Finishing up the little details... it takes forever!

Remember those old Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective books - 

with titles like - The Case of the Burglared Baseball Cards, or The Case of the Disgusting Sneakers?

This post should be entitled - The Case of the Never Ending Commission!

Not that I'm complaining, but I feel like this coffee table is taking much longer than it should. I've been so busy - building and teaching and vacationing and biking - it's hard to pack everything into a my 168 hour week. I really hope your summer is a little more relaxing than mine!

I prepped some stain samples for my clients, and they stopped by to check out the colors. They're hoping for a close match to the petrified slab, rather than a contrast, and ended up taking the samples home to see how they looked with the rest of their furniture. 

Meanwhile, I had a ton of sanding to do on these curved bases. 

The Festool Rotex made quick work of breaking down those angles, but damn - that sander leaves a ton of swirls that have to be eliminated with each successive sanding grit. Even with the vacuum hooked up to the sander, there was quite a bit of dust in the air. 

I didn't look quite this bad - but close!

The corners of this top still had to be curved, 

so I took an old adjustable curve (one of my favorite drafting tools ever!)  and fashioned  a few curves, until I got a shape that I liked. 

It was interesting (i.e... scary-as-shit!) cutting these curves by myself on the bandsaw, but hey, there are times when you just can't find an extra set of hands around the shop. 

After I sanded them - a little routing was in order. 

And finally - the table is starting to actually look like I envisioned it! (The 60's called - they want their table back!)

These figure-8 fasteners are the perfect way to attach the top, so I predrilled their mortises and mounted them onto the bases. 

This is all you'll see, if you ever peek under the table. Slick and professional, right? 

Sometimes it's a little tough to screw them into place, since they're located so close to the vertical pieces of wood, 

so I used an offset driver to pre drill everything. I swear, I have every do-hickey-tool a person could need in my shop... sometimes the hardest part is finding them!

Everything is ready to assemble, so it's time to start staining the pieces. I'd rather stain everything separately, rather than once it is assembled.  We (they) ended up choosing a Zar stain #118, which was a perfect compliment to this slab. I've used a lot of Minwax stains in the past, but I gotta say - this Zar stain rocks!

I'm almost home....