Part 1- the concept

The Pastor’s Table or I Think My Sister Is Trying To Buy My Way Into Heaven - 

(borrowing a title concept from Rocky and Bullwinkle)

Part 1:

I think my sister believes my past transgression’s slate can be, at least in part, wiped clean by building furniture for the church she attends. The latest installment is a kitchen island/work table for the church’s kitchen.

The pastor emailed me a picture of a table he thought would work but wanted something larger and with slightly different construction techniques.

Using Sketchup and the free Sketchup viewer, we worked through the major details of the build and ended up with this concept-

He chose to use poplar for the frame (which would be painted), soft maple for the two shelves (polyed) and hard maple for the top (oil/bee’s wax). The overall dimensions were 72” long x 30” wide x 36” tall. The top was to be made as a butcher block style using edge grain (rather than end grain) and 1.5” thick. He also wanted the top pieces to be random lengths scattered through the field. We originally thought about 1” “wide” field pieces but then went with approximately 1.5” wide pieces. That reduced the overall number of strips across the top. The legs were a full 4” square glue ups. All of the frame joints are mortice and tenons. The only hardware used was to secure the top to the frame (lag bolts/washers) and the shelves to the stretchers (wood screws/washers).

As the build progressed, it became obvious this could be another china cupboard fiasco. The final assembly would have to take place outside of the basement shop.

So… if you are up to it, follow along…