03/31/2024
Here’s the process on this beastly solid ash table. The wood is kiln dried ash from Stella Sawmill that started life at almost 2 and 1/8” thick. I then put each piece on my table and used the router sled to remove any slight bows left after the initial milling process. This left me with dead flat boards that then made several passes through the planer. The next part was tricky. A huge shop would have a massive jointer to create a flat edge on these boards to get them ready to glue up…I don’t have a huge shop 😆. I cut each edge with my track saw then used a massive template bit in my router against a strait edge to come up with clean glue lines. The simple nature of this table is actually what makes it complicated. Minor imperfections in a simple design really stand out. Glue up was next, done in three separate stages and then another pass with the router sled to maintain flatness. I then fixed a few imperfections in the wood to create a smooth surface all around before the sanding started. In between sanding I layer out the table base made out of 4x4 spindle legs and solid ash apron. The base received a double dose of black prestain followed by a coat of black Rubio monocoat, a hard oil finish. The top was then sanded and sanded and minor imperfections repaired and sanded some more and received a 45 chamfer on the bottom and slight round over on top edge wnd then sanded more. The finish is two coats of Rubio Monocoat Black. Figure 8 fasteners secure the 150ish pound top to the base and allows for wood movement between the top and base. So while it’s just a table, it’s a whole process from start to finish that takes care and attention to detail. Overall this is a beefy table that I hope creates many memories in its new home 🥰