Shopsmith Forums

I recently purchased a maple slab to build into a coffee table. The slab is a little undersized, and I would appreciate ideas as to how to give the slab additional size and heft. In particular, I would like to add to the long dimension of the slab.

Would mounting the slab on top of a flat base (of wood, possibly maple, but probably contrasting in color to some extent to highlight the slab) make sense? One of the problems is that I want to use it as a coffee table in front of a couch, so it would be best to have a more-or-less even top surface (to hold drinks, snacks, etc.), and to do that, I would have to recess the slab into the larger base so that the top surface would be level.

Any ideas as to what kind of base might work?

Is there a good online resource of photos of tables that I could review?

Thanks for any assistance.

Hank

I think that's going to be hard. My first suggestion is breadboard ends. But, that's only going to add a couple of inches or so.

Maybe you could cut the maple in half and insert a large "double-ended breadboard" between the two pieces of maple. That way the whole thing is still symmetrical.

I love Matt Downer's stuff. Check out his Desk & Tables gallery and see if it gives you any ideas.

http://mattdownerdesigns.com/desks-tables/

A pic of your slab might help us come up with ideas. Is it live/natural edge?

If you wish to keep the long ends of the table shaped by your slab, Dave Bodner's Idea is excellent. If your slab is over an inch thick, it won't need any additional base support after inserting a center piece.

Bread board style of the insert is recommended, as it will have several tenons - one is glued and pegged, the others are pegged through the tenons which have elongated peg holes.

I spotted these pictures of live edge tables on UsedVictoria.com, (kind of like Craigslist).

Fill the middle in some contrast always looks good, but modern. Glass even more so. Even cut somewhere in the middle, preferably at an angle, and just space the pieces apart. Saw a dude cut and space, then fill with epoxy and LED's, very Tron.
Just post up the progress.

Did I miss something, and just reread the original Post, he wants to make the slab longer for sure and some width I think?

Thanks to all, for lots of good ideas, but I did not make myself clear. Here is an image of the slab, which is amazingly close to a map of Montana, where I spend part of the year: I do not want to cut or otherwise change the perimeter or dimensions of the slab, so splitting/cutting the slab and the breadboard ideas will not work for me. The 2 1/2' dimension is the one I would like to extend somehow to make it more usable as a coffee table.

Here is a slab with a live edge surround (that would increase the outside dimensions), but I do not know how to deal with the irregular 4th side of my slab (the western border of Montana side of the slab): Any other thoughts on how to use my slab as a coffee table?

Thanks.

Hank

I still think the glass would work. If you cut it at about the 1' mark on the 2 1/2' side and put an inset of glass or a contrasting type of wood. This would allow the odd shaped end to be the actual edge of the table.

An other option would be make a mold and use a polyester resin to fill in the area around the slab to make it the size you want. http://www.stacklab.ca/#/portfolio/square-cut-burl/

How about going with an intentionally asymmetric look? You could join another slab to the square-cut end (in a contrasting wood, if you like), to extend the length however much you wish. I just wouldn't make it half-and half. Maybe try the "golden ratio". I'm thinking some massive dovetails or box joints for the joinery ... that would add a lot of visual interest. Or a butt joint with butterflies top and bottom .. you can do those with a router. But first, I'd recut that end at a slight angle, or better yet a curve.

If you want it wider as well, add full-length strips to each side. But since we're doing asymmetric, I'd probably make those different widths. They would make the fancy slab joinery unnecessary, structurally at least.

Then finish it off with an asymmetric understructure. The pic below might give you some ideas on that.