Walnut table project

[scsmith42]

Several months back a customer brought me two boules of freshly sawn black walnut from the same tree for kiln drying.  He was in the tree cutting business and was in partnership with several other folks on a hunting lease and lodge. 




Fast forward a few months to when the boules came out of the kiln. One thing led to another.

Can you plane the lumber for me?  Yes we can face joint the boards and plane them for you. 

Do you know anybody that can take the lumber and make it into a table for us?  We want a 10' long table around 50" wide with matching 10' benches.  Yes, we can do that.  We like to work with boules and use bookmatched planks whenever possible.





However, your lumber with the highest figure is only 10' long and the boards have notches out of one end.  The table will only be 9' long if we preserve the best figure.  Nope - it has to be 10' long.  OK, then in order not to lose the best figure our option is to build bread-board ends for it.

[scsmith42]

Do you know anybody that can finish the table?  Yes, we can refer you to Jeff Karges - an internationally recognized expert on finishing who we allow to work in our shop. (Jeff is a super nice guy.  He has furniture in the White House and used to teach classes on finishing with Sam Maloof in Sam's shop in California).

Can you make legs for the table, and make seating benches for it?  Yes, but we recommend Rite Leg Company's products. Here is a style that we recommend (they purchased our recommendation).

Last Saturday they picked up the finished table.

[scsmith42]

Making the breadboard ends was a challenge.  I didn't really want to, but also did not want to lose the best part of the crotch figure that would have to be cut out in order to have clear 10' lengths w/o breadboards.  So breadboards it is. Tenon's were cut with a router, mortises were cut with a dado blade on the tablesaw with a tall fence, staggered 3/4" holes were bored in the end of the tabletop and in the breadboard to allow wood movement w/o pinching the 3/8" grade 8 bolts. 



I custom fabricated the hardware that would allow me to clamp the breadboards on yet still allow wood movement in the main tabletop.  The "nuts" are steel cylinders that will pivot inside the top - allowing the boards to expand and contract.










It was a fun project and utilized my skills in drying, millwork, artistry (lumber selection), craftsmanship (glue up and breadboards), mechanical design (breadboard installation method that would allow wood movement) and machine shop work in fabricating the hardware.  I'm glad it's done though...

[scsmith42]

All in all I'm pleased with the end result, and especially the bookmatches and glue lines.  Can you find the glue lines?  (hint -There are four boards in the top below and the white line along the right side of the pic is the edge of the top with the bench visible below).

[thecfarm]

Glad I clicked onto thus post!!!!!!

[Larry]

Excellent work, great book match, and the breadboard ends were a good solution.

Couple of questions. What is the finish? How did you get the bolts through the breadboard? I must be extra slow because I can't figure that one out.

[okmulch]

Very nice work!! And craftsmanship!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Very nice work.

    Now - what is a boule?

[beenthere]

boule is the entire product of a log..

Log sliced through and through. Sometimes the slices are stickered and dried then in the "shape" of the log. What I learned it as, anyway.

[customsawyer]

Mighty fine Sir.

[scsmith42]

Excellent work, great book match, and the breadboard ends were a good solution.

Couple of questions. What is the finish? How did you get the bolts through the breadboard? I must be extra slow because I can't figure that one out.

Thanks for the kind words.  Finish is a water based 2 part epoxy, 4 coats sanded in-between coats.  Final coat sanded to 1600 grit and then polished with an automotive polishing compound and then waxed.

To preserve equilibrium between the MC% on the top and bottom, all sides of the top had the same number of coats of finish applied, but only the top was polished and buffed out.

Figuring out how to clamp the breadboard in place was a mental exercise.  I needed to keep the tenons somewhat shallow in order to not lose too much of the crotch figure, so I settled on a 2" tenon.  It needed to be floating in order to allow the top to expand and contract relative to the breadboard, and it needed to be strong enough so that if someone grabs the very end of the breadboard to pick the table up and move it, it would not break.  So that ruled out a traditional breadboard with wooden dowels engaging into slots in the tenon.

