Circular Mahogany Dining table

[jTr]

While I realize the average consumer will scoff at anything veneered, you cannot produce an item like this any other way. Personally, I love the stuff, because of the outrageous beauty of the many exotics that are completely out of reach if it weren't for veneers. It's a privilege to be able to work with such a stunning cut of crotch mahogany, as opportunities don't come along every day.

Picture #1 shows the Sketchup draft, which allowed me to "paint" a picture of the veneer on the model for ease of visualization for the customer. It was simply pulled from the vendor's online photo of what I picked from their inventory.
Once received, it consumed a week to soften, dry and flatten the fragile, wavy pieces of veneer so I could begin working them without breaking - I needed to be as efficient as possible in all other stages...

Naturally, I used the Shopbot to cut every curved piece of solid wood utilized in the construction of this table.(which was almost all of them). Even the triangle pattern for the veneers was generated on the bot.

- If you've ever blocked the circumference of a circular table, you know fitting those blocks can be quite tedious and time consuming. Not so with the 'bot. Miters and curves were essentially perfect - only had to shave ~.030" off the ends when fitting the last two pieces. I left a "dog-ear" on the ends of each segment so I could clamp them end to end where they but- jointed along the perimeter, then pulled snug to table edge, trimming the ears off when complete.

Finishing: Timber-mate mahogany wood filler was used to fill the very porous grain, followed by a boatload of sanding. Used Trans-tint brwn mahogany dye stain to balance solid blocking with the veneers, as the solids were a bit more pink than the veneer. Sealed with T77F63 Sherwin CAB acrylic, then water based "Crystal-lac" wood grain filler. 3 more coats of lacquer with power sanding between each to level finish/fillers and reduce build. (too much catalyzed finish will continue to cross link and crack to pieces over a number of years). After about a week of curing, wet sanded and rubbed out with Liberon "0000" steel wool and Guardsman furniture polish for a silky-smooth feel.

[gc3]

very nice work...

[Brady Watson]

That's a beauty! Thanks for posting!

-B

[scottp55]

Gorgeous work !

[myxpykalix]

Jeff,
It takes more then just the ability to push a few buttons on the bot to create something like that, so i'd say that was about 90% talent. :eek:

I don't think i could have done that so you should be very proud of your work and the way you fit all that together was perfect! Good job!:D

[kevin]

Very nice its great to see
Also most antiques have some form of veneer its not cheap .
Lots of skill to pull that off

[steve_g]

Jeff…
Does your bottom “Ring” have a brass overlay? Looks very nice!
SG

[Brian Harnett]

Great job very nice joinery, the finish is awesome.

[bleeth]

Gorgeous piece of work. Coincidentally I did a circular crotch table with pull out leaves some years ago. The guy wanted a jupe table but didn't have the budget for that so we made it manual pullout on sliding dovetails instead of doing the geared mechanism. Did you work from raw veneer pieces or pre-laid sheets?
I got my leaves from Herzog and if you haven't used them they are terrific, including having flitch photos and bundle quantity numbers on their website so you can pick exactly what you want.
The whole process of selecting pieces like that, softening them, and then forming the parts is one of the things I love about furniture making. It feels like really making use of the whole ball of wax instead of the typical "decorator" design which is usually semi-mass produced **** out of some magazine.

[Burkhardt]

Stunning! I never worked with veneer and am wondering how you cut the triangular pieces that cleanly to snug up to each other without gaps or fuzz. I suppose that highly figured veneer sheet is quite brittle?

[jTr]

Does your bottom “Ring” have a brass overlay?...


Good eye, Steve. It is a brass plate .020. Modeled this after a similar table I made a few years ago in walnut with an aluminum trim ring - this client has mahogany chippendale chairs and other brass accents in the home, so it was natural to bring into this piece.

[jTr]

Did you work from raw veneer pieces or pre-laid sheets
Raw veneer and white knuckles all the way! First laid out in a simple slip-match pinwheel form, similar to the Sketchup drawing. Then I tried book-matching by flipping alternate pieces and instantly saw the magic there - I live for that part of the process! These were purchased from Certainly Wood - I also frequent Joe Woodworker (Veneer Supplies) and B&B Rare Woods. Will look into Herzog as an additional resource - thanks for the suggestion, Dave.
Meanwhile, I need to investigate the definition of a Jupe table!

.
..wondering how you cut the triangular pieces that cleanly to snug up to each other without gaps or fuzz. I suppose that highly figured veneer sheet is quite brittle?
G- Used Veneer supplies' veneer softener to deal with the brittle, wavy veneers, as described in original post. Cut a pair of triangular MDF cauls on the bot - exact angle, just extra long. Veneer stack goes between, and I lay a Festool straightedge and track saw in line with the edge, approximately 1/32 over size. Indeed, despite the softening treatment, I had jagged edges. Sanded away the frayed edges and into the templates, in some areas reaching well over 1/32". Since they were sequentially stacked and the template was over length, I carefully marked a line on the template,parallel to the offending edge, and reduced by sanding to avoid further damage. Though it did cause a tinge of pattern shift, all the slices were reduced equally, so the results were acceptable, as the excess length allowed them to essentially be shifted forward to the center of the circle.

Working with veneers is something I've been practicing for over a decade. It does require an inordinate amount of patience, practice, and passion. I always purchase enough material for do-overs, which thankfully are reducing in frequency as I "press on" (pun intended...!)

[srwtlc]

Beautiful work Jeff!! I used to do a lot of Marquetry art in the past, so I can relate to beautiful veneer work.

[garyr6]

Let me just add ....wowow.

[Ajcoholic]

That is one fine looking table! Very nice - I love the veneer.

I find with my customers when you explain why and when veneers have to be used VS solid wood, they accept it and know why.

[elcar903]

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing