I had a chance to start working on the dining room table for my client John. He will fabricate a table top made from solid black walnut. The outside edges will be covered with a steel profile to give the top an industrial look and feel. John wanted to have the corners of the top rounded, and this proved to be a great challenge and learning opportunity for me at the same time. Here is the process of fabricating the top frame!
The frame is fabricated from 1 1/2″ by 1 1/2″ steel angle, with a wall thickness of 1/8″. A friend, Dan Pate, has a great piece of metal forming equipment. So I tried this first. The force applied by his shrinker was so strong that it distorted the pieces to a point were I was not able to use them. It was just fun to see the process and to watch Dan use this great piece of equipment.
The next option was to cut several relief cuts into the top of the angle, to be able to easily bend the profile with minimum distortion. After a little CAD time I knew how many cuts I had to make , and the correct increments to end up with a 5″ radius and a 90 degree bend. A little piece of masking tape helped to make the cuts with the correct spacing.
Here is a piece after cutting and ready to be bend.
I started the bending process in my rollbender.
A bar clamp was used to hold the curved corner pieces in their correct shape for tack welding.
Another view!
The corner pieces tacked on the inside.
The inside was welded first.
Then the outside was welded.
After grinding the inside of the profile.
And the outside after grinding the top.
The piece on the right is one of the pieces I welded, to one on the left is one of the pieces made by using the shrinker. The level of distortion was too big for these pieces to be used,
Marking the pieces for cutting to the correct length and angle.
A view from the other side.
Clamping the pieces to my welding table to endure squareness and perfect alignment
From the other side!
Drilling and tapping the straight edges for the decorative bolts.
The two end sections welded and surface finished.
A closeup of one of the bolts.
The whole frame finished and antiqued with a rubbed laquer finish.
