Patterns and colours for table top...

By the wonders of Photoshop, here are some possible planks variants

 lengthwise planks...

weave pattern...

Widthwise planks (my favourite)

Same with simulated staining...

Orangey...

Darker browny

Chocolatey brown...

Making the base for a dining table

Just made the base for the dining table I'm making from reclaimed waste wood and scavenged logs

This is not how it will look. It is the basic mitred rail frame with a base upon which to build up a marquetry top.

The outer rails are some tropical hardwood like mahogany that was one huge thick plank found in a skip. The plank was something like a railway sleeper. 160 cm long, about 38cm wide and about 8cm thick

Here is that chunky piece, about to be ripped down into planks on the table saw

And again from the front perspective. You can see how huge it is.

This is a piece of wood of a quality and scale you don't find often. I've had it about a year waiting to use.

In fact it was so big my table saw was too small to cut it down, even taking two passes top and bottom.

The circular table saw did cuts top and bottom and the rest I had to do by hand. This was exhausting.

Creating the table rails from using mitred mortice and tenon joints

Some time later, I ended up with 4 pieces about 85mm x 30mm. These would form the outer frame rails of the table top.

Here, I'm cutting a mitred tenon.

Cutting the tenon, close up.

Here is the raw mitred tenon after cutting

But that is too long. I wanted the mortice and tenon be hidden and so the tenon needed shortening

Here is the full length tenon before cutting...

And here it is after shortening..

For the mortice, the hole was cut out initially with a router. The waste wood was needed to provide support for the router base. The mitre angle makes it impossible to control the router without it.

There's a load of mortice chisel cutting and cleaning steps missing here, but eventually the two halves end up looking like this. What a beautiful joint....

Another view...

After all that, the two halves came together like this

...to provide a lovely mitre with a solid internal tenon locked into the mortice

A lovely snug fit..

Note the two numbers to show which joint this is. This is important, because there would be four of these to make. The pink number 2 is actually lipstick. This was the only thing that would write on the varnish easily...

Checking the angle was square - all good there...

But of course, this is just one of four corners. Here is the frame with two of the joints connected...

From another angle...

And with all four in place..

Adding a base to go inside the frame...

Once the rails were jointed for the table frame, it was time to fill in the base planks. These are old blockboard library shelves. Here they are being laid out to measure the size for cutting

Once trimmed they look quite smart on their own...

To lock the shelves into the inner edge of the rails, a rebate groove was cut all along the inner edge of each with the router...

The inner rebated edge showing at a corner joint

I splashed out on some rather good value router bits from Toolstation.

The planks were rebated along the edge to fit snugly in the rail grooves...

To fit in like this...

The base boards all in place. This is only dry jointed and is strong enough to pick up without any glue yet in the joints

Trying out decorative finishing planks

These beautiful pieces of wood are thin planks cut from a log found in the wood. It is diseased beech, which creates lovely stripey discolouration in the grain. Some arrangement of these will create the final table surface for decorative loveliness...

 

They will be glued onto the base boards eventually. For now, they are are just being arranged to see how they might be lined up.

Trying them lengthwise.

This is the sort of look that the table will have eventually

Hand woodworking is very enjoyable. Here are some of the tools needed...

Dining table designs

I'm starting thinking about making a new dining table. What a damn good excuse to wander the V&A staring at tables and benches

This one is a visitor bench, using a dual pedestal support

Not a table, but some lovely planks and decorative steelwork in a nice old door

mmm... planks...

Another dual pedestal mount. I WON'T be making anything this ornate.

Pedestal with a central beam and two decorative uprights...

Lovely carving...

A more traditional base with four legs and some bolstering rails...

This one has SIX legs and rails between them...

The same idea, but four legs...

But back on the single central rail idea - the end rails in this case are curved in.

This is nuts...

Also, so is this...

I like the idea of a shelf...

This one has a rail, but some elements of splayed feet for stability. Looks like iron, but it's ebony

Octagonal table with eight legs

Arts and Craft version..

Solid...

You work with what you've got

Anyway, you can't make a table without wood. Here's what I have accumulated so far. Some from scavenged logs, some reclaimed.

Some tropical hardwoods, some oak and some lovely wavy beech, stained with rot of some type. These thick planks were hewn from a log usign my chainsaw

And after all that looking at table bases, it was time to chill out and get drawing to get ideas clearer in the head...

Trestley...

Various bases and table tops

More bases and trestle ends

And possibly marquetry patterns...