Tag: ProjectComplete

Roadside find that I couldn’t walk past made into something I’d actually keep.

This is how I found it. I checked the wiring and all seemed fine. Tried it with a bulb and it all worked.

First step was to remove the glass, sand the surface to help the paint adhere. Then spray paint it matt black.

I missed photographing the next step for some reason! I ground the surface of the glass, with a dremel to remove the floral pattern and to frost the glass. I knew that I wanted to use a flickering bulb and they really need some extra diffusion to help the illusion of being a flame. Slow and steady is the trick with the dremel, it took me around 2 or 3 hours just to frost the glass and I only chipped one of the bent over lips when rushing at the end.

Last step was to freehand the tentacles in a black acrylic paint. With the light behind it took a couple of coats to get a constant matt black.

The photos don’t do it justice so I will try and sort a video out.

I found a broken table by the side of the road. I wasn’t planning on making a table but the base I found was cool and I obviously need more projects.

The original table top was junk but I didn’t need to do anything to the base or legs other than buy some extra bolts.

I wanted a thick heavy table top so it was off to Bristol Wood Project to have a look what reclaimed timber was available. I ended up with some scaff planks. the first thing to do was to roughly sand down the edges and then glue them into a single ‘sheet’ of wood. I’m not too bothered about having gaps and visible seams in the final piece so I’m not taking the time to square off the edges on a tablesaw or something like that.

I don’t have any clamps big enough to hold the scaff planks flat and squeeze them together so to keep them flat I built a couple of jigs out of some scrap wood.

Once the glue was on there I used a few ratchet straps to squeeze the plank together.

I added on a couple of chunks of wood and screws on the bottom for extra strength. This could probably have been skipped as the wood glue on its own should be strong enough but I have a tendency to over engineer everything so why stop now.

Once I have a stable sheet of wood its time for sanding. LOTS of sandingI started at 60 grit and went down step by step to 240 grit.

Next step was the burning!

I wasn’t trying to seal the wood, just to pick out the grain.

My assistant really enjoyed the burning.

Next step was the wood stain. I used a light oak stain with 3 coats top and bottom.

Then it was 3 coats of polyurethane top and bottom to protect the wood. I think that I need to practice this before using it again as the finish wasn’t quite as expected and I think the coats I applied were too thick.

Final steps was attaching the table to the base!