Pronounced "eepay", Ipe is a hard wood commonly used for outdoor decking and furniture. Much like Teak, it is very hard to work with (I broke about 6 drill bits in the process) but sands and finishes beautifully. I got my hands on some over the Christmas break and set out to build a new dinning room table for our house. The wood was originally used for some fencing in a development on the north end of the island, and wasn't needed anymore. I modified a section of the fencing for a better fit in our dining room. We had to sand and plane a lot of it. The hardest thing to do was make the legs. I glued four planks of wood together for each leg and then tapered and routered the corners for a more elegant look. We finished it with Minwax's Clear Gloss Polyurethane... a total of five coats on the top. I think it turned out fantastic and am very happy with my 400+ pound dining room table. We need new chairs now...
Beginning of table, dismantling original fence design
Diligent sander!
Making legs. Each leg weighs approximately 30lbs!
Finished sanding.
Measuring, fitting, cutting and biscuit-joining trim to top.
First coat of polyurethane.AND...... FINISHED!
4 comments:
pretty! but i agree...you need new chairs now:)
Nice job, Ben. Looks good.
But why do you need a table for dinning? Oh... Dining. :)
Looks really good... I'm having a hard time envisioning your old table.... that must be some really dense wood to be so heavy... what's the story on that?
Wow! That's pretty much amazing. I want to make a table!
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