Salon table wood recommendations

[Timm R Oday25]

Our salon table is no overdue for an upgrade . I'm confident in my skills as a woodworker . Where I am stuck is in what wood would best serve

the purpose . Being a model from 1981 , there is a not a great deal of natural lighting .

The lighter woods , Maple, Ash, Poplardon'tseem to have much grain to show .

Red oak seems done to death . Mahogany seems to be my only locally available choice.

Is there a wood that might work better ? Thank you

[Riley Smith]

With aged eyes I have revised my preference to lighter woods. Have you thought about cypress? Getting some grain also might be a problem there but it finishes really fine. It IS relatively soft and will dent. And split. Has held up for a long time on a vanity top I made though.

[Frank B.]

As an experienced woodworker who has worked with all of the above mentioned species, I have a preference for Cherry.  it is relatively tight grained, hard enough to not dent easily, but soft enough to be easy on tools.  I've finished it with an eleven step lacquer based finish which gives it a not brand new look if you know what that means.  But more recently I've used just a high quality water based polyurethane without any stain, that does not amber the natural color of the wood.  I really like it.  I've also used walnut with that same finish and really like it. 

The Oaks are a little tough to deal with on a big surface project because of the grain fill required.

Poplar and soft maple (you can get it soft which I think is sap wood portion) will dent to easily for a table.

Understand that the finish I've mentioned will produce the lightest version of any wood you choose, but all of them will darken over time with exposure to light.

[Chris Muthig]

I love cherry as well, you could also do the holly/teak marine ply, I like that look.  I've been looking for holly/teak, it's quite expensive.  I'm hoping someone with a huge stash of it lists it on marketplace, and I can get a sheet of it cheaper.  I built my rudder stock and blade on my 17' siren out of butternut, I really liked how that came out.  I also used Padauk for my winch step, that's a great wood, but if you sand it alot, you come out looking like you murdered a cheeto.

[Frank B.]

Here is an example of Cherry that has only had water based poly, no stainYou cannot view this attachment..  It is a corner cabinet for the Mexico Beach Hurricane Michael rebuild back in 2020. 

You cannot view this attachment.

[Frank B.]

For contrast, this is the same batch of cherry with the 11 step lacquer based finish which includes stains, toners, dry brushing, sealers and final finishes.  Sounds like a lot but because it is lacquer based it can be done in a long day.  For a table top I would never recommend lacquer or plain varnish, poly is much more durable and won't soften from washing it down with a soapy rag.You cannot view this attachment.

[Timm R Oday25]

Thank you for giving me your thoughts and opinions on this . Luckily for me cost isn't an issue . Especially when I only need 5 square feet

[Riley Smith]

Oh, well if THAT be the case what you need is a mirror-polished stainless steel edition. It just so happens that I am well equipped for that venture and will do what I can for you at a greatly discounted price! Be sure and submit the down payment to allow me to get that TIG machine I've been mooning over.

Actually, I'd LOVE to build one. Just need that TIG rig. At the last place I worked I saw several examples of finely finished metal. That's when it is fun, making something BEAUTIFUL. Even if it is within the constraints of a machine.

And yes, I've been nosing around the TIG rigs again.

[Timm R Oday25]

Riley ,I have lots of stainless steel . More than I will ever use in my lifetime .I also have corrugated aluminum sheets . I have no idea what I am going to with either .I also have several large sheets of Corian .
Wood seems to be the only material that has any warmth or character

[Spot]

There is the possibility of using more than one wood type...an internet search for images of 'wood inlay table top' or 'wood cutting boards' will provide some items for consideration.

Last hardwood piece I made for a boat was a rudder blade from black ash with a medium stain and clear spar urethane. The place I got the wood makes high end wood countertops and the off cuts are very reasonable in cost.

[Riley Smith]

Timm, I have a supply of pipe and a couple of rods. No plate. Sadly the Milwaukee portable bandsaw that I had planned on cutting it with got stolen. I also have a supply of wood too, lifted out from under a few OTHER guys that were getting rid of stuff they realized they would never use. I love wood but I know metal more. After working with stainless exclusively for three years, I get the Jones to weld a bead. TIG welding is precise and controlled and you can make art with it. It isn't really that hard but an expert is readily obvious. There are 10 million hacks and to make stuff like x-ray quality takes some serious knowing. Nowadays there are inverter machines that will do what the old style would do smaller, cheaper, and just as good a quality. I was looking for some beautiful welds on YouTube as an example but kept running into novice geared videos but I'm sure there are some there. One advantage to those inverter machines is the capability to weld aluminum at a fraction of the cost of the old gear. And one factor with that is the ability to take on some boat jobs, as aluminum is way more prevalent than stainless. Anyway, just sort of explaining the mention of the stainless and TIG and all that stuff. Depending on the tax returns, there just might be a new welding machine to be had!!! Then I can weld all over the scrap and be happy as a lark 

[Frank B.]

