Toad Table in Progress

Posted by andy on May 29, 2009 , No comment

This is a picture of my newest belly table. I think it looks like a big toad. It even has a wart on the side.

The table is made from recycled old growth douglas fir beams that I found in a dumpster when I was shopping for a bike at Safety Cycle Shop on North Western Ave. in Hollywood California. The building next to the shop was being renovated by the brother of the man who owned the cycle shop. He donated the wood to me for free. Thank you Safety Cycle!

To make this table I first glued up five of the old beams to form the table top. The beams are joined together with Douglas Fir splines. I then hand planed the top flat with my Grandfather’s # 5 Stanley hand plane. To shape the bottom of the beast I cheated a little and used a CNC mill to carve in the belly. The bottom of the table was modeled for me by my friend Anthony Laguna. He drew this when he was drunk so just imagine what he can do sober. Seriously, he is a very talented craftsman who is currently studying to be an architect. I am extremely grateful for his help. With the files complete we put the top, bottom up, on the CNC mill and let the computer controlled router carve the bottom out. It felt a little like cheating but I figured I earned it since I have been hand carving the bottoms of this style table for years. It took 20 hours to complete carving. The mill is an amazing machine but it is useless unless you know how to use it. I have the extreme luck and honor to work with some of the most talented artist, craftsman, designers and architects in Los Angeles on this project. Without their help, encouragement and skills I could have never created this piece. I would like to thank Daniel Riley, Rodney Rojas, Katsumi Moroi, James Peterson, William Rollins and last but not least Thore Erickson who without their expert help this table would never have come to fruition.

After carving the bottom of the table I cut the two level locking leg mortise with a chisel. This is a joint that I developed in order to add legs to a curved bottom table. Carving the joints takes a long time but in the end I am left with an extremely strong joint that makes the entire table as taught as a drum.

Adding the leg.

Gluing up is one of the most exciting parts of wood working but it can also be nerve racking. After spending a month preparing all of the pieces it is finally time to put them together. It is nice to have another set of hands around to make sure everything is tranquilo. Fortunately, I had the help of Los Angeles Woodworker Ali “cowgirl” Sykes who volunteered her time to help make the whole process go smooth. Thanks Ali!