Built a solid Jarrah dining table 2 coffee tables and 10 chairs

Ed.

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Hi guys, these were done quite a few years ago but since I have been putting up build posts of my wood working machines and got asked to see some of my wood project that I have done I thought I will put some up. More to follow.


Moved interstate and sold off my furniture, arrived in Queensland, Australia, so after buying the essentials such as beds, fridge, TV etc. I thought about building a nice solid Jarrah table. Only had minimal tools such as an electric plane, a small power wood saw, a hand saw, a orbital 1/4 sheet sander, a 4" angle grinder and a couple of slash clamps.

Went out a bought a load of Jarrah timber, got the supplier to dress and size them for me and when I moved to a more permanent house decided to build it in the garage. End result was a dining table, 2 small coffee tables, 1 long coffee table and 10 chairs (with 4 of them being spares). It will seat eight but that is getting real cosy!. The table was 2.3m long x 0.97m wide and weighs about 150Kg, had to get a length of the widest timber band sawed by a timber furniture company to make the backs of the chairs, all the timber was 33mm thick and really hard so gave up trying to use a hand saw. (Also went out and bought a jig saw but that was useless as well). The two small coffee tables were basically made from left overs that is why one of the tops was made from 2 pieces of board and the other out of 3.

The true colour of all the tables and chairs is more like the first pic of the dining table but the flash brings out the patterns better, the freshly prepared timber started out much brighter and lighter but over the years it got progressively darker. Probably a chemical reaction to light. The wood is sealed with a polyurethane paint to protect it.

The only thing I wasn't happy with was when I delivered the chairs to an upholsterer as he did a really poor job on them. Will get them recovered in the next year or so , probably with a nice brown, red or creamy velvet or something.

1. Dining table 1 IMG_0846.jpg 2. Dining Table  top IMG_0847.jpg 3. Coffee table long IMG_0849.jpg 4. coffee table small narrower boards IMG_0851.jpg 5. Coffee table wide boards IMG_0855.jpg Joint 1 IMG_0844.jpg Joint 2 IMG_0843.jpg Joint 3 IMG_0842.jpg
 
Ed: Very nicely done. I'm not familiar with Jarrah , it looks like a member of the mohagany family. Is it? I've always appreciated designs that let the wood make a statement. Roger
 
Ed: Very nicely done. I'm not familiar with Jarrah , it looks like a member of the mohagany family. Is it? I've always appreciated designs that let the wood make a statement. Roger

As far as I can tell, Jarrah is a strange variety of Oz stone that somehow has a woodlike grain. Not to be confused with the more metallic hardness of their other woods. :)

On a more serious note, Jarrah is a very dense hardwood quite distinctively hard. High silica content that eats tool edges for lunch. More or less equivalent to Mesquite or some of the desert ironwoods we have in the US. Beautiful wood.
 
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Jarrah is Eucalyptus Marginata, with a density of about 1100kg/m3, grows only in forests in the South West of Western Australia. It is very tough as David mentioned, by the time I had finished building it had destroyed two 4" angle grinders with orbital sanding disc pads on them and also a belt sander as well. It is a very nice wood but does change it's freshly cut colour with age from a reddish hue to a brown one.

Cheers

Ed.






 
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