Art Table Project

Well, with one of five projects (the house repair project) pretty much knocked out my intention was to start on the play table for my son. Unfortunately, this is sort of turning into a chicken and the egg type problem with some tricky scheduling stuff thrown in.

See, in order to build the play table, I need to have a place to put it and room to build it in the garage, since it is going to be kind of big. I need to move a pool table to the garage and put it on craigslist or take out an ad in the paper or whatever. I don’t want the pool table in the garage for long because space is getting tight in there now as it is with the backup of projects. Besides, the pool table would get covered in sawdust and spiders instantly and it might even get damaged if it sits out there too long, from humidity or paint spills or whatever. I am certainly not going to have complete strangers try and manhandle it down the stairs (did I mention it is on the second story?) so it needs to be moved ahead of the new owners getting to the house. Couple that with “certain people’s” knack for seeing all flat surfaces as “a table I can use to put my soda on just for a minute oops I’m sorry I didn’t mean it I’m really sorry” and I may as well take a saws-all to it right now.

Hey, that’d be kinda fun…

But, since I don’t own a saws-all, the next best and clearly logical thing to do is to start yet another project. This time I am building a table for a friend to use as a staging area for his painting supplies since he fancies himself a bit of an artist (I kid – his non-representational acrylics are pretty fantastic).

His size and style requirements were based on an IKEA work table he saw online. After seeing the picture of it and deciding on a final size (48” wide, 24” deep, 35” tall) I went to Lowe’s to get some wood. Nothing too fancy – this is not designed to be an heirloom piece, after all – but not knocked together from plyboard, reclaimed barnwood, and leftover two-by-fours, either. This art table is going to be utilitarian, but also needs to look nice since it will be the largest piece of furniture in the room it will finally rest in.

There appears to be two kinds of wood at Lowe's: super-nice yet unreasonably expensive pieces and affordable but super low-quality pieces. There doesn't appear to be a lot of choice in the way of middle of the road stuff.

The expensive stuff is so pricy that it would probably be cheaper to build a small oak desk out of pieces taken directly from a larger oak desk. The cheap stuff is sometimes so warped that it might make excellent boomerangs if it weren't for the fact that any Aborigine attempting to use the weapons would have their throwing hand instantly flayed to the bone from cracks and other defects.

But take heart! It is possible, if you are patient, persistent, have a high threshold for pain, carry a sliver removal kit and have a way to staunch the bleeding, you can find some decent pieces in the cheap piles.

[An aside here. I just want to say that I have noticed a huge upswing in customer service at the couple of Lowe's that are in my area. About a year ago the stores used to be staffed by folks that were extremely annoyed that you showed up to buy stuff. Now it is packed with their opposite number. Convenient yet very nearly creepy.]

Now I decided to frame the table using furring strips in the same fashion I did for my 2x4-based workbenches in the garage. Since the workbenches have served me well for years I figure they would be a pretty good starting point.

It was a simple enough thing to throw together two identical shelf frames (one for the tabletop and one for the bottom shelf) using the furring strips, wood screws, and wood glue. The four legs (again, just lengths of furring strip) were screwed and glued to the insides of the shelf frames. The top shelf frame was made flush with the tops of the legs but the bottom frame was mounted five inches from the bottom.

At this point, the structure looks like, and, in fact, is, a flimsy, twisty box. Trust me, it gets more and more solid as we build up. All just part of using imperfect wood and imperfect tools. Also, having a builder who doesn't perform woodworking so as much as he inflicts woodworking upon others doesn't help the project much. Some pundits might even say that it is far, far more likely that the natural actions of wind, rain, and continental drift would spring forth a working art table than any of the skills I bring to the project. To them I say "No, you are".

You heard me.

Obviously, since this is supposed to be a central piece of furniture for an art room, the base structure should be hidden by trimwork for a more professional look. This was easy enough to do by cutting pine 1x4s to the appropriate length with a radial arm saw tilted to 45 degrees.

After the top and bottom were trimmed I added three more "trimming" pieces to the middle of the table. These pieces, like all the others, not only make the table look nicer but they help to make the unit more solid.

When I first started thinking about the project I envisioned using plyboard and ceramic tile for the top but the end user requested that the surface be as smooth as possible so he could slide his materials across it without too much danger of tipping or spilling them. I have made small, smooth tabletops out of component slats before but I really wasn't looking forward to trying to clamp and align something this large.

Luckily, they sell what they call "stain-ready" pieces at Lowe's that are basically for this exact purpose. And, since they are made from many, many smaller pieces they are significantly more affordable than higher quality large pieces. I worked with similar "composite" boards when I built my kid's toybox and I was pleased with the results.

I went with a four foot long by two foot wide by 1 inch thick slab for the top. It is nice and heavy and solid and didn't cost too much. I mounted the table top to the rest of the unit using only wood screws countersunk into the soft pine of the table frame. The top was made flush with the back of the table and centered left and right. This helped with alignment and also helps define the front of the unit.

At this point the structure had become very solid and all that remained was to add the bottom shelf. The tricky part here was to make a shelf that allowed the table legs to pass through without creating too much of a gap. I selected three four-foot by one-foot by ¾-inch stain-ready pieces to do this. After filling in the areas between the legs, I needed to cut notches in the next shelf pieces to allow the legs to pass through.

After aligning the next shelf pieces and cutting them to the right width, I used a pencil to mark the exact location of the table legs and used a hunk of scrap furring strip to trace an outline to use to guide the scroll saw.

I hate using the Craftsman scroll saw – it bounces and jounces all over the place (even when clamped to the workbench) and the blades are hard to change out – but it was the best tool I had to help cut out the notches. A wood chisel further helped size and shape the squarish holes appropriately.

To be honest, I thought I would really mess that part up but the alignment was good and the look was just what I was going for. Plus it helped to further fortify the piece. The main construction is completed! Sweet!

Now all that remains is to countersink the finishing nails, sand off the ink stamps, apply wood filler, sand out defects in the cheap wood, stain, seal, and do about a million other odious things that need to be done before a few hunks of wood can officially be called “furniture”.

[To be continued...]