We left off last month with the pallet boards ready to assemble into a table. Well here it is!
We first laid out the boards to get an idea of the design and see which boards would fit best where. Then we started to glue and screw each board into place, one by one. We used liquid nails to glue the board to a piece of plywood. Since the boards were so warped we screwed them to the plywood from behind to secure it into place and help flatten things out.
Once all the boards were secured to the plywood it was time to cut off the excess. We flipped the piece upside down and aligned our cut guide on the edge of the plywood. Then we ran the skill saw across the boards, cutting off all the excess and leaving behind a perfectly straight line.
When all 4 corners were cut we glued a piece of masonite on the back of the plywood to cover up all the screws and to give the table a bit more structure. We secured the masonite with 4 screws in the corner then put weights on the whole table to let it sit overnight.
This next part was the tedious part. The table was pretty uneven in spots, due to the pallet boards not being perfect. Letting the table sit overnight helped with flattening the table back out but now I needed to smooth down the top. I took the belt sander to the table top, starting with 36 grit and working my way up to 120. A few hours of sanding and I had a pretty level surface that you could run your hand over easily.
There were a few spots that were still raised some so I went at those with a chisel and hand sanded them down.
Once the table was sanded to my liking I took the belt sander again and rounded off the corners to match the previous curves of the original table.
I treated the table top with Minwax's wood conditioner and let that sit for about 15 minutes.
Next I used the same Minwax Golden Oak stain we used on the countertop to pull out all the richness of the wood. After the stain dried I added 2 coats of Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane to protect the surface, sanding with 400 grit in-between coats.
Once everything was dry, we reassembled the legs and hardware under the table, using the map that I traced out from the old table.
All finished!
The table fits perfectly folded down in the dinette. The cushions lay on top of it nicely too for when we need to use the dinette as a bed.
We are so happy with the results. The table fits the space perfectly and was definitely a labor of love!
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