| Project by Andy Panko | posted 432 days ago | 1011 views | 4 times favorited | 12 comments |  |
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Our previous house was an 1894 colonial. When I remodeled it and took up the carpets the previous folk put in, I found that a few of the floors had large iron grates in them. The grates are decorative and have mechanical louvres on the underside. From what I gather, this was a way to get heat from the basement to the upper floors. There was a little coal closet in the basement. So I guess they made a coal fire and let the heat rise up through the levels via grates in the floors. Anyway, when we moved to our current house five years ago, I took a grate with us. My wife planned on me doing some sort of woodworking project to incorporate the grate as a decorative element. I just recently got around to doing said project…
I made a bedside table for our spare room. I didn’t want to spend too much time or money on it, so I did it all out of pre-milled 3/4” select pine from Home Depot. The only jointing or planing I did was to laminate three pieces together to make the legs. And I didn’t want to overdo it time-wise making lots of mortis and tenon joints. Everything is just pocket screwed together, which is plenty strong considering this table will literally just sit there with no use and it has no moving parts. The grate simply rests in the top in rabets – it is not mechanically fastened. The grate alone weighs about 30 pounds so I’m not worried about it tipping or falling out.
It is finished in Minwax red chestnut stain and a couple coats of poly. Done.
- Andy
-- Andy Panko, Edison NJ, http://www.andypanko.com
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12 comments so far
doncutlip
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2808 posts in 1724 days
#1 posted 432 days ago
I like it, looks good
-- Don, Royersford, PA
RockyTopScott
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666 posts in 1647 days
#2 posted 432 days ago
I gotta remember this
-- “Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it” ― Thomas Sowell, The Thomas Sowell Reader
JohnnyB
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60 posts in 558 days
#3 posted 432 days ago
What a grate idea! (Sorry)
-- JohnnyB - - Sometimes determination can substitute for skill.
poopiekat
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2829 posts in 1903 days
#4 posted 431 days ago
A perfect marriage of old and new!
-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!
cabmaker
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1027 posts in 977 days
#5 posted 431 days ago
Love it Andy . Very clever idea.
dpow
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374 posts in 1012 days
#6 posted 431 days ago
Nice project. I wonder how many grates like that one ended up in the land-fills over the years? I have a couple out in the garage somewhere that I didn’t have the heart to toss because I thought they could be used for something someday. You have given me some ideas. Thanks for sharing
-- Doug
thejosh
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563 posts in 738 days
#7 posted 431 days ago
I love that you incorporated that old grate into some furniture. Bravo!
-- "Come to me, all YOU who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." ---Matt. 11:28
Woodwrecker
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3005 posts in 1744 days
#8 posted 431 days ago
Nice job Andy.
Great way to celebrate the past, and bring it in to the future.
-- Eric
JohnEinNJ
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71 posts in 516 days
#9 posted 431 days ago
Great idea, nicely executed. I’ll be keeping an eye out for a grate at junk & antique stores.
RandyM68
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693 posts in 486 days
#10 posted 425 days ago
I like that idea. have you ever watched “Picker Sisters”? That’s what they do. Find some old piece of junk and turn it into furniture. Some idiot would pay $500 for that table. If you take it to L.A. you can probably get a grand for it.
-- I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you. I'm sorry,thanks.
Bob817
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606 posts in 551 days
#11 posted 384 days ago
Nice job and a clever idea, the things creative people think of ….. amazing
-- ~ Bob ~ Newton, N.H.
SirFatty
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324 posts in 380 days
#12 posted 372 days ago
A house that I lived in had these as well, but they were connected to duct work from a coal fired furnace (I’d be willing to bet that is the case in yours as well).
We replaced the furnace with a conventional natural gas type, but left a few of the registers in the floor. As a kid they were just big enough to squeeze through and drop down to a lower floor.
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