Red Oak & Walnut Block coffee table

That is one massive slab of oak. What are the dimensions of this slab? That must be very heavy!!!

-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT

It is nice and large but the picture sort of makes it look larger than it really is. the dimensions are 2 7/8×15 1/2×31. Of course it will end up being a bit larger than that when finished and a bit heavier as well. Hopefully whoever buys it will not need to move it around much, it will probably weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 lbs when finished.

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold

Is there a standard height for coffee tables?

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold

Nice slab of oak. Good luck with the project jockmike

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

I think about 16-18” is pretty standard….interesting piece of oak!

where’d you get this chunk of wood!?

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

gorgeous!! It sure is going to look nice when finished (it already does!!)

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

You are right, the picture does distort the look of this slab. It looks like it is 4 – 6 inches thick. But then if you take into consideration that the particle board it is laying on is probably only 3/4” think, it brings it back to perspective.

Still, a very solid slab.

Just make sure that when you design the joinery for the BB end, that you allow for movement of the slab. Make your fixed attachment in the middle of the ends, and the other joint fixtures in such a way as to accommodate movement.

Fine Woodworking has a good article on this. (I don’t think you need to be a site subscriber to view this article, but if you are not a subscriber – I would recommend you consider being one.)

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.hilsbiblechurch.org/

The wood came from an old loading dock. It was being used as part of the bumper pad system on the dock and I could just see the beauty waiting to be brought out.

Don, thanks for the article reference on breadboards. It sounds like I’m going to need to do a lot more research on this before I attempt to attach these pieces of black walnut, I certainly don’t want to mess up. and the particle board it is sitting on is actually 1 5/8 (its a piece of a solid core door).

I’m not sure of the best place to post pics of the progress so I’m going to try and put them directly into this post. The legs for the table are my own design, they’re simply tapered on two edges to make them appear as though they are at an angle when in reality they come straight down from the table. the small scallop on the back edge is just for flair and style (i hope it ends up looking stylish) The walnut boards came from a tree that I saw someone actually cutting up into firewood. I stopped and begged a few pieces off of them and milled these two pieces in the shop where I work. The larger log is about 8’ x 12”-14” dia. It’s still waiting to be milled.

The slab of oak is being added onto a bit more and I also had to run it through the planer again and take off that beautiful tung oil finish (that hurt) but at least it gives me fun of doing it all over again.

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold

Turn this into a blog series! Then when it’s all done – post it as a completed project! We’ll be following it!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Thanks for the advice, I’d forgotten about the blog function. I’ll assemble the blog sometime soon and post more pictures there.

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold

nice clamps !!!

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

those clamps are really old,not sure how old though. they were given to me by a previous boss when one of his friends died who was a woodworker from way back and had passed the clamps on to him and he passed them on to me. all they needed was a little wd-40 in the right places and they work great, but i do have plans to one day get some decent pipe clamps.

-- "Who but a fool would discard seeminly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent engineering" -- Aldo Leopold