Boy the answer to the original question for me was in the statement that "I have sheets of Corian"  For a table in a Salon depending on color and pattern, that would be my go to for a top. maybe with wood edging,  When I tried to get some to do my Kitchen remodel I could not without taking Corians installer course which would drive up the cost of the remodel.  I got some Corian "wanta be" solid surface and did it anyway, came out great.  It works easily.

However, the constant battle about kitchens in our household is what a kitchen should be.  It seems that the kitchens of today strive to "Southern Living Beautiful", and I wonder how much cooking actually gets done in them.  I slant toward commercial kitchen functional, and would love to have all stainless work surfaces with inset cutting boards, holes for trash containers under, with all pots, and utensils hanging rather than hiding in the back of a cabinet.  The concession in the remodel was a large hanging pot rack, made from multiple species of wood and copper tubing, so that the most used items were easily at hand.

Yes the search for the welding machine goes on. I've just finished a small extension to my shop, am rearranging things and will set up a portable weld station out the back door.  Just have to make myself comfortable with an inverter that can have a decent capacity and duty cycle with 220V 20amp input.  My experience professionally was with very soft arc Lincoln SAM 400 motor generator machines and I know it won't be that as those days are long gone.

[Spot]

I got myself into a couple of inexpensive 110/220v inverter welding machines off Amazon a few years ago. Don't forget to add the cost of a cart, spares, and gas bottle rental into the purchase plan.

One is MIG and stick, the other is TIG, stick, and plasma.

They work OK but are lacking in documentation. For the MIG I was able to track down a human and a manual, the other I was not able to do either. I ended up getting a manual from the next closest cousin machine from a different brand and it's been enough to run.

I don't think either will do aluminum, they are all DC something-or-another.

If I were to have a do-over I'd make sure that information as far as manuals, tech support, and scores of other satisfied users were on the table and/or save up for one of the more known brands like Lincoln, Miller, Hobart, etc...

[Riley Smith]

On that type of machine, there are LOTS of settings. You have to know which is for what and what it does to the weld. One great thing is spot welding, where you can set the machine to run for a specific amount of time, heat up, purge, dissipate, and go again. You can weld tin-foil if you know what you're doing. ( Well, that's stretching the truth  a LITTLE). Very versatile. I want one of those Miller's I was running awhile back. Water cooled TIG with pulse, precise settings. Button start. I kept messing with that thing and had found a 1/16" collet set up that allows you to use 1/16" diameter tungsten as an electrode. A very tiny little sun to melt metal with!!! Jewelry level!!!

Yeah Spot, I know about the cart and gas. I have a Radio Flyer wagon for it! On some of the MIG they were running in the shop on carbon steel, they were using a mixture. Forgot exactly what it was but has some percentage of an additional gas added to argon. It helped immensely with splatter, which can be a big aggravation and extra work with MIG.

And back on (sorta) the original subject, Frank I love cherry. I had a huge tree fall in Georges and it was situated where I couldn't get to it. Too big to move and too bad to get close to. I managed a couple of limbs and used them in the fire pit and let me tell you that was the best smelling wood in a fire. I mourned the log for a long time because it was almost perfectly straight, no knots for 8-10 ft and about 24" dia. Fine piece of wood gone to waste.

[Frank B.]

With regard to the welder, I'm going to keep it simple, just stick to do small fab and repair work.  While I qualified with GMAW and FCAW, I never used them very much.  Our customers, the oil companies, mostly banned the use of GMAW because a lot of what we did was outside and they did not trust us to protect the shield gas from the wind.  Flux core had just come out and they also didn't trust anything new.  Mostly it had to do with corrosion protection, cold lap, undercut, and significant splatter were all pockets of corrosion that would not hold protective coatings well when offshore. Later we built a small building to prefab sections of pipe inside and they allowed Mig to be used there, but the tie ins on the deck section were still all stick. This is all 45 year old status, I haven't kept up with what happens today.

To bad about the lack of access to the Cherry tree, with that size it probably had mucho bdft of heart wood.