Featured Repurposing maple table

All done. We’ll use this as an office table, not a workbench. It turned out better than I expected.

 

On a related topic, here’s our helper with a table frame (grey thing on left) we’re topping basically the same way as the maple table. He’s glueing together two very sturdy oak table leaves from that dumpster find, using Gorilla glue and some scrap pieces of 3/4” plywood. Grey frame (33x33x36”) is all made of approx. 3/16” thick steel welded together by unknown previous owners as a platform for some unknown machinery. Think we paid $30. or so; it weighs about 250 lbs and yes, is heavier than needed for most tables that size, but we like “heavy” if you haven’t noticed!

 

Heavy Metal should be your middle name !!

 

Table now ready for the completed top to be glued onto the four oak slats which are bolted to the steel frame. The top can be removed easily if desired by just unscrewing the nuts from the four flat-head capscrews.

 

Today: The two oak leaves we had glued together were glued to the four oak slats we had bolted on top of the frame, and the two blue boxes, each with 150 lbs of weights inside, were placed on top as the glue set. The orange machine is a 1000-lb. capacity hydraulic die lifter we use to lift most things over 50 lbs.; it is pedal-pumped. Another in that room is powered by a car battery and has forks for lifting, not a platform. Much faster lifting with it. 300 lbs of weight, should be plenty, right? Silly me! A few hours after the pic was taken I checked underneath and saw light through the middle 1/2 of the two glue joints in foreground and opposite. This isn’t a practical problem because even a partial glue joint will be much stronger than required, since there’s no stress involved in that area. But it bothered my desire for all the workmanship to be perfect. So I slid both weight boxes a quarter way around the table from what’s pictured, so they’d be pushing down directly on those evil separations. If that doesn’t improve the two joints we’ll just lay the table on its side and pour some glue in where the light shows thru, even though that isn’t necessary for any strength issues.