I Made A Table!

Yes, my title is a reference to that awful Lou Reed/ Metallica song.

But no, I actually built a small altar table.  I was given a piece of oak that was pretty much a throwaway slab.  The cut of wood was near the outside of the trunk so it had not only sapwood, but part of the bark.  Here's how it started out.

Next, I cut it into an oval shape.  Here's the top.

And here is the bottom.

The edge of the slab, where the bark was, had a lot of wormholes.

I thought, "That's great!  It will make it more authentic."

Now that it was an oval shape, it was time to plain/grind/sand it into a table top.  In these photos I'm fast-forwarding past a lot of the boring sanding work.  So here's the top after all of that.

And here's the bottom.

Here are the final measurements.

29 inches long.

19 and a half inches wide.

And 2 3/4 inches thick.

And honestly it feels like it's about 50 pounds... at least.

Next, I had the help of my Father who turned small wooden legs on his lathe.  Again, we're fast-forwarding in the photos.  Here are the legs being glued into the table.

So once the glue had dried and set up, it was time to perform the fine sanding.  The table was already pretty smooth considering.  However, with the help of my electric hand sander the table became as smooth as glass.

Next came the finish work.  I've never been great at finish work.  In fact, I've been downright awful.  However, my Dad showed me a way to combine tung oil with a catalyst to give the table a beautiful finish.  Here's the photos after four coats of finish.

The tung oil finish really delivered what I wanted.  I didn't want a glossy finish, but I didn't want it to look bare either.  The tung oil gave me that perfect "in the middle" finish I was after.

I'm going to give the finish on the table plenty of time to completely harden.  After that it is going up for sale in a local shop.  I hope it'll be exactly what someone has always wanted.  Right now, it's off to the next table.  So I might be posting another blog about a table next month.