Rhys Mellor is a boatbuilder by trade, originally from New Zealand, but now working with 60 foot carbon offshore racing yachts (IMOCA open 60) in Northern France. In his spare time, out of a 40 foot container, he has managed to build this beauty:
The all carbon fiber coffee table is made up of carbon uni bands on the edges and middle for stiffness. In-between that is a 5mm core, giving the table its solid look. The tooling itself was made using 3 separate molds; one for main table, and then two for each of the supports.
Interestingly enough, the main table was made on a spindle (carbon fiber tube) that Mellor could rotate the entire mold without having it on a bench, making the layup much easier. He used a block and tackle (the purple rope in the picture below) to control what angle the mold was in.
Mellor mentions that while the picture above seems a bit crude, using the container for manufacturing was great for controlling humidity and temperature. Here’s the table when it came off the mold:
With the carbon fiber coffee table, Rhys also made a coaster set and display that was modeled after the very one that we sell:
(*Shameless plug* You can buy ours here)
The coaster set is included if you purchase the table. The table is priced at 11,000 euros, or about $16,000 at the time of this writing – you can contact Mellor by e-mailing him at rhys.mellor [at] gmail [dot] com. The funny thing about the pricing is that Mellor is a long time reader and fan of Carbon Fiber Gear, so he sees how expensive some of the carbon fiber products are. Once he finished the table, he now completely understands the pricing after adding up all of the hours, materials, and overhead.