the bottom of the table top that would connect the legs. Really happy with how this turned out.
Materials Used
Cherry - Sourced near Nathan Hale High School, milled by me. This was used in the top surface & in the legs (milled 4 or 5 years ago)
European Beach - milled by me, also used in the table top
Maple - Milled by me and used in the legs
Epoxy - Used epoxy from Total Boat & Mixol Epoxy Pigment from Rockler to give it a little pop
Oil - Osmo Satin Finish to give it a natural look and feel.
My Tools
Alaskan Sawmill and stihl ms880 for milling the boards
Grizzly 20” Planer Shelix Cutter Head for flattening
Supermax 37” Dual Drum Sander for flattening
57 Delta Rockwell 8” Jointer with Shelix Cutter Head for milling the lumber down and creating glue joints
Bessey & bar Clamps
18’ powermatic Bandsaw
Festool domino Joiner & Sanders
Suizan Handsaw
A few Shinogi and Ichhou-gata Nomi chisels
Lee neilson block and shoulder plane