Well, OK, we finished up the 26 x 9 table on Friday. It took a lot of people and a lot of steps and processes and, when it was done, I was disappointed to find that it almost looked easy ... except when you stop to think about it ... The pieces were made in my shop and then assembled in my garage on temporary bases while the real bases were being fabricated in Steve Holmans shop down the road. I had no place to easily set up either table in my shop while it was pretty easy to clean out my garage ... We did set the 20 foot table up (below) in Steves shop (after moving two tools and disassembling part of his dust collection system) on its real base to check it and then reassembled it one more time here to check the final fit when we received all the cut granite pieces and fitted the center pieces. Whew .. just writing about his one is a lot of work .... Step by step we go .... click the pictures to enlarge them ..
This is the 20 table ... This previous post is all about that one ... Theres a video of Trevor doing a stroll around the table here ...
The base pieces for the 20 foot table in the finishing process ... 
Ok ... back at the garage where we disassembled the top of the 26 table from its temporary base,
Swept the floor ...
Brought in the real base parts
Assembled those and leveled them up ..
Added the steel ...
Next, we reinstalled the mdf top pieces and faired the curves and tops of the curved cherry moldings. This assured us that the notches for the steel in the otriggers, and the 56 holes tapped in the 14 piece of steel ( 7 different lengths) lined up with the 56 countersunk holes in the mdf top pieces and that everything would fit and tighten up, and once it gets to its final home, things will go together smoothly. We decided early on that neither table would be assembled after the parts were finished until it reaches its final destination ... As you can see above, there are a LOT of pieces and its alchoices risky to move things like that around ....
Ready for the granite and panels.. You can see the bolts in this photo. Those bolts were integral to the engineering and support of the cantilevered granite pieces ...
14 of the 18, 2 x 44.6" pieces of granite in place here
All in .. all fitted ... There are 32 places where at least four points come together and line up with other points on the table ... 1 of the 32 places below .. two cherry, two granite and a center panel
By the end of the day Friday ... all the parts that needed veneering and finishing were at Steves and I was left with a half empty garage and 5 carts with 28 pieces of granite .... party time !!!There are several other earlier posts so that you can get the whole feel for the process HERE and HERE.
Here we are (again) working 
Were still on the temporary base here, and Steve is working on the real base in his shop just down the road ... Were planning to assemble the whole thing, granite and all, at least once here in my garage before we ship it all to New Jersey, along with its smaller (8x 20) cousin that we started work on yesterday.
Yesterday, we assembled the temporary base for the 20 table in the adjoining bay of my garage and Trevor started cutting the mdf parts for that project ... If I built these all the time, we would definitely need a MUCH bigger shop.
This one is 
Yesterday, Herb Johnson of Johnson Marble and Granite, of Proctor, Vermont came to get the first five granite templates. Thats his shop above. Herb has done much stone work for me in the past including the marble vanity top in this post, and all of the marble tops on this page here.
a quick turnaround on this one ... i wrote a blog post on the table below back in january, and a couple of weeks later ... bingo, we received a new order for a similar, smaller, simpler, fixed size version ... the power of the internet ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
this was a challenging and complex project with lots of details to work out ... the inlays, the expanding part, the curved crisscrossing thing, but the new version was a delight ... it wasnt so long ago that we had lost the drawings or forgotten the steps to make it, so trevor went about it in exactly the same choice as last time. after scaling the drawing down in our cad program, he scaled down the size of the elements, made new patterns and proceeded exactly as before, without the leaves and the inlays ... he cruised through this one ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
the 64" version
rescaled to 52"
as before, he started working on the base in the upside down position, which yielded this interesting shape id like to do something with sometime ... glass top? ... larger round top? i dont know ...something ... 
on its feet; add a top, and pack it off to the finish room ..
ta dah ...
our standard antique walnut finish ...
Heres the cad drawing ... The top is divided into seven sections with a 2" cherry border on the outside edges, around a 24" band of black granite, with veneered curly maple center sections. There will be a bunch of flip up power and data ports in the center sections. As you can see from the drawing, there will be some engineering involved to support the cantilevered stone. The base will break down into about 10 separate boxes for shipping and assembly on site. Weve opted to use 1.5" x 2.5" rectangular steel tubing with 1/4" walls to support the granite. Wed probably prefer to use something taller, like 4", but than we get into a bump your knees issue. We wouldnt want that, for sure. Anychoice, weve done a couple of tests and we think it will be ok. Well know more when we get the actual steel from Melansons next week. We cant cut the steep angles easily with either of our saws.
The steel has to be cut on a 67.5 degree angle like the timberstrand in the temporary working base above that we set up in the drivechoice ... Its hard to see, but the lengths of the steel pieces follow the curve of the table top. Thats the base for 
Trevor and Sam sitting at the end section ... you can see about half of the 44.5" wide second section in this photo too ... Its seven feet across the narrow end where they are sitting and curves out to 9 in the middle ...
Here weve assembled two of the middle sections on the table saws to check Trevors routing for the Norse connectors and some plywood butterflies well use to level the surfaces of the table where they butt together ...
There are a lot of operations to get this thing into shape ... Plus, only one section is less then 8 so we have to index the pieces, cut one end, and then shift them 18" to cut the other end on the cnc. That, actually, worked really slick.
Heres the view of the boys from the halfchoice point ... The raised sections are templates for the granite cutter ... 
This is the drawing for the second table in the commission, a somewhat smaller 8 x 20, 5 piece table ... same deal, different dimensions ...
we trucked our new slabs to berkshire products last week to ahve them sanded. many hundreds of dollars later, we can really see what they will be like ... theyre not numbered the same as before, but you get the idea ... i think ill let them speak for themselves ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
theres a fine desk in here i think
aka, the goat faced slab 
#5 in the photos below ... not bad ...
really not bad at all ...
funky one ...
and below is the original post ...
well, this one looks like its going to be a beauty. the next time you see it, it will be more obvious, but i can tell you now that this piece of timber is pretty spectacular. its slab #2 above. true, its got some minor issues, but ooh lah lah, it looks like there is some fantastic stuff hidden in that roughness. it will make a great coffee or center table, and its available to be transformed and delivered soon to you. lots of other claro walnut ideas to consider in this recent post. click the photos below to enlarge them.
i purchased these 4 new smaller slabs from my supplier, goodhope hardwoods, while shopping for the piece above that i purchased for a new client in new york city. its going to be a 10 foot dining table. its hard to see here, but its covered in curly figure from one end to the other .. i hope to start working it up later this week.
crazy !!
i also purchased these three medium sized slabs and it looks like number 3 or #1 will make a really nice desk. a few years back, we made this mango wood desk, and ever since, ive been meaning to do another along those lines as a spec piece. im working with the director of exhibitions at the guilford, vermont welcome center on route 91 and hope to show some pieces there this summer. nothing like a claro walnut desk to grab some eyeballs.
i just realized i forgot to photograph slab #2, but ill get on that tomorrow.
and ive still got this last piece from the previous set. it is literally in two pieces, cracked from end to end, but is hanging on the wall with steel tube stiffeners for now ... i can see a nice curved, end to end set of butterflies, big to small to big again, reconnecting the two pieces into one fine dining table. its about 45 x 90 x 1.375 thick. great figure hiding in there too. its the next one in the log from the one below .. nice ..
in case you are wondering if i robbed a bank to buy this wood, theres an explanation having to do with our recent show at the southern vermont arts center. we had, as ed sullivan used to say, "a really good show" ... it comes down this tuesday.
