A quick comment on machinery. I used an 8" PM jointer on this project, but I would have done almost anything for a 12" to 16". Without the big jointer, a special effort was necessary to get the 12"x7' rough sawn boards thru the planer. If anyone wants to sell me an old, wide, Oliver or Porter jointer, my email is at the bottom!
The final flattening of the top was subcontracted out to a service with a +50" (seventy horse power), three head, wide belt sander. It can do 80 grit, 120 grit and 150 grit all in one pass. This is the most efficient and accurate method of surfacing and thicknessing a table top. The curl of the maple necessitated wide belt sanding rather than planing if tear out was to be avoided.
There are some spots on the underside of the top that were left rough sawn because I wanted to keep as much thickness as possible (about 0.9"). All to often, I see students making tens of passes on the jointer and then planing the living daylights out of a set of boards -- only to end up with a 1/2" thick panel from what started out as very nice 4/4 rough sawn stock. You don't always have to joint and plane your boards till they're 100% clean on both sides before gluing up. This is silly. You're going to have to plane or WBsand after you glue up anyway (well, most of the time), so leaving a little scruff on a board is no big deal. The advantage of leaving that scruff there, for newbies that have a hard time gluing up panels with less than 1/32" misalignment, is that you end up with more thickness (after planing) than you would otherwise. Besides, if anyone is foolhardy enough to bend over and examine the underside of that top, a swift boot in the behind will cure them of their curiosity.
The base (see next picture) is also solid curly maple, with the exception of the frame that keeps the top flat.
The finish is straight lacquer, 9 coats. No grain filler was used on the Sapele. Just lots of sanding and spraying. The result is subtly different from wood that's been treated with a paste filler. The open grain of the Sapele retains it's open appearance while the top is still a level, mirror-gloss surface. I prefer this method of filing wood pore if the piece justifies the effort.
The top secures to the base by means of 4 sliding dovetails (pins attached to the table top and tail mortises in the top of the base. You just line everything up and slide the top into place (harder than it sounds though). In the background, you can see the automotive grinder/polisher with wool bonnet -- used to buff out the lacquer top.
The only thing better than doing fine woodworking is doing it with a bunch of guys that are twice as good as yourself.
Foot Note to Keith and Bob, this is proof that I work on practical, stained, low brow projects on occassion. So, I'm not all that high faluting snooty as I sometimes come across.
