Finished Product First
Piling Up Everything After a Ton of Planning
I went with walnut, as it is relatively cheap in Tennessee. But this was definitely the no-turning-back moment.
Showing up to the lumber yard in my sedan was probably hilarious to the owner, but the wood fit (I think these were 8ft S2S)
S2S = Surfaced on 2 Sides. In reality this was S3S, as there was a straight cut ripped edge. All lumber from Lowes/Home Depot is going to be S4S. For a more detailed explanation from a professional, click here
Table Frame
Pipe projects were all the rage at this point (Summer 2016), but I was going to put a bit more thought into my project.
In reality it was easy and I didn’t have a good plan for making legs/frame in an apartment “woodworking” setup
This was surprisingly expensive. Probably Lowes/Home Depot’s way of cashing in on the pipe crafting trend
Kitchen Cart
I kept having to go back and ensure everything was parallel & screwed in the same. If they weren't, nothing would come together in later steps It might be obvious to some, but at first I designed an impossible structure. There was no way to get everything to screw together if not for the union couplings The union couplings allowed me to build 2 identical top & bottom pieces of the frame and actually get it together. It did take me a few days to figure out these existed. Luckily I caught my impossible design in the planning stage and not after buying pipe This was the main inspiration for this entire project: a way for me to hang my pans I couldn't find any S-hooks that were designed the way I needed them to be, or be large enough to fit into the holes in my pan handles, so I got these and figured I would try bending them 90 degrees With 2 wrenches, this wasn't that difficult. I think they were even stainless steel Here is a way I could adapt my casters to fit in the cavity of the pipe fittings while staying somewhat upright. I did have to replace the wood about a year or 2 later. I was so happy at this point, but I was slightly dreading that I had finally come to the point where I had to cut the woodCutting the Wood
Yeah, a circular saw is all I could manage on a tight budget. That blue jig in the top right would serve as the rip fence for the rip cuts a few pictures down. I'm sure I committed some woodworking crime but it worked. Also thankfully, I lived between 2 hard of hearing elderly neighbors (or they were very nice and lied that they couldn't hear anything) I made some random chop cuts first so I had some experience with the saw before making the rip cuts, as well as making the rips a bit more manageable. Yes this was the first time I had ever used a powered saw let alone a circular saw. Circular saws still scare me to this day Probably a lot of time passed between the previous picture and this one. I planned a bunch and psyched myself up to make the cuts. I actually had the foresight to go with an edge-grain style butcher block style table. The main reason is that I knew the circular saw was not going to be very accurate with respect to the angle of the blade, which would make glue-up impossible if trying to glue 2 cuts together (which would be necessary in end-grain or face-grain cutting board aesthetics). By doing edge-grain, those inaccuracies wouldn't be glued to anything (here: facing up) and could be planed/sanded down. After a lot of cutting to make the pieces random in length. I used the foam as a sacrificial cutting surface to minimize tear-out of the wood Here you can see the idea coming together a bit better Well, this is what I get for using a circular saw. Inaccurate cuts means more time sanding the end grain and using wood filler Progress. I can work with these smaller gaps Failed clamping attempt. It's hammered-down knowledge to clamp from above and below a surface for symmetric clamping, but it was obvious here that I needed a flat surface to do my glue ups. I had to laugh as I had taken a lot of time planning what pieces looked best where. Oh well, laugh while you canGlue-Up
Kitchen Cart Glue-Up
Doing the glue-up on the kitchen cart first so I had some practice on a smaller piece before doing the table glue-up
Flipping the pieces for the glue-up Went very quickly and glued as fast as I could, but happy with the clamping at the end. Removed the piece to make everything flush on the left edge, cleaned up as much excess glue as I could, and left it clamped overnight Eek I stupidly took the time to make and apply wood filler, which was all going to come off after planing/sanding, so don't do that until after you've planed Cut off the excess overhang. I probably should have trimmed the pieces individually most of the way so they would be more usable, but I managed to use all the off cuts for other cutting board projects later Leaving this for now until I have my table glued up