Solid maple topper (1 Viewer)

T_Chan

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I'm very excited about this table as it has a solid finger jointed maple wood dining table cover. Even the skirting around the dining cover is solid maple as well. The pedestal legs are maple as well, all stained ebony black.

The table itself is a little small, 44"x74". I guess his man cave is a mini man cave. It's got a custom printed cloth with a 1" tall brushed aluminum raised rail. 8 jumbo s/s cup holders in the rail and of course the dining table cover.











And here's the table in it's new home. No dining cover pics though :(
I think he needs to upgrade his chairs at a later time.





 
Looks great! Did that stain out as light as the pic, I used ebony once and it came out a lot darker. Granted it was pine, so that probably had something to do with it. I really like that color, love maple too. Did you make the feet?

As always excellent craftsmanship.
 
Did you steam bend the skirting? I was expecting a blond table. The dark stain is interesting. Do you find the maple takes the stain especially well compared to cherry or oak?

I think he can add some more hockey to the basement, sticks on the wall or something. You Canadians don't know when to stop.
 
wish my game grew enough to have an excuse to buy one of your tables.

as always, classic
 
I wanted to steam bend the skirting but decided to kerf cut it instead. I may dab in steam bending in the near future.

The ebony stain doesn't usually stain very dark unless I use 3 or more coats. I've used ebony stain on birch, oak, maple and mahogany and it usually takes a few coats to get a deep color. On this table, I applied 2 coats to the dining cover and 3 coats to the legs. I used wood conditioner before staining to make sure I got a nice even stain. Solid wood can have a tendency to blotch without it. I find that Oak takes stain really well. The maple was closer to cherry which doesn't stain as nicely. He wanted the stain somewhat dark to match his cabinets.

I didn't make the feet, I ordered those unstained and then applied the stain and polyurethane.

And thanks.
 
Craftsmanship is top notch of course. Very well done sir.

Curious...do you ever use the spray poly? Polying anything with detail (like the legs) causes me such headaches with drips. I just recently noticed they have poly in a spray can, and I assume this would be easier for this type of application? I wonder about the coverage though.
 
I used to apply poly with a foam scraps but I found that it was too time consuming. I now spray all of my polyurethane with at least 3 coats. A first light coat which raises the grain, I then sand it down and then apply 2 more thick coats with a final sand working up to 2000 grit sandpaper.

I use a paint sprayer though, the Titan Flex Spray system which shoots fully concentrated poly. I don't have to dilute it at all. The sprayable poly that comes in aerosol cans I think is diluted.
 
You ever try a wipe-on poly? They sell pre-thinned, but you can make it yourself with 50/50 poly/mineral spirits. It takes more coats, but has a good reputation for being forgiving.
 
That's what I used to use. Very easy to apply but it takes like 7 coats to get a decent amount of poly on anything. You should give that a try for your next project 72o
 
I wanted to steam bend the skirting but decided to kerf cut it instead. I may dab in steam bending in the near future.

The ebony stain doesn't usually stain very dark unless I use 3 or more coats. I've used ebony stain on birch, oak, maple and mahogany and it usually takes a few coats to get a deep color. On this table, I applied 2 coats to the dining cover and 3 coats to the legs. I used wood conditioner before staining to make sure I got a nice even stain. Solid wood can have a tendency to blotch without it. I find that Oak takes stain really well. The maple was closer to cherry which doesn't stain as nicely. He wanted the stain somewhat dark to match his cabinets.

I didn't make the feet, I ordered those unstained and then applied the stain and polyurethane.

And thanks.

That's Ebony stain? I just applied my first coat to the table I am building and it is way darker. It is a birch ply though.

Looks awesome as always!
 
Very nice! Looks great in the space! I see why you used the black stain, it looks nice with the cabinets and stuff. Maple furniture, always looks awesome and this is a one-of-a-kind.
 
Awesome work as usual, Tony. I understand owner's choice of stain, but detracts from awesome maple imo. Would have been stunning natural grain and been a centerpiece.
 
I absolutely agree with you courage. With a solid wood top, I always encourage my customers to go with just a polyurethane finish with maybe an oil rub first to bring out the grain. These wood pieces are a real thing of beauty without any stain at all.
 
Even the skirting around the dining cover is solid maple as well.

Hey thinking about making a cover for my table, how in the world do you go about making the skirt? Seems like you'd need to steam the boards and jig them into shape. IDK.
Any ideas on other ways to do this?




 
No steam bending, although I'd like to start doing that in the future.

I kerf cut the curved pieces at the ends. Small cuts 90% of the way through the maple spaced 1/2" apart so that the wood can bend.
 
No steam bending, although I'd like to start doing that in the future.

I kerf cut the curved pieces at the ends. Small cuts 90% of the way through the maple spaced 1/2" apart so that the wood can bend.
nice, do you fill the cuts after with glue/filler?

Also how thick of wood and what thickness of blade are you using?
 
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I don't bother filling the cuts. I've never had any complaints. I'll go the extra mile and stain & poly the underside of poker tables even though they're not seen, but filling the inside of a kerf cut dining table cover is overkill.

I normally use 3/4" plywood for skirting however for this table I used 1/2" solid maple. I use a circular saw to cut the kerfs with a regular blade.
 
Thanks a lot. I will have to try this out.

BTW, Sorry pokertableforum didn't work out. I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot. Thank you for all your work keeping it going for a long as it did.
 

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