• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Show us your dining table

L

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Inspired by Mike’s build thread, it would be interesting to see what others have built.
….. I’ll kick off.
About 40 years ago I built a table for my in laws wedding anniversary. This was under the supervision of my wife’s uncle (an excellent craftsman), it’s made from oak pews rescued from a Methodist church.
The in laws have long gone and it’s now our table, fits nicely in our little bungalow.
 

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I've made two for myself. The first was part of a cherry dining room suite. It was D-ended and split with a butterfly leaf. It sat 6 very comfortably closed and 8 when open. 10 at a pinch and we once had 12, but that was ridiculous. Sadly I don't have any pictures as it was pre-digital.

My current table is in pippy oak, with a painted underframe. It was made to fit in my previous house, but it's OK here, as well.P1070659.JPG

Sorry it's so out of focus. I can't find the project and I know I filmed it, so I must have them somewhere.
The table has two extension leaves that live in the cavity underneath the table top. If you are very bored you can watch it being made here:
S
 
Under construction, 1993. I had no workshop ( used the old table as a bench and dining room for workshop), few tools. American white oak for top and frame, french oak for legs, all bought rough sawn from a timber mill near Shrewsbury.
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No breadboard ends, no lower rails, survived 30 years, 3 house moves and 3 kids and the legs are still rock solid and the table ends have not moved.
At a local craft fair a local woodturning club were showing their wares and kindly put me in touch with one of their members who turned the legs to match some existing chairs I had. A lovely chap who enjoyed the challenge of doing something different. and was quite prepared to do the job for the pleasure. He even made the stepped mortices for me. I eventually persuaded him to take £40.
Rustins medium oak spirit stain all round, top finished with Patina, legs clear PU Varnish
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I made this in 1985 or thereabout. I modeled it after a picture of an English tavern table I saw in Fine Woodworking, but slimmed it down to more of a Shaker style. All the wood came from a single tree. Butternut with butternut and walnut butterfly keys. A first attempt at carving, too. The table has held up well through three cross country moves and a couple of times refinishing the top.

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Edit: the keys and table top have a serendipitous chatoyance that I've always liked.

 
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GaryR said:
Edit: the keys and table top have a serendipitous chatoyance that I've always liked.
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You and me both - beautiful, and well very captured in your video!
 
Not my handiwork, but Danish, solid teak and teak veneers:

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Purchased about 1983 with six solid teak chairs - Rob
 
AndyP said:
Have you never made a table Rob? Is there not a Krenov design that floats your boat.?
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I appreciate the comment Andy and realise that the thread is about stuff wot we've made, but when Mike G posted his Ducal table I thought I might do likewise. In answer to your question, I've made a few small tables but never a full size 'eatery off' type one. Having bought this dining table set, it's lasted well so I see no need to replace it although the chairs need to be reupholstered now.

Years ago when I was teaching, a colleague and I took a party of Yr11 students on a tour of HM Dockyard in Portsmouth. One of the ships we toured was a frigate and whilst on board I noticed that the door to the Officer's Mess had been left open. Inside was another identical dining table with the same chairs... - Rob

Edit - we've munched French macaroons of our table as well!
 
I built this trestle table last year. USA Hard Maple top with a Jarrah base. The table seats 8. The two end chairs were made from the same Maple.





The choice of a trestle table was to maximise leg room. What is different about this table base is that all the sections are oval, in line with the oval sections of the chairs ...








The top of the trestle/underside of the top is reinforced with cross bracing to prevent any twist. This works very well.





Regards from Perth

Derek
 
Here is my ABW table finished in 2024
The chairs are still a work in progress
 

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Bizarrely, I've never made a big table that I've kept. I made one for my ex wife (I didn't know I was making it for her at the time :(...) and taught my son how to make a really big table, and made one that someone promptly made an offer on that I couldn't refuse so I sold it (as my plan was to make another, improved, version).

If I ever retire I might have another go. We could actually do with a table capable of seating 18 extendable to 24. Big job that.
 
Oh how I would love to show you a picture of mine but it's currently inaccessible owing to a few too many boxes etc.
Think rustic!
Imagine a salvaged octagonal oak pub sign post floor to ceiling in the middle of a half timbered room with exposed beam and joists.
At the appropriate height a couple of supports fixed to the side.
Now on those supports are the salvaged 2 inch oak rails and stiles from a pair of pub gates.
This "tabletop" is octagonal to match the post and butted together with unglued broomstick dowels and rough hewn, screwed on bearers underneath.
Seats 4 comfortably, 8 very cosily if you keep your wings in ;):LOL:
Get the picture?
Yes, I used to work on pub maintenance and refubs.
Cheers, Andy
 
Cabinetman said:
Followed this but I didn’t remember what a cool shape the top is, does it seat 6?
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It will seat 8 but you can't keep 8 chairs around it (they won't all push in under the table). We keep 6 chairs around it and have 2 stools to bring it up to 8 when required.

(This is in our kitchen which is a bit space constrained for dining. We're fortunate to have a dining room as well. The dining table (not made by me) can seat 12 or more if I add my dodgy plywood extension! I think we've managed to get 20 around if but you have to be good friends!)
 
duke said:
Love the owls.
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I bought that for my wife. It's a print of a painting by Vic Reeves. He's a surrealist comedian who was very popular in the 1990s and 2000s along with his side kick Bob Mortimer. His real name is Jim Moir.

This is his art website.
 
NickM said:
I bought that for my wife. It's a print of a painting by Vic Reeves. He's a surrealist comedian who was very popular in the 1990s and 2000s along with his side kick Bob Mortimer. His real name is Jim Moir.

This is his art website.
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Carolyn has one of his books of art work. He's a very talented artist.
 
I made this Oak table and 4 chairs a few years ago. The table is obviously a very simple design but the chairs caused me a few headaches, in-particular the angled tenons on the side rails to the seats, but with perseverance they turned out well. (I can't get the picture in the correct position so apologies if you can't see it all.)





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johnward said:
I made this Oak table and 4 chairs a few years ago. The table is obviously a very simple design but the chairs caused me a few headaches, in-particular the angled tenons on the side rails to the seats, but with perseverance they turned out well. (I can't get the picture in the correct position so apologies if you can't see it all.)





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I feel your pain with the chairs. The angles are a bit of a mind bender! Yours look fantastic.
 
NickM said:
I feel your pain with the chairs. The angles are a bit of a mind bender! Yours look fantastic.
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In one of the firms I worked for years ago they had a lad who did nothing but chairs of all denominations. Setting up machinery (morticer etc) to cut these skewed joints was something he did mostly every other day, almost with his eyes shut - Rob
 
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