Three-decker table I just made, with photo

In article <[email protected]>, Dan_Musicant
<[email protected]> wrote:

> I just completed a table for my home theater made from materials bought
> at Home Depot:
>
> Surfaces: 3/8 inch plywood
> Legs: 2x4, split with homemade rip-saw
> Side pieces: 3 x 3/8, split with homemade rip-saw
>
> Slapping it together was the toughest part. If I had it to do again I'd
> do one thing differently: I have two little blocks of wood fixed (two
> brads) to each leg just under each table surface. The function of those
> was just to hold the surfaces in place until it all got nailed together
> (there's no glue). That was fine. The thing I'd do differently is that
> I'd affix two similar pieces of wood on the underside of the top surface
> (not attached to the legs). Those would determine the position of the
> legs with regard to the top surface, and I'd nail the legs to those
> little blocks, first thing. That would have made everything line up
> perfectly. It came out OK, but not perfect.
>
> I sanded out all the pieces, finished them all with 1/2# cut orange
> shellac, and then wiped on/off boiled linseed oil. Put the pieces out in
> the sun for 3-4 days, and finished the legs and bottom two surfaces with
> 3# cut orange shellac (two coats), and rubbed out with 0000 steel wool,
> saturated with carnuba wax, and buffed. After it was all banged
> together, finished the top surface and the side pieces similarly.
>
>
> Photo:
> http://fox302.com/index.pl?s=vf&user=Muse&category=Muse_JPGs&file=Table.jpg
>
> Dan


Hi Dan,

Nice cobble job! Just goes to show what you can do with just
a little equipment and basic materials.

Why didn't you use any glue? I don't think that I would
rely on just nails - especially for a TV stand.

Nice finish too.

Lou

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 12:24:24 -0400, loutent <[email protected]> wrote:

:In article <[email protected]>, Dan_Musicant
:<[email protected]> wrote:
:
:> I just completed a table for my home theater made from materials bought
:> at Home Depot:
:>
:> Surfaces: 3/8 inch plywood
:> Legs: 2x4, split with homemade rip-saw
:> Side pieces: 3 x 3/8, split with homemade rip-saw
:>
:> Slapping it together was the toughest part. If I had it to do again I'd
:> do one thing differently: I have two little blocks of wood fixed (two
:> brads) to each leg just under each table surface. The function of those
:> was just to hold the surfaces in place until it all got nailed together
:> (there's no glue). That was fine. The thing I'd do differently is that
:> I'd affix two similar pieces of wood on the underside of the top surface
:> (not attached to the legs). Those would determine the position of the
:> legs with regard to the top surface, and I'd nail the legs to those
:> little blocks, first thing. That would have made everything line up
:> perfectly. It came out OK, but not perfect.
:>
:> I sanded out all the pieces, finished them all with 1/2# cut orange
:> shellac, and then wiped on/off boiled linseed oil. Put the pieces out in
:> the sun for 3-4 days, and finished the legs and bottom two surfaces with
:> 3# cut orange shellac (two coats), and rubbed out with 0000 steel wool,
:> saturated with carnuba wax, and buffed. After it was all banged
:> together, finished the top surface and the side pieces similarly.
:>
:>
:> Photo:
:> http://fox302.com/index.pl?s=vf&user=Muse&category=Muse_JPGs&file=Table.jpg
:>
:> Dan
:
:
:Hi Dan,
:
:Nice cobble job! Just goes to show what you can do with just
:a little equipment and basic materials.
:
:Why didn't you use any glue? I don't think that I would
:rely on just nails - especially for a TV stand.
:
:Nice finish too.
:
:Lou

Hi Lou,

Thanks. I'd made some tables around 25 years ago, that I sort of modeled
this after, but those two tables were only 2 deckers. A third deck makes
it quite a bit tougher to assemble them, but I only realized this when I
was done assembling! The original tables (I still use them) were glued.
I assembled them unfinished. This table, I decided, I was going to
shellac and I didn't want to tackle a shellac job with a finished piece
such as this - too tricky. So, I decided to do most of the finishing on
the pieces, assemble, and then do the last finishing work on the
assembled table. I didn't figure that I could glue up shellaced pine, is
the reason I decided to forgo the glue. I put so many brads in it, I
don't think strength and stability will be an issue. I'm not going to
put a TV on it, anyway. It's all going to be light stuff: turntable on
the top, a VCR or two and a double cassette deck on lower levels, some
more stuff, but nothing heavy. Yeah, you could kick it to pieces in a
minute, but I don't think it's going to get that kind of treatment.

The tools I used, aside from basic hand tools are:

Circle saw - to cut the plywood
Rip saw - to cut the legs from 2 x 4
Rip saw - to slice the strips for the sides
Jig saw and dremel - to trim off a bit from the 2nd level that was too
long when I discovered that things weren't truly square due to the
problem I mentioned in the original post.


There's one other thing I should have mentioned: It would have been way,
way easier to assemble this piece if I'd had some big clamps. Too bad I
didn't pick up some 24" and 36" clamps at Harbor Freight when I dropped
in there a few weeks ago! I meant to, not because I envisioned needing
them in the near future, but because I figured the day would probably
come when I would need them. I often buy tools and things on that basis
and 95% of the time (at least) it turns out I'm right. Next time I'm
there, I will hopefully buy them.

Dan