Old Mill Coffee table

It doesn’t look like any board I would use for a top.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Hm. That bad eh?
Ok, how could I salvage it? Could I join pieces together and use it for the skirt and legs? Or is she just too deformed to trust?

-- SM

You’re going to have to cut this up and work it over on the jointer. You may get some fairly thin pieces, but if you try to straighten it by forcing it back into shape it’s going to revert back to this shape.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

I had boards of pine 26 inches wide and I cut them up into 3 1/2 in. wide and clued them back and my boards were pretty flat , so yours you will have to cut it for sure but you may end up to a 3/8 board but dont worry there is a trick to make it look the thickness you want

-- - - Tools are nice to have but you need someone to work them - -

Another thing you can do is clamp it as flat as you can and steam it and keep tightning you clamps and once flat let it dry completely and remove your clamps only after the moisture is all gone

-- - - Tools are nice to have but you need someone to work them - -

If it is the only board you have you dont have enough to build a table

-- - - Tools are nice to have but you need someone to work them - -

Thanks you for the advise. As you have said, it is doable, but at this point, I don’t want to spend time “making it work”. Sounds like THIS board was meant to make a couple medium size boxes and somewhere out there, is the wood for my table. Tomorrow I will go skulk around the local mills.

The day was not wasted though: I did just get eight 3”x3”x2-1/2” boxes cut and ready to glue up. . . .

-- SM

Myself I dont go for wide boards you always have to cut them down to 3 1/2 or 4 to glue them up I look for 8 foot by not more than 6 inches and straight ….good luck with you boxes

-- - - Tools are nice to have but you need someone to work them - -

Boxes sprang to mind when I saw the photo. To get a large flat top out of this board is perhaps possible, but very difficult.

It looks like some of the board is somewhat flat. Would it be possible to cut the curved part and create splayed legs from the stock. Never tried anything like that before so I really don’t know myself.

-- JJohn

Thanks for the suggestion. Your right; I can see a funky little table. I’ve wanted to make some bigger boxes, too. I’m glad I ask you all before I tried to make a table top. That board has been up in my lumber rack for a year but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Now I still have to find wood for the table . . . .

I got the board at an old mill that one could almost considered abandoned. It is a sad little place with a strange hermit type that as far as I can see, only makes money when someone comes and buys the old wood that is piled and stacked in a multitude of dark rooms and corners. All the old equipment is there; blades my height, rusting away and huge machines I can’t identify. Outside there is a mill partially hidden by grass, weeds, and several logs as long and wide as a dump-truck. I’ll take some pictures next time I go.

Thanks
SM

-- SM

Yep, that’s a mess.

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com