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...le=Ta ble.jpg

Dan

In article , Dan_Musicant
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...le=Ta ble.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 wrote:

:In article , Dan_Musicant
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...le=Ta ble.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 a

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