Legs for Kitchen Table

[Jacob]

Hi All,

As soon as I got my Maslow a few months ago, I decided the first project should be a large farmhouse table to replace the wobbly aluminum and glass one in our apartment.

In my initial sketches, I wanted something geometric and complex, while my wife was leaning towards simple and organic. The criteria was that it should have an arch for strength, and be resistant to wobbling.

My Initial Sketch:

A few revisions later, she drew this and we both really liked it:

I imported her drawing into Illustrator and exported it as a DXF to import into SolidWorks.

After some modeling and a few tweaks, this is the completed design:

I ended up adding a few layers to each leg with a .25"-.45" offset to add rigidity and visual interest to the legs.

And so it was time to assemble the Maslow and start cutting…

I knolled the kit parts in case anyone was wondering what all is in the box.

All assembled – I used some storm door springs for tensioning the chains, and they seem to be working well, but I have some other ideas that are in the works.

After cutting a few more leg pieces, I decided to pick up a cheap 2-in-1 tablet from amazon and mount it to the frame. I used Bar’s tablet holder design and modified it to fit the refurbished tablet:

And here it is all cut and installed:

Now back to the actual project…

I cut out a few of the outer parts of the legs in order to make the most of a failed cut. As I’m using 3/4 birch ply for this, each mistake is potentially a $50 mistake. Needless to say, I’m still pretty nervous with every cut.

Here’s the best fit I’ve found for the leg cuts:

And finally, here is one mostly finished leg stack as of early last week. I only have a few hours a week to work on this project, so progress has been slow to say the least.

If anyone’s interested, I’d be glad to keep you all up to date on the project as I get closer to completion here in the next few weeks. Thanks for reading – and thank you @Bar and @Hannah for all of your incredible work. This project wouldn’t be happening without the Maslow.

[Jayster]

Please do keep us updated! Great work!

[bar]

So cool!!! I’m glad to see another tablet holder out in the wild I think you are the first other person to make one from the garden!

[Jacob]

Is there a good way for me to upload my modified version to your garden post?
If you think there may be others that want a larger tablet holder, that is.

Here’s the dimensions for the modified design:

(Also, one improvement I’ve made to my workflow is to use TeamViewer to remote into the mounted tablet to operate and monitor jobs while they’re cutting.)

[hannah]

Thanks for the great story and photos! Can’t wait to see the finished table!

[bar]

@Jacob

Is there a good way for me to upload my modified version to your garden post?

Yes!! Making a YouTube video for how to do this is on my to-do list. I’m at Makerfaire setting up right now so I don’t have internet to check, but if you click the “source” button on the tablet holder page, there should be an “upload files” button which will let you propose a change to the project.

If that isn’t clear because I haven’t made a video for how yet you could just put the files to add in the forums and I can upload them

[Jacob]

Sounds good, I’ll give it a try this evening. Have fun at Makerfaire!

[Dag83]

Just wondering, aren’t the legs kinda where the human legs go?
I do absolutely love the design though.

[Jacob]

Hi Dag,

Yeah, the pictures aren’t super clear; but the legs are diagonally crossed in the center and are inset about 11" in from the edge of the table top on all sides. That should give enough clearance for our needs, I think?

I’m assembling the leg sections today, so I’ll try and post a picture of them this weekend!

(And thank you!)

[Dag83]

I’m not sure, but it’s allready made, so we’ll know soon enough
great design isn’t always practical, i once saw a chair that won some artsy fartsy prize, and the idea was that it was developed as if humans had evolved with our knees bending the other way.

[Keith]

@Jacob

inset about 18"

is the table top humongous? that’s three feet of clear table before even getting to the legs? Perhaps I am misunderstanding.

but it does look like there’d be enough room to sit around it to me. Maybe you could show a bottom view of your model?

[Jacob]

Hah ,yeah. I’ll upload a dimensional model in the comments here in the next few days, which should make it all clear.

[Jacob]

@Dag83

Just wondering, aren’t the legs kinda where the human legs go?
I do absolutely love the design though.

@Keith

is the table top humongous? that’s three feet of clear table before even getting to the legs? Perhaps I am misunderstanding.

but it does look like there’d be enough room to sit around it to me. Maybe you could show a bottom view of your model?

Hey guys, here’s a basic drawing to give a sense of scale.

I’ve started applying the hot-melt banding to the edges of the legs, and I expect this part of the project will take about a week to mostly complete:

Using a soldering iron to get into the tight corners and a banding iron for the rest.

-JH

[Dag83]

There is a realistic chance that i might steal parts of your design i wanted to make a dining room table with a live edge slab as well, but wasn’t sure about the legs, i love these.

[Jacob]

After I complete the project, I’ll probably be putting parts of it up on the community garden with plans, gcode, etc.
(So I should have some good notes on what to do and what not to do on there, if that would be helpful)

-JH

[ScrumdyBum]

@Dag83

There is a realistic chance that i might steal parts of your design i wanted to make a dining room table with a live edge slab as well, but wasn’t sure about the legs, i love these.

I planned on doing this too with a fake plywood slab. Check out this guys link below!

Plywood Slab Table

[LakeWorthB]

That is a crazy table. I would like to make something like that, but maybe not as much effort to make it look like a real tree. But like the look of the thick table and staining.

[Dag83]

A real slab is a whole lot more easy to make, if the legs can hold it.

[ScrumdyBum]

If you had one of those portable chainsaw mills and a tree.

[mooselake]

I’ve got couple pieces of a 32" diameter white pine that fell in our yard, 5 and 6 feet long. They’re too heavy to move with the equipment available here so I can’t get them to the mill to be turned into slabs. Art school daughter wants them…

They’d go great with the table legs