Some projects seem to defy all sense of reason. My trash heap table is just such a project. Though I had the best of intentions of this project being a “quick build,” it just kept getting put on the back burner — until now. With the cooler weather at hand in the shop, I finished the last holdout of what turned out to be a 14-month wait.
As some of you may remember, my last effort with this project was gluing up four solid oak legs and stripping the old finish and nastiness. Roughly 14 hours after taking this picture, the table was stacked against a workbench where it remained until last Saturday.
After hauling it back out and knocking the cobwebs and accumulated dust from everything, I started back into the process: I knocked the corners off the legs with a 3/8″ roundover bit and left a few inches at the top to receive the trim pieces in between. Then I sanded each leg smooth.
Next, I positioned each leg two inches from the two closest sides and marked with pencil to locate and form the corner.
After each corner was marked, I added four trim pieces to fit between each leg. First the trim pieces were glued then nailed into place, followed by the legs which were treated the same way.
One coat of amber shellac and two coats of clear gloss shellac added the correct color and gave the resulting finish a warm hue. When the first photo originally posted, readers had some concerns that the resulting finish would not be even in color or that surfaces wouldn’t be pleasantly flat — however, both turned out quite well.
A little finish sanding to smooth out the microbumps and rough patches, and the table was ready to join the rest of its set once again. This was one of the only shots I got of the resulting trash heap project before I was interrupted.
For a father, there is no greater joy than hearing a shriek of delight as your offspring pushes you aside to play with something you just finished building for her. Regardless of timetables, I consider this a major win.
Post 1 in this series [Toolmonger]
Post 2 in this series [Toolmonger]