How to - Making a cockpit dining table

[Delancey]

Like I said, it's CF and someone has to be the bad guy so figured I'd take one for the team. Red oak really is the worst and has no place on a boat. Period. Didn't say it doesn't look nice.

[Privilege]

Jeeeesh Delancy, did you have a bad experience as a child with a piece of red oak or something?

I used red oak as unlike many other hard woods, it takes well to steaming and bending. Although I disagree that it 'smells like ass', has no place on a boat or is prone to rot, it's immaterial as it is completely incapsulated and waterproof. No offense taken and no offense meant, this is after all the cruisers forum.

I did the design completely by hand with a pencil, a piece of string, a ruler and a knife. I don't have the extra funds to be buying everything so I make what I can. The whole table cost less than $200.

[UNCIVILIZED]

No, I get the playing Devil's Advocate, when such is relevant. And often enough, I take up said role myself.
I just am having trouble seeing the need for such (with such vehemence) here. Especially as the fiddle in question, will never have to bear any structural loads, or do anything tougher than to keep an unattended cocktail from taking a spill.

Plus, as stated, the wood's encapsulated. So if you want ti split hairs, ponder this... Entire Boats, are built of encapsulated Balsa. A FAR less durable wood in the marine environment than Red Oak (sic). Yet it's been in use for these purposes for half a century plus.

To the OP. My hat's off to you, & your drafting skills, plus those which you posess with other tools. Re; creating all of this fully by hand.
I'm an old school draftsman (& "woodsmith"), & know that kind of work goes into such Creations.
- Yes, it is truly an art.

[Delancey]

Here, I put some cute faces so you guys can understand that my remarks aren't intended as a personal attack or meant to rain on anybody's parade. Like ever other responder I think it is an amazing table that is flawlessly executed and finely finished. Everyone happy now?

As for the rest, or those who want to learn something, or possibly avoid making a Boatbuilding 101 mistake in the future, red oak is quite simply not a boat building wood. White oak is. Also, if you want to make barrels for wine or whiskey you would likewise do well to avoid red oak. Go figure.

If the OP wants to use red oak for his table because that's what he had lying around or whatever, that's great. If someone else is considering using red oak to repair or replace a structural component on their boat they would do well to reconsider.

White Oak fun fact - the USS Constitution aka "Old Ironsides" was built with an outer layer of hull planking from white oak and a special grove of trees has been designated to provide wood for it's next refit.

Select NSA Crane Trees to Help Repair 'Old Ironsides'

[Peter200]

I see a mistake - the Norths pointing in the wrong direction - only joking - an absolute masterpiece well dine, pun intended 👍😉 Nice to see the skills are still out there in this flat pack World

[redhead]

Your work is amazing. I am just learning some of the things pictured and you've inspired me to keep going. Thanks

[zengirl]

Just gorgeous! A pleasure for the eyes! Well done.

[boatman61]

Excellent...

[Mikado]

Wow, true craftsmanship, which is just about a lost art.

Privilege, if you would ever consider making another similar table for $$, please send me a PM, but only if you would make it out of Red Oak :-)

[boeing1]

Great job,
thanks for showing and explaining each process,

[SkipMark]

Very nice piece of work! Walnut and birch for the compass star?

[Delancey]

Well CF, nothing but fickle. If the OP was asking if a Hunter would be a suitable blue water cruiser for a Cape Horn passage you would flay him alive and yet here you are falling over yourselves to demonstrate your ignorance and lack of appreciation for proper boatbuilding standards and practices.

I try and share a little of my professional expertise and it's like offering pearls before swine. Since I am apparently not salt encrusted enough maybe you will listen to this guy. He looks pretty salty.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L6t2AZubF8U

You enjoy red oak all you want. It won't make it any more suited for use on a boat. Meanwhile the trained and educated eye will recognize it for what it is and consider the work that uses it to be the effort of an amateur. I defy any to show me a professionally built boat by any reputable builder made from red oak. Do so and I will eat my words.

PS Walnut = excellent rot resistance, great for boats and gunstocks. Birch= zero rot resistance, get it wet and watch it turn to mush.

[TheThunderbird]

He chose a wood prone to get rotten, so he'll make another one soon.

PS mass produced yacht tables are boring, standard, unappetizing.

I decommissioned mine, and found a craftsman working by my own design and wood (olive tree and ebony makassar... hoping in Delancey's approval).

Btw, a table is NOT structural

[Delancey]

Makassar Ebony is totally appropriate for a table on a boat but only as long as you eat shark fin soup while sitting at it, otherwise it is a species listed as at risk on the IUCN Red List. Makes me sick you would chose to use it for your table on your yacht.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by Delancey

Well CF, nothing but fickle. If the OP was asking if a Hunter would be a suitable blue water cruiser for a Cape Horn passage you would flay him alive and yet here you are falling over yourselves to demonstrate your ignorance and lack of appreciation for proper boatbuilding standards and practices.

I try and share a little of my professional expertise and it's like offering pearls before swine. Since I am apparently not salt encrusted enough maybe you will listen to this guy. He looks pretty salty.

You enjoy red oak all you want. It won't make it any more suited for use on a boat. Meanwhile the trained and educated eye will recognize it for what it is and consider the work that uses it to be the effort of an amateur. I defy any to show me a professionally built boat by any reputable builder made from red oak. Do so and I will eat my words.

PS Walnut = excellent rot resistance, great for boats and gunstocks. Birch= zero rot resistance, get it wet and watch it turn to mush.

The video is very good,, thanks for sharing it. And it's good in a couple of ways;
- It makes the point about the different types of oak, & their respective properties, very well, & quite clear (via several of the ways in which people learn things)..
- It gets the viewer to take in the information in a non-confrontational manner, with no ego or criticism present at all.
This last point likely being the key one: As one of the best tools to have in life, is the ability to get your message to people in a manner which they can understand. And when doing so, it leaves them an "out"/allows them to save face.
Thus boosting their receptivity to taking in new ideas & information.

If one is confrontational in trying to get their point across, & the audience hits the "mute button", then you could be handing them all of Einstein's wisdom, gratis; but due to the way it's being communicated, it's value is pretty low. As the audience "has left the building" (meaning they're mentally tuned out, & have pulle up their listening drawbridge.

Or another way of putting it, is that in order to best lead, or get your point across, etc. Often is to get the other party(s) to think that your idea/info, is actually their own.

The catch to that being, that in order to accomplisht things that way, most of the time, you have to let go of your ego during the interactions.
- And, yeah, I'm due to re-read Dale Carnagie's How To Win Friends & Influence People