Here, I have pictures of, at this point in my career, what I believe to be the best and probably most creative pieces I've designed and built. I built two of these tables almost two years ago as Christmas gifts for my mom and dad. The bases are made completely of solid Pacific Coast Maple (PCM) and the tops are made of three pieces of Hard Maple plywood framed and interspliced with more pieces of solid PCM. This first picture is of the top, of course. I'm not totally sure (because I only have very crude preliminary sketches) but I believe the equilateral triangle making up the top is about 18" across each side.
This view gives you a low level perspective of the understructure which is made up of three scalene triangles joined in the center. Actually, if you want to get technical, the insides of the legs are triangles and the outsides are trapezoids. I guess if you really wanted to get into it, this table could be a study of polygons. There are triangles, trapezoids, rectangles, and hexagons.
Another perspective, looking down and giving relative sizing with the two chairs in the picture. I call it a lamp table because it's a little taller than say an end table. Here in my mom's house, at the time these pictures were taken it was being used as a display table for some antique cameras.
A little bit of detail regarding the center "pedestal." I was messing about in the shop one day and made a similar shape with some redwood scraps and birch plywood. Inspired, it was modified (in my head) and I came up with this bit of work, two hexagons made up of six equilateral triangles each and then framed with three panels on every other side. The hexagons are mortised and tenoned into the panels and then the legs are mortised and tenoned into the other sides of the panels. There actually isn't one bit of any kind of metal fastener anywhere in the pieces. To give an idea of size, the triangles that make up the hexagons are probably about an inch across each side, maybe a little bit more. It was definitely a trick trying to get them all the same exact size (or thereabouts).
One more detail showing one of the corners on the legs. All of the top and bottom corners are like this. The particular name of the joint is eluding me right now but you might liken it to an exposed or open-ended mortise and tenon. It's also slightly similar to a lap joint but not quite.What I really like about this table is that nearly all, if not every bit, of the weight put on top is transfered directly down the outside of the legs, so all that jazz in the middle is really only offering torsional and shear support. Other than that, it was a study in joinery for me and I think a great decoritive touch on what otherwise would have been much to fancy a top for three straight legs, in my humble opinion.
If I ever make any more, they're going to cost you. I probably dropped 60-80 hours into each one of these babies.
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6 comments:
60-80 hours each? Is that a lot?
Just kidding. Seriously though, awesome tables. I wonder what a large hexagonal table incorporating six tops like the ones on these tables would look like. You'd probably have to come up with a different leg design though.
It's interesting to see folks react to this amazing table. It always gathers interest, and when we tell about how it is constructed most folk are speechless. Literally. Nothing to say as it's so far out of the ordinary that I think people have no frame of reference for it and so no idea how to respond to it. It get praise, no doubt, but is rather alien to the average person with it's exotic woods and construction and radical modernist look.
I actually have a preliminary sketch of said table, Michael. The legs are slightly different but in the same vein. I did a whole dining set in which the backs of the chairs, the seats, and the legs are all designed around that triangle motiff. I looked at it the other day after having set it aside for a while and have been meaning the hash it out a little bit more.
Heath, it's actually an interesting piece for me because most of my sketches from that point on have moved a little more in the conservative direction although maintaining a more modern look than pieces from earlier periods. I really like angular designs and they continue to permeate several of my sketches but they become difficult bits of furniture for people to fit into their decor, as I'm sure both owners of these two tables are aware of.
I love this table. I want one. Christmas is coming. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...
;)
Thanks.
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