An interesting commission. The original table was designed by architect Joseph N Campitelli. It was originally built from plywood, metal and laminate. The challenge was to build the table in solid walnut for a residential application and allow for wood movement while still being structurally sound.

I decided to make an interior plywood box to sit in the metal table base similar to the construction of the original table, I would then cover the box with a sleeve of solid walnut, secured at the top, but free to move up and down over the box like an accordion to accommodate the natural movement of the wood.

The plywood pieces had to be pre-cut to accommodate the gussets and also allow for anchoring bolts to fit inside the metal base.

A view inside the metal base.

The side pieces cut and fitted.

The interior support pieces of the box were located to anchor the metal brackets which supported the top.

The box glue up.

Both boxes sitting nicely in the base.

Metal plates were screwed to the outside of each box. The steel plates accept the pressure of retaining bolts tying the boxes into the metal bases.

The lumber arrives.

Gluing up the base cover in three sections.

The sections are cleaned and thicknessed ready to be glued together.

The three sections are glued together.

The clamps come off and the box is cleaned up.

The inside of the box is scraped clean.

The walnut cover fit perfectly over the plywood box.

A simple jig guides a router for cutting the grooves to accept the metal top supports.

Testing the fit of the first metal top support. The rest of the cuts were made and then the base was put aside until later for clean-up and finishing.

Time to start working on the top. The Initial breakout of material for the almost eleven foot top.

The pieces were trimmed to length and marked for width.

The customer came to the shop to choose the sequence of the boards.

A careful process of first jointing and then thicknessing the boards. No mean feat on a small 16 inch combination machine.

The boards are edge jointed and ripped to uniform width.

The boards were glued up in pairs. They were still oversized in thickness so they could be planed to final size after the initial glue-up.

The top laid out without clamps. I remember the largest gap being only 1/16”.

A single clamp easily pulls the top together. A big relief!

The outside boards are mitred for a return under the top.

Biscuiting the mitres.

The glue-up involved clamps and packing tape.

The mitres turned out great.

Gluing up the top. I used floating tenons to align the surfaces.

The table is flipped over and the returns glued on.

The table is cleaned up and ready for the end sections to be filled in.

A tough glue-up. The pieces were eight inches long to match the side returns, They were of varying width and had to be pre-fitted carefully.

Both ends filled in ready for cleanup and trimming.

The ends are trimmed with a track saw from both sides. The top was four inches thick.

I had to use a handsaw inherited from my grandfather to finish off the cut.

The ends look pretty good.

I cleaned the inside with a router using the longest bit I had.

Next the filler pieces for the metal top supports were located. These could only be screwed in place to allow the top to move. The top was 40 inches wide so I anticipated a fair bit of movement.

The top all cleaned up and sanded.

Wrapped and ready to go to the finisher.