Robert Eaton of RG Eaton Woodworks in Westbrook shows the 4-foot wide table he created from a century old sugar maple tree for Westbrook Public Services.

WESTBROOK — A huge sugar maple tree cut down in Westbrook now serves as a table at the new Public Services garage on Saco Street.

Bob Eaton of RG Eaton Woodworks on Rochester Street turned a slab of wood the city delivered to his shop into a polished work of art.  Eaton estimated the table top weighs between 300 and 350 pounds.

The table was delivered to Public Services Friday and was placed in the conference room. “People can’t stop touching it,” Eric Dudley, director of Public Services, said Tuesday. “Like, wow.”

Dudley estimated the tree was about a century old. “It had health issues,” he said.

Central Maine Power Company had concerns about the tree and city arborist Doug Eaton, son of the woodworking shop owner, was involved, Dudley said. The tree was taken down in front of 294 Main St. in July last year by Lucas Tree using a crane.

The base of the tree was air dried before being taken to Jon McDaniel of Gorham, who sliced it into slabs with what Dudley described as an Alaskan sawmill, a rig with a large chain saw.

A chunk was delivered to the woodworking shop to be turned into a table. At the shop, Bob Eaton described the table top as 10½ feet in length, 47 inches wide and 2½ inches thick.

Eaton said the center of the slab arrived cracked and he cut out the majority of the defects. The pieces of the top are stabilized with walnut butterfly-type keys. He further stabilized the top by applying marine epoxy crack filler to remaining defects.

Varnish finish for the top came from Atlantic Plywood on Saco Street and metal work that joins legs was fabricated at Brackett Machine also on Saco Street.

Legs were created from another slab from the same tree.

Eaton reports nearly 100 hours of work in the table.

It’s a nice piece of Westbrook to preserve, Dudley said.

RG Eaton, founded in 1984, has done custom wood work for private homes and numerous historical sites like the city of Portland clock tower, churches, colleges and universities including Brandeis in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or [email protected]