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This table top relied on horizontal boring to place two steel rods between each cookie (i.e. cross-section) and two or three neighboring cookies. The steel rods were parallel and in the same plane. After final mounting, the pins were hidden by judicious placement and gluing of bark fragments. Could not have made this without the shopsmith horizontal boring capability.


Before adding glass top
hiding the steel rods
after adding the glass top
Base is aluminum tubing welded by a local metal craftsman, Art Ballard (http://www.artsworkunlimited.com)

Very Nice work.

WOW!!!!!!!

Yeah, wow!

What they said!

What made the common thickness possible?

Howcome threaded rod vs unthreaded?

Reminds me of a certain table made from model 10 parts.

Good job!!!

Hope the bark stays attached.

I made a router sled to adjust the thickness of all cookies to 1.75 in.


Threaded rod was used to ensure that the epoxy would adequately hold the metal rods. Although the threaded rod was sufficient to maintain the planarity of the short dimension it turned out to be insufficient over the full table length.

So a 1/8 in steel plate was cut by water jet to outline the shape of the cookies. The steel plate self-deflects enough to be unacceptably nonplanar, so it is screwed (100 screws) to the cookies with adhesive (3M 5200) and the steel plate reinforces the steel rods at junctions between cookies. Additionally the steel plate provides secure attachment to the table base. Thus the table top is essentially a combination beam comprised of the cookies joined by the rods and underlaid with steel, all being need for planarity and rigidity. The result is sufficient flat enough that your gravy does not run to one side of the plate.

GEC,

Beautiful Table. Submit this one to Shopsmith.

Great example of what can be done using a Shopsmith that is hard to duplicate with other tools.

Nice job. How did you align and secure the wooden cookies during horizontal boring to ensure the holes matched up correctly?

GEC wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 12:00 pm So a 1/8 in steel plate was cut by water jet to outline the shape of the cookies.

I can't see the edges of the 1/8" steel backing in your photos. How much connecting steel did you leave between the cookies?

All the cookies were laid out to the best rectangular arrangement (distributed evenly for size and symmetry - 26 different tries!) and 2in painter's tape placed across the joints to be drilled. The tape was marked with two lines for the best position of the steel rods. Then the cookies were placed on the main table of the Mark 500, one mark on the tape aligned with the drill bit and then the cookie was securely clamped to the table. After drilling the first hole, I used a homemade jig to ensure the second hole was parallel and at a fixed distance relative to the first hole and at the same vertical position. I should have taken pictures of this step.


Here is a photo just before the glue up that shows the marked tape.


To reduce weight, the steel was minimized by outlining the cookies: