First attempt at making a table top help!

[pault]

So after we took down a 300+ year old Sycamore from a walled off burial garden for the Tait family, which currently holds the bodies of some very high profile individuals (bishop of London in the early 1800`s etc). I took home a disc which i thought would make a nice table top, cut it in two as it was pretty heavy.

I have never made a table top/ coffee table before so i was wondering if anybody could lend me some advice. Such as how to prep the discs, what oils/varnish to use, any treatment required, do i need to let them dry first etc?

Also trying to figure out what sort of legs to put on.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[LeeWill]

Gotta let them dry first, then get the moisture content down to around 8% so it won't warp once u got it sitting in ur home.... for legs I'd use a stump from a smaller tree, bang slap it in the middle like an elephant hoof! Sycamore has a natural colour that isn't seen about nowadays so a clear coating wood be different from the usual. I would speak to a furniture maker about what type of stuff to user tho. Look at my profile pic, I milled this from an ash tree and I'm still working on it, but it's got it's own natural beauty that I am keeping. Best of luck

[nepia]

But won't they crack radially if just left? Not arguing, just asking...

[Big Beech]

didn't know that sycamores grew to such an age ???

 

this wood is a pain to dry. its likely to go mouldy first. then rot.

 

s

[Eddy_t]

didn't know that sycamores grew to such an age ???

 

this wood is a pain to dry. its likely to go mouldy first. then rot.

 

s

 

I've seen huge 6'+ dia sycamores, it's not the years they live that kills them, it's terminal size

 

 

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[shendy]

What would be the best way to dry a ring like that. I've got some beech that's 1.2m di and it would be nice to make a table in the same way but I thought it would just crack and split if it was in a ring.

 

 

Sent from the future.

[agg221]

In my experience, rings split. The best I have come up with for someone who wanted to make a chessboard inlaid into a ring was to saw two rings from next to each other into thirds, radially. Once dry, cut these down to quarters and glue them back together, using a bit from the second ring to make the fourth quarter. They won't line up perfectly, but it will be close and will stop it warping/splitting.

 

Alec

[Rob D]

The ring will always split somewhere - you can minimise this by laminating onto some 1" ply (I screw and glue). Indent the ply around 2" so not so visible.

 

 

It will still split but the ply holds it together. You can then fill the split if necessary when fully dry.

[LeeWill]

Always dry sycamore on it's end, never flat. An old cabinet maker gave me this idea for planks. Never dealt with rings before though.....