What I came up with were some 10" grade 8 3/8" bolts, with round pivoting nuts on one end and slotted rectangular washers on the other end.  The 3/4" bores going into the table and breadboard ends were 50% offset from one another, so that as the main top expands, it's bore would start 3/8" offset to the middle of the table (relative to the breadboard bore), and grow to be even, and then 3/8" offset to the outside of the breadboard bore. 

Wood movement calculations were based upon a starting point of around 9% MC, and assuming a max of 17% MC inside the un-climate controlled shop.  Estimating .0022 wood movement per inch of width and per 1% of MC% change, led me to believe that with the breadboard glued in the very center, there would be around 20" or so of wood movement on each side, and would be no more than 3/8" per side and most likely around 1/4".

So the round nuts that the bolts engage are designed to rotate in their bores as the table moves.

The rectangular washers were made with a hole bored through them that is only a few thousands of an inch larger than the OD of the bolts.  There is a slot cut into the edge of the washer that is around .030 smaller than the bolt diameter.  As to rectangular washer installation, the bolts are inserted into the breadboard bore until they bottom out in the access bores.  There is a slot ground into the side of the 3/8" bolts around 1/2" - 1" from the ends of the bolt, and the slot in the rectangular washer is a tight fit around this slot.  Once installed when the bolt is tightened the rectangular washer can't fall off.

So here is a close up of the rectangular washer.  Unless the bolt is slid through it from the end, it will only slide over the edge of the bolt where the notch in the washer lines up with the notch in the side of the bolt.





So the bolts are slid into the breadboards before installation, with the bolt head bottomed out in the bore.  You can see the slot ground on the side of the bolt is at the edge of the bore.




Next the notch in the rectangular washer is slid over the notch on the bolt.  It's a snug fit so I had to used a deadblow hammer to get it into place.



Then when the bolt is tightened the washer rides up past the notch in the bolt and it can't fall off.



Breadboards are then installed onto the main table with the bolts intersecting into the bores on the table.

[scsmith42]

On the table end, in the pic below the round nut is placed into the bore on the right side of the table.  When the breadboards are installed the bolts tighten up into the nuts.

Here is what it looks like w/o the hardware installed.  You'll notice that the second bore hole from the right is not lined up with the center of it's slot below it.  This is a good example of how the bores in the table were offset from the bores in the breadboards.  At that location (second bore from the right), the main table will expand to the right when its exposed to a higher RH%.  The bores will then line up as it grows, and then even maybe offset to the opposite side.



And here is a close up of the nuts.



And here is the detail of the main table tenon before the breadboards were installed.  A nut is sitting in the bore on the left.



Clear as mud?!  Let me know if you have any additional questions.  Scott

[Larry]

Thanks for explaining. The picture of the rectangular washer solved the mystery for me and I'll file that away in my memory bank. Great way to accomplish the task.

Are you using the Shrinkulator to estimate wood movement?

[jeeper9574]

Beautiful work and great solution for the bread board ends! 

[Texas Ranger]

Outstanding!

[tule peak timber]

SC, can you tell us more about the water based epoxy finish? How did you apply it?

[customsawyer]

Great job of describing the process. Way past my pay grade but you make it look easy. Awesome work.

[tule peak timber]

SC, what is the name/brand of the finish that you used?

[tule peak timber]

Is there any chance of getting details on the finish ?

[scsmith42]

Hi Rob - my apologies for the tardy response.  Jeff Karges of Karges Furniture fame did the finish work, and I had to check with him to get his permission to share his technique.

The finish is  Corotech High Persormance Waterborne Amine Epoxy sold at Benjamin Moore.



Basic installation method was to roll it on, let it dry, dry sand, repeat twice, then wet sand to 1200, polish / compound (Meguiar's Mirror Glaze Professional Ultra-Cut compound 105) and wax.  We did spray the second coat on the bottom side of the slab with an HVLP sprayer, but Jeff likes rolling with a dense foam roller because he's able to force more material into the wood pores, versus spraying.

Here are some additional words from Jeff.

Some things to keep in mind the can (epoxy) says you have to mix it all.  You don't - it's a three to one mixture. Secondly best to use a foam roller and on the last rollout, you go slow so you create the minimum amount of bubbles, but you'll get your smoothest finished from that. They make a 9 inch and an 18 inch foam roller thirdly. Remember that you have to have 30 minutes for induction so you have to plan it out and then you only have three hours of pot life so you have to plan that out for it takes about an average of 20 ounces to do one table top 16 to 24 bit like on that table, 

I was using I think 24 cause it was a 10 foot table and it was pretty wide. The recoup time is eight hours minimum and because it's such a hard finish you have to have two kinds of compound. You have to have a rubbing compound, which is a more course product and then you have to have a polishing compound if you want to get a final shiny finish. I sanded with 600 dry and 1200 wet.

Rob - I hope this helps.  Let me know if you'd like any additional info or for Jeff and I to call you to discuss.  He's a really great fellow and I've learned a lot from him.

Scott

[tule peak timber]

Scott,
Thank you so much for the information. I'm always looking for the new "silver bullet" of finishes! I've never heard of a water-soluble epoxy, but the amine part does somewhat give it away as blush on some epoxy is water-soluble. I did a lot of reading about this product this morning and find it interesting the way their spec sheet is set up and your friend's choice of this material. 
I tend to stay towards marine products as topcoats as they all have UV protection built in. I have cabinets full of variations from mostly AwlGrip family group. Trying to get the right hardness, flexibility, repairability is basically a rabbit warren of trial and error. Another group I use a lot is General Finishes, although they have gotten so large in the last couple of years you can't just pick up a phone and talk with the owner or the chemist. Like some other companies, they get too big for their britches!
One of the newer products that shows promise for my applications is the GF Enduro 2K poly. I've used it on several projects, indoors and outdoors and the jury is almost in, .
Again, thanks.
Rob

[SwampDonkey]

That's an awesome table (and benches). Some work, mind and muscle, went into that beauty. Now where are the 12 men to move it? 

[scsmith42]

Scott,
Thank you so much for the information. I'm always looking for the new "silver bullet" of finishes! I've never heard of a water-soluble epoxy, but the amine part does somewhat give it away as blush on some epoxy is water-soluble. I did a lot of reading about this product this morning and find it interesting the way their spec sheet is set up and your friend's choice of this material.
I tend to stay towards marine products as topcoats as they all have UV protection built in. I have cabinets full of variations from mostly AwlGrip family group. Trying to get the right hardness, flexibility, repairability is basically a rabbit warren of trial and error. Another group I use a lot is General Finishes, although they have gotten so large in the last couple of years you can't just pick up a phone and talk with the owner or the chemist. Like some other companies, they get too big for their britches!
One of the newer products that shows promise for my applications is the GF Enduro 2K poly. I've used it on several projects, indoors and outdoors and the jury is almost in, .
Again, thanks.
Rob

Rob I'm glad to help and thank you for the kind words.

Jeff has used a number of marine products on our projects, one of his favorites is Gleam marine varnish as it is a tung oil based finish and he's a big fan of tung oil.

We did a couple of tables a few years back using the GF Enduro 2K water based conversion varnish product, and I liked it a lot. I've been a big fan of conversion varnishes for number of years and the water-based one I thought was just about the most perfect finish. The folks that have the last table that we did with the Enduro are still very very pleased with how it's held up.

But one interesting thing about the water based epoxy was how high of a gloss that Jeff was able to achieve on it. I recall seeing something similar on some end grain tops that you made a few years ago.

As always, I look forward to seeing your next project!

Kind regards,

Scott

[scsmith42]

Thanks for explaining. The picture of the rectangular washer solved the mystery for me and I'll file that away in my memory bank. Great way to accomplish the task.

Are you using the Shrinkulator to estimate wood movement?

Thx and yes.