Coffee Table

Been busy recently finishing an guest bedroom addition. Turned out nice too. Anyhow I wanted to show you guys one of my first wood projects that I did…get this…outdoors, on a deck I built, under the sum and stars, with only cheap hand power tools and an ancient Rockwell table saw with a slightly warped fence! Yeah, this is prehistory for me. No garage or shop, a rotten moldy table and limited power tools. Now what can I do with this?

The table was probably built in the 1940’s and was junk when I got it. Actually, my step-son salvaged it from his father’s burn pile! It was made of oak but had been abused as a butcher table and repaired with a scrap of pine that still had paint on it! The previous owners apparently didn’t care. It was UGLY! The legs were good but wobbly and there was a mold growing all over it as it had been stored in a damp basement. (That mold did cost me some respiratory distress and a trip to the MD…So wear your respirator when working/sanding on old stuff like this.)

I like the drop leaf addition and left that in place as it makes the table bigger for those Superbowl parties! Every piece was disassembled and cleaned. The legs were cut to make them shorter. The tabletop was ripped using the tablesaw and reglued. (I don’t know how my glue joints turned out so straight!) The only place where I used new wood was the ends of the frame with the angle blocks, and those pieces were salvaged from a pallet. The top needed to be planed but all I had was a sander…It took me days to sand it smooth but some of the deeper knife cuts still exist! (Gives it character I guess.) I finished it with Watkins Danish Oil…several coats and hand rubbed. Once finished, I dated the underside with a Sharpie pen. “LUVMOO! Oct. 96”. (Everything here seems to revolve around cows somehow.) Still quite functional in our living room today!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!