Materials: Numerar Countertop & Norden Dining Table
Description: I purchased 2 Numerar solid birch countertops and 1 Norden dining table. I cut the width of the countertops down to 22" each side, but cut to the nearest block size. So one ended up about 21.5" and the other was about 22.5" so the seam looked natural. Next I cut the length to 70" to make it comfortable for 2 people to sit on each side. I used a biscuit jointer to glue the 2 halves together to create the full table top.
I cut the ends to a 48" radius. First by cutting the arc with a scroll saw, then finishing the cut with a template and a router. The template is just .188" hardboard, but its much easier to cut and sand the template to a perfect arc and use as a template for the router, than to try to cut a perfect arc on the table. The arc came out flawlessly on both sides.
The countertop come well oiled and I wanted a very light colored top so it took quite a bit of sanding to get all of the oil off the top and bottom.
Once that was done, I pulled the tabletop off the Norden dining table and put the legs onto the bottom of the new table. I needed longer stringers between the legs on 2 sides so I used one of the long cut off sections from the original counter top and sliced it down the middle to get qty 2 - .75" x 2.75" x 57" pieces to replace the short stringers with these long stringers.
I finished the table top off with several thin coats of low gloss tung oil and it looks beautiful, perfect size, nice solid wood quality and for less than $300.
~ Daniel Tagtow, Austin, Texas, USA
