Figured Elm Coffee Table

[MF1000]

Having finally got my hands on this very interesting book matched..ish slices of figured elm I thought I would document the journey from receipt of the wood to finished project.

Here is the elm as I received it

The elm is 22mm thick but the reverse side isn’t anywhere near flat …..and isnt in its current state suitable for my std method of flattening on my surfacing rig. If I attempted this I would probably end up with a less than 10mm thick slab.

I spent some time yesterday afternoon getting a decent joint line between the two pieces, but with the uneven surfaces this presented problems getting a nice mating surface from the planer/thicknesser.

After a few trials I got a reasonable joint line (bit of a gap at one end ) that allowed me to glue it up secured with a couple of biscuits. This will give me a board dished by around 8mm on the top surface, but I’ve a plan on how to support the slab when built into an approx 650x650mm table top.

 

[Richard_C]

Nice. Good to see you didn't give up, leave a gap, and put a river of lime green and gold flake epoxy down the middle, but I guess you will need something at the gappy end. Will be good to see the next steps and the finished job.

You could just frame it and hang it on the wall for a few months before you turn it into a table. I had a Yew slab that I propped up at the bottom of the stairs for many.months, my 'excuse' was acclimatising but the real reason was I couldn't make up my mind exactly what to do with it.

"What are you doing?" "Sitting on the stairs looking at the yew" "Again?" etc.

 

[MF1000]

One of my friends …ex woodwork teacher suggested it could be wall art too.

 

[mwinfrance]

^^^ agree.

 

[johnnyb]

just a caveat here give it a good soak in woodworm killer. Elm sapwood must taste like fine wine to the worms. damhik

 

[recipio]

A router with a straight edge would probably give you clean edges. I'd use a spiral bit and ' backkrout ' all that wild grain.

 

[MF1000]

A router with a straight edge would probably give you clean edges. I'd use a spiral bit and ' backkrout ' all that wild grain.

I think that’s a good idea to allow a better junction with the resin infil I’m planning to do

 

[MF1000]

progress report on this weekends work……

with the two pieces now jointed I managed to set it up on my surfacing table and get a flat surface on the bottom of the ‘slab’ …the pics below shows the mismatch on the underside.




and on the flatting rig



after removing a couple of mm off the high spots



the slab now sat more evenly but the initial joining left it with a huge valley in the centre which would of resulted in removing 14mm from the edges .

My wife (whose good at visualising stuff) suggested cutting back down the original joint line then planing the joint edges at less than 90 deg to allow the sides to drop .

Some careful cutting on my radial arm saw followed then by finding the best angle on the planer (that initial flattening of the back gave a better surface to run across the fence on the planer) a reasonable joint with a much flatter slab was acheived.




After allowing the joint to set for a couple of hours the elm slab was then levelled on the pine floorboard panel and glued into place to create both a support for the panel and the base for the eventual resin that will infill around the elm.

Letting the whole assembly harden up overnight this morning the plan was to machine the top surface flat …..it took two passes with the router fitted with a three cutter spill board bit, removing approx 8mm to get a nice flat surface.

Then a quick session with the belt sander (60 grit) to remove the inevitable lines from the cutter, then the random orbital sander up to 240 grit gave the pics below









and with a quick wipe over with white spirit the grain was fully revealed

 

[Pabs]

Looks amazing! Like some kind of demonic flayed fig! Can imagine some dark William Blake prose scrawled around it

 

[Adam W.]

Um.....Perhaps I have an overactive imagination, but that looks like an anatomy lesson.

 

[MF1000]

Still a work in progress at the mo …..will probably wait until the spring warmer weather to start on the resin pour aspect.

Lol at the anatomy lesson

 

[Sachakins]

View attachment 169601

Um.....Perhaps I have an overactive imagination, but that looks like an anatomy lesson.

Well, it is a crotch piece after all

 

[Adam W.]

Once seen, never unseen.

 

[clogs]

Adam make sure ur's is dry.....take a look at this.....

here's a fancy table that turned out to be wall art.......