Question on leveling slabs for table

Re: Question on leveling slabs for table

Clint Searl

I would leave them mismatched. Consider it an opportunity to make them even more mismatched to add personality to the project. Differ the profiles; include voids; try different ideas; have fun and aim for a design that makes one smile!

Re: Question on leveling slabs for table

Barry Irby

Thanks, I think that answers my next question as well...There are cracks that run along the pith of the two limbs that form the fork...I was considering ripping them and gluing them back together or installing butterflies and maybe epoxy....I'm guessing you would say not to go for perfection and celebrate the defects????

Re: Question on leveling slabs for table

Tom Dunlap

FOr me one of biggest benefits of bark edge and natural slabs is to celebrate the tree and how it grows. cracks are part of the path from tree to lumber to furniture.

If the crack went from one end to the other leaving two pieces I could see that using a router to take off a bit of each face to 'plane' them would be a nice design. Slide them together, glue and butterfly.

Leave the two thicknesses. Use the difference in thicknesses as a point of interest.

Thanks and more questions

Barry Irby

I am agreeing with your idea. Leaning toward a more natural approach.

These boards/slabs have been on the bottom of my lumber pile drying for about ten years. My recollection was they were sort serpentine or S shaped and I was thinking of mating them for a top in a Ying Yang shape, but when I dug them out, they were much straighter than I remembered with a big branch flare on one end. So I cut the branch flare off to get the weight down to something I might handle and Now am considering using some random joint to put them together. The problem is that my calculations indicate each board with weigh over a hundred pounds so the top will weigh about 225 lbs. and the base will push the table to close to 400 lbs.

My question is should I glue up the top or make it as two separate boards that can be disassembled for transport?

Re: Thanks and more questions

Grant Smith

Hi Barry,

I have been dabbling in this slab world for a good amount of time and a dozen odd slab projects. I agree that you are (probably) making something more akin to art than a rigid furniture project. So it can be a plus to have the piece include idiosyncratic features. I would recommend that if you use the two slabs of varying thickness, consider slotting a flat area on the bottom where supports will be located. This is so your support structure is simpler to build. As an aside, I suggest you treat both sides of the slabs with the same finish or epoxy so they are less likely to bow or curl on you.

WRT the weight question, I have avoided exactly that by simply leaving a narrow 3/16" slot between the boards, sort of like a picnic table. I rounded these edges and applied finish before assembling so cleaning is more possible. I used dominoes to help keep them in the same plane, and I used figure eights to attach the legs and to allow movement.

FWIW,

Grant in Iowa

Here's an idea

Clint Searl

This was a 3" thick slab of oak that wanted to express itself.

Re: Thanks and more questions

Clint Searl

An approach I've used is to make the trestle independent and self supporting by connecting the slabs with a stretcher made of a pair of 2" copper or brass bar rail. Rusted iron pipe would be neat, too.

Let the top float on four upside-down 2" levelers embedded in the trestle. Route depressions in the underside of the top to fit over the levelers. The levelers can be adjusted to accommodate any movement in the top.

Glue the top slabs together and don't worry about the difference in thickness between the two sides.

Re: Thanks and more questions

William Duffield

Had Barry been cognizant of your strategy earlier, he might have saved the time and effort to plane down (up?) the bottoms of the slabs. Of course, that might have cost him an additional hundredweight. The difference in slab thickness might also allow a forklift to get under one slab for lifting during building and assembly.