Originally Posted by
Mark Bolton
I can honestly say if I were building this table for my own use I would likely omit the flat bar cross members too but was just making the point that super freaky stuff can happen when your dealing with the public and its better to be prepared. Anyone selling furniture on the open market will hopefully have a liability policy protecting them but its better to not have to think about relying on it.
I agree with your second post that you have a bunch of options with regards to the leg orientation. I was wondering about an interwoven orientation where the two legs are skewed to a point where the members pass through each other (like a figure 8 so to speak). Could get structuraly complicated.
This steel and slab design is very common in many of the galleries I visit. It would definitely be worth quantifying your costs and see what some shops think they could retail them for. In my experience it tends to get difficult when you put pen to paper but hopefully you post your progress.
Good Luck
Totally agree--if I were selling this, I'd do one cross member between the tops of hte legs, and that would make the base permanently stable on its own.
Definitely some cool possibilities with this design or similar designs that would incorporate interwoven legs. It would be cool to figure out some designs with that in mind.
I don't know if I'll really pursue trying to sell this stuff. Frankly, I'd have to get more equipment to make it feasible. And one issue is that this sucker (if I stuck with this type of size) is h-e-a-v-y. I mean, just the slab is heavy enough that one person can't really pick it up (it's too awkward).
But we'll see.
As for cost, kinda tough to figure with this since it was "scrap" from a larger project. But roughly, the two large Sapele slabs were $1200 total. But that included cutting them to size (36X72 and 46X72), planing, and rough sanding. This was a leftover piece from the thicker and longer slab.
But I'd guess that it's about 1/5th to 1/6th of the wood I bought, so at 1/6 that's $200 for the wood. Maybe $10 for the Waterlox I used on it (a guess) and about $40 for the steel. Virtually nothing for the wax ($.50 maybe?). A few bucks for the welding sticks I used.
So really, about $250 in consumable materials. I'd have to buy a welder and a metal-cutting bandsaw. And if I wanted to work with slabs THIS thick, a table saw (my circular saw won't quite cut 3 inches deep). Of course, I could use slightly thinner slabs.
I really have no idea what this could retail for (assuming the extra cross bar uniting the legs was added).
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I have no idea what I did wrong, but as long as I don't do what I did, I'll be good to go.