In this first post I will share a bit about my recent effort to build an outdoor table from Ipe. This table replaces a red cedar table that succumbed to wood rot after sitting in the elements for 25 years. As you can see from the photo on the furniture page, some of my deck boards have had to be replaced also. While another cedar table would have easily outlived me, I decided to do something of heirloom quality and distinctive. After some research I chose a wood called Ipe which grows in South and Central America and is regularly used for boat decking because of its resistance to weather conditions.
I did a rough estimate of the amount of board feet I would need and ordered 2 twenty board foot bundles from Woodworkers Source. When buying wood in bundles you get a better price by taking random sizes selected by the vendor. I developed my final design based on the actual sizes of the boards I received. Most of the boards in the shipment were six foot long and 7.5 to 8 inches wide. One was almost 11 inches wide and that board became the center piece for the table top with two narrower boards on either side. Some of the boards had slight cupping so I decided that, rather than ripping them (cutting them lengthwise) and regluing to flatten the boards, I would do a slight bevel on the top edges of the boards creating a v-groove at the joint line that would hide any slight mismatch between the boards. To add some interest to the center board I created arcs away from the center hole using a Dremel rotary tool mounted in a Veritas Plunge Base. Ipe is a very dense, hard, and heavy wood unlike any I had ever used before. Ipe cuts beautifully with carbide saw blades but flattening a surface with a plane is another story. My power plane couldn’t handle it. When gluing the boards for the legs I tried to be as precise as possible so I only needed a sander to smooth things out. I used my Festool Domino machine with Sipo Dominos to join the legs to the aprons and to edge glue the top. Dominos are chunks of wood inserted into slots in adjoining pieces of wood to strengthen the glue joint. The Dominos used in this table are made of Sipo which is a rot resistant wood in the mahogany family from Africa.
Ipe is a beautiful dark brown color which untreated and exposed to weather will turn gray with time. I am hoping to delay the weathering by using Penofin 550 Marine oil as the finish. The resulting table is so heavy that it took five people to move it from my garage to the rear deck of our house. I am very pleased with the table and will be interested in seeing how it holds up to the elements.
Ed